PhD student against university bureaucracy: a hearing at the Uppsala District Court

Forewarned is forearmed

My PhD employment was cancelled without notice by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in January 2012. More then two years I have been trying to find out what rights in fact a PhD student  has at SLU.

First, this issue was raised before the Swedish HigherEducation Authority. After one year of sluggish correspondence the answer was: foreign PhD student has no rights. (The details will be posted later.)

Then the matter was brought before the Uppsala District Court. The court proceeded with no hurry for the next one year but recently declared that is finally ready to make a decision. Hearings will be open for public. Since there will be a lot of useful information, which SLU usually never discloses, it might be useful for PhD student to hear it by themselves. Arm yourself with knowledge!

For example, did you know that:

• PhD position is a temporal employment (at least for the foreigners)
• Being a temporal employment it can be cancelled (or expired and not renewed) at any moment
• SLU is not obligated to inform a temporal employee about termination of his employment
• An appeal against termination of the temporal employment can be done only within two weeks
• Neither a supervisor nor SLU have any formal obligations before a student
• A person can be enrolled into studies without him knowing about it
• SLU is not obligated to present evidences; its word is beyond doubts
• Swedish law and local SLU regulations are written to deceive those gullible idealists who really believe that they might have rights

It is only a part of the questions that will be discussed at the court dispute.

The hearings will take place on Monday, 

March 24^th, 2014 at 9:00 am

Room 3, Courtrooms, floor 1

Kungsgatan 49, Uppsala District Court

Languages: English / Swedish

Information about any changes in the schedule will be posted here

March 25, 2014

The decision of the Uppsala District Court will be announced on April 14^th, 2014 and posted here on receipt. On April 16th I was informed that the decision will be made on April 28th, 2014.

Monetary claims in total were: 2822000 SEK 

All documents of the litigation will be posted as a manual for the next PhD students who dare to fight for their rights. So they will not make my mistakes. 

The only thing I want to say right now is about the student union(s) and so called student ombudsman. From my point of view it was their direct responsibility to be on the court hearings. They did not come. Now, my dear PhD students, you can see clear that student ombudsman and student union are only simulacra. Never trust them and never hope that they can help you. 

Swedish lady-professors: how they fake CV

Frantic feminism in Sweden leads to tragic consequences for the country. In many fields only subjective judgement can be made about whether or not a woman fiercely promoted to the top-position is able to comply with her duties. However, in science the objective estimation can be done.

So, let’s look at the next example of a successful Swedish lady-professor: the current Vice-Chancellor of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. 

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A few excerpts from her CV (cited without edits):

Academic degrees

Professor (adj), SLU (1996-2002)

Associate professor (docent): SLU (1995)

PhD: Stockholm University (SU) (1987)

Prizes and awards

Honorary doctor at Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Canada

Honorary doctor at Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

! The Royal Gold Medal from the King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf for Outstanding Achievements in Agricultural Sciences

! The Golden Twig, The Swedish Forestry Association

Memberships

Royal Society of Science

Royal Society of Arts and Sciences

Swedish Royal Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (KSLA)

Publications

In total about 100 publications, about one third are articles published in refeered journals in plant physiology, forestry and environment related high quality journals. The others are scientific book chapters,(including 5 as editor) proceedings from conferences, reports and information articles and reports.

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Now let’s do a search in databases for the scientific achievements of this lady-professor:

AGRIS database: 39 documents  (click on the picture to enlarge)

ProQuest database: 22 documents 

SCOPUS database: 22 documents, h-index citation 5

ScienceDirect database: 9 documents

WEB OF SCIENCE database: 8 documents, h-index citation 5

LIBRIS database: 7 documents

PubMed database: 2 documents, h-index citation 5

Search summary:

Agris database: 39 documents found

ProQuest database: 22 documents found (only 17 of them – in peer reviewed)

Scopus database: 18 publications found, citation index – 5

ScienceDirect database: 9 publications found

Web of Science database: 8 publications found, citation index – 5

Libris database: 7 publications found

PubMed database (the most respectable in bioscience): 2 publications found

Now can anybody explain how a person with such poor scientific results can be awarded with “the Royal Gold Medal from the King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf for Outstanding Achievements in Agricultural Sciences”? How can she represent Swedish science in the numerous national and international advisory committees?

I decided not to puzzle over these questions, but ask directly. So I wrote one by one to the universities, organisations and agencies that granted this lady-professor with awards or honourable positions. The sample of the letter is below:

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Dean

Faculty of Forestry

University of British Columbia

Canada

I shall appreciate if you would kindly provide information which my host university refused to share.

According curriculum vitae of Prof. S-F, currently appointed as a vice-chancellor of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, she was awarded with the title “honorary doctor” at Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia. Please, may I ask you to provide a copy of the decision on bestow of this honourable title? What particular scientific achievements of Prof. S-F yielded such reward?

The fact is that after Prof. S-F ignored my reports about misconducts I wondered about the reason of the rejection and made a small investigation. The results of my survey are enclosed.

Currently I am filled with suspicions that Prof. S-F’s grossly overstated the number of publications in her CV. She claimed to have “in total about 100 publications, about one third are articles published in refereed journals in plant physiology, forestry and environment related high quality journals.” However, a search gives only 18 publications and shockingly low h index of 5 points! To my humble point of view such level of scientific achievements corresponds maximum to the third year postdoc, but not to the honourable professor. My request for the additional information sent to the SLU, was ignored and this fact only reinforced my suspicions. I refuse to believe that the reason why Prof. S-F protected professors, who falsified research results, was because she might be guilty in similar misconduct.

Thus, I would be very grateful if you could dispel my suspicions and present me some evidences which would confirm that Prof. S-F earned the honorary title.

Thank you in advance!

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Replies from addressees will be published as comments to this post. My humble investigation got reaction even from the lady-professor herself.

However, I address this post to the Swedish citizens who love their country. 

Does not it bother you that mediocrities enter Swedish scientific elite? 

Does not it resent you that they make Sweden look ridiculous on the international level? 

Do you not care that “professors” who lack both theoretical knowledge and practical experience decide on spending public money? 

Even for to a foreigner it is painful that generous public funding of Swedish science does not cause reciprocal response of gratitude from the scientific society.


March 19, 2014 23:30

Click to enlarge 

P.S. Few minutes ago another shocking fact fell into my hands!
Thanks to one true scientist from the University of British Columbia I got a link to the list of the people awarded with honorary degree conferred by UBC.
Here it is:

http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/honalpha.html#S

The Vice-Chancellor of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences is not on this list. 

Curiouser and curiouser!

P.P.S.  Further correction came from the University of British Columbia: SLU Vice-Chancellor has been awarded with honorary degree. It happened in 2014.  

The wording was the following: “a leading forestry scientist and professor who has held prominent positions and advisory roles at universities, public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and research institutions in Sweden and the European union. Her works spans many fields including environmental issues, plant physiology, cell biology and silviculture.”

http://news.ubc.ca/2014/02/25/arts-and-research-philanthropists-human-rights-activist-among-2014-honorary-degree-recipients/

Such wording makes me wonder whether the University of British Columbia checks the credentials of the nominees for their high awards. Viva La Internacional de La Incompetencia!