A University of Manitoba professor has criticized administrators for allegedly reinstating a Ph.D. candidate who twice failed his comprehensive examination apparently because of examination anxiety, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. The professor, whom the newspaper did not identify, says he was reprimanded and threatened with dismissal after he wrote to the university senate alleging that a senior administrator had reinstated the student (in an unspecified academic program) and ruled that his Ph.D. would be determined solely on the basis of his doctoral dissertation. The university would not comment because of privacy law; however, it does provide alternatives for students with medically certified exam anxiety.
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From the linked to article:”U of M disability services director Lynn Smith said…Accommodations are in place to remove barriers students might face using traditional educational tools, they do not replace the expectation that they will have to demonstrate competency in the course material; the expectation to demonstrate knowledge is not waived.”The problem is that PhD comprehensive exams are breath testing and the doctoral dissertation is a depth testing demonstration of competence. If an alternate demonstration is acceptable, why not require the student to turn in a portfolio of work that demonstrates breath (—requiring of course a much higher level of work than is required in comprehensive exams that are sat.) This is the model at many schools.However it is my feeling that accommodations should not be as liberal at the doctoral level. Doctoral students have been in school for many many more years than undergraduates and should be more able to deal with anxiety and other cognitive disorders.Not that there should not be accommodations, but the competition PhD student experience (for grants, for publications, for recommendations and ranking) means that more care has to be taken in accommodating disabilities than at the undergraduate level. Erring on the side of caution means making sure you do not over-accommodate, as much as, or more than, it means making sure you do not under-accommodate.Also remember those doing the evaluation for accommodation are basing their recommendations on working with large numbers of undergraduates. PhD students, even with serious disabilities, are generally much more capable of working and focusing than not only undergraduates but most likely the people evaluating them (—Some may even know more about evaluating disabilities than the evaluator.)
I seem to be missing something here. How did this student even reach this level if his/her test anxiety is so severe? What sort of accommodations have been made in the past for this student at the undergraduate and graduate level (I remember exams as well as papers being part of the evaluation process in grad. school)? Has this student merely been passed along over the years out of fear of some discrimination-based lawsuit? Of course, I have heard rumors that some of our own (US) ivy league institutions no longer employ an oral defense of the dissertation (so difficult to defend what someone else wrote?). If this is the trend, Ph.D.’s are going to lose a lot of their value.
I thought that the point of accommodations for disabilities was for conditions which aren’t “treatable”, like blindness, mobility impairments, etc. My bad eyesight was never an excuse for not learning what the professor wrote on the board – I was expected to obtain eyeglasses. Is “exam anxiety” really untreatable? Aren’t there lots of medications as well as other therapies appropriate for reducing all kinds of anxiety?
Political correctness run amuk.
“Breath testing”?–is this a potential DUI?
@3 Anxiety isn’t “treatable” and unless you have it, or live with someone who has it, you would know that this condition can be “treated” with sedatives that have worse side effects than the anxiety itself.Anxiety disorders are by and large misunderstood, as evidenced by the professor who scoffed at the reasonable accommodation for this person taking his or her comprehensives, and by the comments written thus far. Anxiety is something that many people face, and coupled with panic attacks is a fate worse than death. Panic attacks flood the brain with fight or flight responses, and although they may appear to be completely unfounded, the person experiencing this truly feels like he is about to die. Take phobias, for instance. They may seem to be treatable, but many people never recover from them. Don’t be so quick to dismiss something that you do not understand.
The world needs PhDs who can successfully function under stress. If you put training wheels on the defense you should call the degree what it will then become: “PhD-Lite.”
And universities that give such degrees out ought change their name to Ichabod “University”.
Reasonable accommodation does not mean waiving a requirement, especially one that is an expectation for the award of the degree. We expect a PhD holder to be able to hold forth in front of an audience, something candidates who are blind, deaf, or otherwise handicapped have been able to handle in similar circumstances (by use of reasonable accommodations). Assuming this candidate was truly afflicted by some well-diagnosed and treated anxiety disorder, then I would hope reasonable accommodations were made, but that should never include a waiver of requirement.
Anxiety isn’t “treatable” Propanolol (Inderal)Buspirone (Buspar)
I suffered from anxiety for many years–it has nothing to do with stress–stress is just something that can act as a trigger. I would bet that this student experiences the same anxiety when he is in other social situations as well, such as the grocery line or in the dentist chair. The problem with many of your comments is that you see anxiety as a sign of mental weakness which seems to run against the PH.D. mindset. It is this attitude which sweeps the problem under the rug. All I can say to the student is this: get as much cognitive therapy as you have time for so that life becomes easier. To the rest of you, well show some compassion for a human struggling. After all, he (or she) will potentially be getting a teaching job–not performing open heart surgery on a day-to-day basis. He will be fine.
As someone who has suffered from anxiety, I take a middle path here. Yes, some reasonable accommodation may be appropriate. No, complete waiver of exam doesn’t seem reasonable, absent further factual basis. If eyesight is required for job (fighter jet-pilot, perhaps), eyesight requirement doesn’t get waived (although with continued tech advances, we may yet see the day that an otherwise sight-impaired individual becomes a fighter pilot!) My impaired eyesight meant that I didn’t join the air force, because my reason for joining was to become a pilot, like my dad. Nothing unfair about that, from my perspective. Similarly, if dealing with immediate pressure without debilitating anxiety is part of job — say, trial lawyer — then the requirement doesn’t get waived. What would be the point? Nothing unfair here — perhaps the candidate will simply do legal research, or some other tasks that don’t trigger anxiety. So, what are requirements for PhD? I’d think defending thesis would be appropriate, and that some drug/therapy combination might go towards mitigating exam problem. But if candidate has such tremendous anxiety that candidate can’t defend thesis, then what is point of PhD award? What does award of PhD signify? What do they plan to do if PhD awarded? Open questions in my mind, and legitimate to question whether waiver is appropriate. As my lawschool roommate often commented, he was tired of having others think he was an affirmative action baby — he felt he had earned his way into law school, was going to earn his law degree like everyone else (no special tutoring, or waivers, please), and was going to be judged on his performance as a lawyer, not because of any special considerations. At some point, we do no one any favors by watering down awarding of degrees — I’ve seen way too many ‘graduates’ who can’t perform the most basic of tasks expected of one with a degree. The question remains — what is essential to awarding a degree?
@johntoradze–As someone who has taken many medications (including these) for a variety of disorders–physical and neurological–medications vary in their effectiveness depending upon the person. Contrary to some beliefs, medications don’t simply “fix” a problem; they require a complex interaction between the body’s physio-chemical make up, and for those who have other medications or conditions to contend with, this makes the interaction even more complex. It can take years to find effective pharmaceutical treatment combinations and make appropriate adjustments to minimize side effects. At times the side effects can be more painful or dangerous than the condition. I have a heart condition where my medication is just as dangerous as the heart condition if it is not properly monitored. If you’ve never experienced a serious health condition (and anxiety disorder is one–it is a physiological condition) and had to go through barrages of treatment and specialists and testing, then you may not truly understand the toll that this can take on your overall well-being.@snwiedmann: Anxiety disorder can develop later in life. This student hasn’t necessarily always had this condition. Also, it could be a primary condition or secondary. If it is secondary, it could be a result of depression or PTSD, both of which add additional implications for the difficulties.All of that being said, I will share my opinion here. For my PhD exams, I was given 48 hours rather than 24 hours to accomodate for my epilepsy and a secondary anxiety disorder caused by primary PTSD. As an epileptic, lack of sleep and stress can trigger seizures, and it simply was not safe for me to take a 24 hour exam which would keep me from sleeping. Also, my medication occasionally causes cognitive side effects that can impair my ability to work efficiently, and fear of this made my situation even worse. Happily, the extended time was enough for me and I passed my preliminary examinations (and based on the feedback provided by the grading committee did quite well). I don’t think that someone should be exempt from proving the breadth of their knowledge as measured by those exams but reasonable accomodations should be made. The determination of those accomodations, I believe, would be best determined by a collaboration between the Dean of Students and the student’s physician.To all: please keep in mind that just because a disability isn’t clearly visible, that doesn’t make it any less disabling. In fact, in some ways an invisible disability can be more disabling because people perceive your disability as a deception created to get special treatment. Unfortunately, for some of us, the culture of “pushing oneself” that is so highly valued in graduate school can be physically damaging. Maybe we should put greater value in acts of taking care of our health rather than viewing this as a sign of a lack of dedication to work. Personally, I have spent most of my educational career (and still do to a great extent) equating dedication with overworking myself and have suffered significant damage as a result.
there’s a joke of a phd.