The web is full of articles that describe how to spot a liar by tracking eye movements. After enough reading and training you can become an expert liar-spotter, they claim. Never get too confident though. Remember that institutions can also lie and your eye-reading techniques will not work on them. :D
You work like a horse. You have your BS, then an MA in Economics. You manage to get decent grades, some awards, two strong reference letters from well-known professors. Finally you are all set. You apply to some top 50 PhD programs in US. You might even sprinkle some European universities who claim to be competing with US. Why not? After months of waiting you finally receive some letters. Before you make your final decision, you browse some forums, websites, ranking lists, consult your professors, friends. You pack your suitcase, bid farewell to your family and friends. You will come back 4 or 5 years later with a PhD diploma and make everyone proud.
The contract that you just signed says you are admitted to the Mphil programme of a "top European program". In his mail, the graduate program coordinator says you will receive a tiny scholarship and an assistant salary during the two years of your Mphil. After these two years you will receive a three year contract and a regular PhD salary. In his welcome speech he assures all the students that they should already consider themselves in the PhD program. He emphasizes that having an average of 7 (equivalent to B) and finding a PhD supervisor are the only two conditions for PhD admission. If I work hard, like I always do, I can easily make it to the PhD stage you think. As a naive person, you do not ever think that a research institution would lie to its students at this scale.
And the first blow hits you. This should have waked you up. The university suddenly changes the title of the program from "Mphil" to petty "Research Masters". They decide to agree on a solution that does not put current students at a huge disadvantage, after you hire lawyers and push for a lawsuit. They sure listen to their students! Only after they speak out loud.
The best part is yet to come. You become a little suspicious about the other promises that the administration made to the students. You inquire about the future of your "assistantship" job. The graduate studies administration kindly informs you that the students may not keep their position in the second year. The almighty administration intends to cut back its expenses, and your petty assistantship salary is the first thing in their list! What kind of a "top research facility" is this one?
You finally realize that they are totally bogged down. And even worse they do not bother informing you about their financial situation and your uncertain future. They would rather lie until you manage to discover their scam. You are unsure about your future at this institution. So you start digging to discover the truth. At March, when you are almost done with your courses, the university announces that they will only offer a contract to the "research master" students that have an average of 8 (equivalent to an A). Needless to say, it is quite hard to achieve this goal since your courses are already finished. It is their way of saying: We do not have the money, yet we still choose to misinform you in very smart ways.
Out of 25 students, most of whom fulfill the "initial" criteria (an average of 7), only 6 of them are admitted to the PhD program. They also kindly inform you that you should start looking for "external funding" (whatever that means) or in fact you might be better off if you start looking for another PhD program. For those of you who are not familiar with PhD applications: 99% of universities already make their PhD offers until February. I guess the professors in the administration forgot how this procedure works.
That was the brief story of a scandal. We will keep you posted about the details and new information.
It is our moral duty to inform the prospective students about the situation here at the Tilburg University. Unfortunately the university is not good at informing its victims.
Please spread the word !
