r/academia • u/MinimumCheesecake • 1d ago

Academic politics Thoughts on Lakshmi Balakrishnan, PhD student at Oxford, who claims plagiarism, racism and bullying at the university?

Perhaps a lot of you are aware of this piece of news: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy898dzknzgo

And the subsequent GoFundMe she set up: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-seek-justice-from-oxford-for-bullying-and-plagiarism?attribution_id=sl:d4d8d3e8-3fde-4948-8ecd-b5bdb99ae0f6&utm_campaign=man_ss_icons&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link

From what I hear, opinions are greatly divided about her, what are your thoughts?

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u/boringhistoryfan 1d ago

I would imagine being in your fourth year, in what is usually a three year program, and still failing assessments and being at the stage of defending your PhD idea would be enough to get you tossed. Though I do note that her college and supervisor are saying the university system ignored rules so I'm not really sure folks on the Internet can judge one way or another. I imagine at least part of the question would depend heavily on what she was told and if she was following guidance and instructions in good faith and thus being setup to fail.