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You say tomato, I say tom-ah-to…
21 February 2010
By Sarah Davies
I’ve been in the US – where I’m a short term visiting researcher at a big public university – for about a month and a half now, and have learnt a number of things. I now know, for example, that washing machines only take quarters: expecting them to make change and feeding them a nickel breaks them. I know that my accent is really cute, and that it pretty much really is only homeless people, those with DUI convictions, and me who use public transport. I’m also learning a few things about academic culture over here.
It’s hard to generalise about a country the size of a continent, but a few things have struck me as being different to my experience in the UK. The first is the lack of generosity in terms of leave: postdocs – more on that term anon – start on ten days a year. In the UK, I was on 30. A second is the very different demographic of research communities. This probably varies between fields, but the amount of time people take in getting their degrees (five years for a PhD is normal), and the fact that many seem to come back to education after working outside the academy, means that PhD students and researchers are a much wider range of ages (and makes the teaching I’ve done here terrifying: most of the class were significantly older, and with much more life experience, than me). Thirdly, from what I’ve seen so far, a ‘research staff’ community doesn’t exist in the same way that it does in Europe. The treadmill seems even more pronounced: you get your PhD, do a short postdoc, and desperately attempt to get a (tenure track) faculty position. Saying that you’re a ‘researcher’ as a profession simply elicits confusion.
These are observations rather than evaluations: I’m loving my time here, and I’m not sure which of the UK or US systems works better. I’m sure as well that there are many other differences that I’ve not picked up on. Which leads me to a question to others with international experience: how do research cultures differ from country to country? Does anyone else have any stories of their time in different contexts? And what are the pros and cons of different places?
Hannah Dee24 February 2010 at 12:20 AM
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Well I've spent a couple of months in Brazil (where they say "Tomate") and am currently France (where they also say "Tomate")... In Brazil, pretty much everyone was Brazilian. This was not a suprise, but was a noticable change from the broad cultural spectrum a UK researcher works with. In France, it's pretty multicultural, but differently so, with lots of researchers and PhD students from France's former colonies (Algeria, Vietnam, Cote d'Ivoire etc.) - I expect this is just linguistic advantage rearing its head again. I've not had much to do with students in either place, other than talking to and working with PhDs, which is again a language related issue. But to be honest, I think it's hard to generalise from one institution - or even one lab in one institution - to a whole country. I know of certain UK departments which have reputations for being "aloof", in which foreign post-docs spend their evenings sat at home alone watching DVDs, and I know of UK departments which are great social environments where everyone will be discussing work over lunch and over beer. I don't know about you, but I love my work and discussing it in social situations, with people who understand it, has lead to some of my best ideas - and lead to the rejection of some of my worst ones, which is of course just as important. One of the things that working away has taught me is that it's hard to work out the cultural stuff that makes this possible, particularly when language is an issue.
Matthew Salois25 February 2010 at 07:13 PM
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Hi Sarah. Wow, the three points you describe are EXACTLY among the three things I found different and interesting upon moving from the US to the UK. First, I was shocked (and happily so) to understand that 30 days of holiday are the norm here in the UK. Even my wife who works part-time at the university library is entitled to 30 days. While it may be difficult to generalize the US due to its size, I can tell you that 10 days is probably the average, maybe even a little better than average. Second, I was also quite surprised to learn that it only takes 1 year to do a master's (MSc) in the UK and just 3 years on average for a PhD. A master's degree in the US takes around 2 - 3 years and a PhD about 5 years across most disciplines (like you say). There tends to be a lot more formal coursework in American graduate degrees, which accounts for their extra length. Third, I never even knew what a research staff community was before I started my post at Reading. You certainly hit the nail when you said researchers do not identify themselves as 'researchers'. In the US, if you work at a university you are either a post-doc or some rank of professor -- at least that is the prevailing view. Like you, I am still coming to discover the differences between the systems and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Take the structure of PhD programs for instance. The UK/European system is nice not only because it does not take as long, but the program emphasizes research and tends to be very individually tailored. The American style though provides a lot of formal training and the building of skills, which is quite valuable in working in the real world. I never tire of reading about your US experiences!
Sarah Davies01 March 2010 at 05:28 PM
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Hi Matthew I'm reassured that your experiences in some ways triangulate mine - our joint analysis is practically a paper! I think it's right as well that the different systems have their own pros and cons. I envy the breadth of background knowledge the research students here are getting, even while I'm glad that I didn't have to go to taught classes all the time or wait until I hit 35 to get my degree... I've been trying to think of any other key differences, but the other things I've noticed tend to be cultural things of the tomato/tom-ah-to ilk. One thing might be that I find ASU's departmental/faculty structure completely incomprehensible - there don't really seem to be traditional departments like 'geography' or 'sociology'. But I have a feeling that might just be ASU...