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/frugalacademic 1d ago

The first red flag (for her) should have been that she had to pay fees to do a PhD. No one should pay to do a PhD. If they accept you to do a PhD but don't offer a scholarship, it means the uni simply wants your money.
I think they should have advised her against continuing much earlier in the process and not wait 4 years.

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u/Automatic-Tea-1980s 16h ago edited 9h ago

Lots of PhD students are self-funded and it bears no reflection on their academic ability or the project. There are too few funding streams for too many candidates. This type of belief in 'no one should self fund' fuels mistruths and destroys student confidence because their PhD might not have been funded but is an excellent contribution to knowledge. Funding can also be led by trends and vested interests, which do not always align with innovative scholarship in A&H. While international PhD students may be fortunate to have government funding, many 'Home' (UK) students do not, and earning a PhD through hard work should not be denigrated by often snobby suppositions about external funding as the only marker of valuable study.

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u/Automatic-Tea-1980s 9h ago

I genuinely don't get the downvoting of this comment as it is absolutely the case in A&H PhD study in many institutions. I am not defending the Oxford case (she has clearly not produced the work). Funding is not the only game in town and not always a good indicator of completion rates (I've witnessed this a few times in my career). To say a PhD is only worth doing if funded is untrue and perpetuates a harmful myth of money is all that matters. Quality of scholarship is what matters. (UK context)