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6
Guy Does Entire Thesis Alone, Finally Refuses To Let Partner Graduate With Him
As we’re heading into the end of June, graduation season seems to dwindle down. Still, there are some students who need to defend their theses to graduate. Most work on their theses solo, but about 14.5% of PhD students, for example, have thesis partners.
This student quickly saw the ugly side of a shared thesis when his partner seriously lagged behind during the entire process. Tired of having to pull her through constantly, the guy finally snapped and asked their supervisor if she could be removed from the project. Yet after the fact, he started wondering: maybe he was being too harsh?
RELATED:
A student ratted out his thesis partner to their supervisor after having done most of the work all year
Image credits: freepik (not the actual image)
Yet later, he started wondering if it was too harsh, since his partner was a single mom
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual image)
Image credits: Unai82 (not the actual image)
Image credits: FluidWishbone6237
Most students hate group projects and have solid reasons to do so
People’s hatred for doing group projects for school is well-documented online. Memes and stories about terrible group project partners abound on the internet and in real life. But when it’s your graduate degree at stake, it’s hardly a laughing matter.
Many students don’t hide their dislike of group projects, and this story illustrates perfectly why that is. In a 2023 study, 61.7% of the student respondents claimed they preferred to work independently.
A little over a third (37.4%) were okay with combining independent and group work, and only 0.9% said they prefer “collaborative assignments.” The study also revealed that the majority of students prefer to work in smaller teams when possible, the most popular choices being a team of three (40%) or two (36.5%).
According to math teacher and EdTech expert Alice Keeler, some of the most common reasons why students hate working in groups are:
- Some have to do more work than others
- They just don’t get along well
- Group work feels inefficient
- Students feel they’re not graded fairly
- There’s no clear distribution of roles and responsibilities
Image credits: wayhomestudio (not the actual image)
Higher education institutions fail to teach students how to effectively work in groups
That last point, according to some experts and educators, is the core of the problem when it comes to group projects. Professor of Practice at the Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Notre Dame, James M. Lang, PhD., claims that the lack of intervention from teachers and advisors can be considered “pedagogical malpractice”.
“If you are assigning and grading group projects and: (a) not giving your students any explicit guidance or resources for how to work together effectively, and (b) not checking in and intervening when groups show signs of dysfunction, then you are engaging in [it],” he writes for The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Experts who are pro-group projects say that it teaches students how to work and succeed in teams, better their communication skills, and be less biased through engaging in discussions and challenging assumptions.
Yet we don’t actually teach students all these skills, expecting them to learn through working on group projects. As educator John Warner writes for Inside Higher Ed, “You must treat the group work as an important part of the curriculum itself.”
Image credits: standret (not the actual image)
Supervisors should instruct students how to communicate during group projects and check in routinely
Luckily, Warner has some tips on how to help students approach working in groups so that they don’t become the most dreaded part of a curriculum.
- The process is more important than the end product.
- Educators need to design projects that can only be done by a group. If the assignment could be done by an individual, it’s unsuitable for a team project.
- Students should be able to pick their teams.
- Educators need to instruct the students on how to work in teams effectively. This includes ethics, team building, collaborative writing processes, scheduling, effective communication, and more.
- Supervisors need to check in and assess progress.
- Students should have some say in the calendar of deadlines.
Image credits: EyeEm (not the actual image)
Most commenters felt no sympathy for the partner: “She cheated emergencies you had to handle”
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What do you think ?
Kate Johnson 6 months ago
It's dishonest for a person who has not put in the work to graduate.
Trillian 6 months ago
How can a thesis be a partner project? Never heard about that. Also, you don't do any work you don't get to graduate. Would be the same if it were individuel projects.
Lady Eowyn 6 months ago
OP specifies they're in the Philippines and it is a thing there.
Load More Replies...
L.V 6 months ago
I don't know how things work in the Philippines, but I had to do a group project for my bachelor in the UK. One of the guys never turned in his part, so I had to provide a bunch of evidence about it. It was only part of our grade and separate from the final exam, but it still sucked getting penalised because of him
Tabitha 6 months ago (edited)
I have had to go to the prof and give them a heads up more than once when assigned a group project, because there is ALWAYS one person who slacks off and apparently expects the rest of the group to carry them. When they graduate—-even though everyone else did the work for them—-they then become the person in the office who slacks off and expects everyone else to carry them. If I’m out in charge of a group project, I do not carry anyone. I have had slackers even try to wheedle me into writing their presentations for them, which I shut down right away. I have also had them show up for the presentation at the last minute or even late, without calling to say they’d be late, totally unprepared and giving a half-a*s presentation of their section. That sucks if the prof is grading the presentation as a whole and not each person’s section separately, as it brings the grade for rest of the group down. I even had another slacker, who never had his stuff ready for group meetings, call me ten minutes before we were to present to tell me he’d been arrested for DUI the night before (well, wee hours of the morning after the bars closed), and was sitting in a jail cell in a town about fifty miles away. That was an interesting one to tell the prof about. He rolled his eyes and said to let my group present their parts and the DUI guy would get a zero for the project.
Load More Replies...
Power puff scientist 6 months ago
inactions have consequences. why should she be allowed to graduate if she didn't do any of the work
geraldrboyle@aol.com 6 months ago
Yours is the only opinion that matters in this issue. The stress of working with someone who has such a cavalier attitude is an added burden for you. I agree you are justified in dumping her.
Kathy Brooke 6 months ago
The whole point of the education is to do the study and learn stuff - or learn how to do/research stuff. This woman has not learned anything (she already knew how to skive and freeload). It's not down to the OP: it would be dishonest of the college to give her the qualification, and would ruin ant reputation they have for educational standards. Give them the information and let them deal with it.
Phoebe Bean 6 months ago
She should not graduate. I had a similar (and individual) graduate research project (interviews and encoding) and this is a massive and time-consuming task, so absolutely NO mercy for the lazy lady because it is clear she is doing nothing here (and doesn't want to). Ugh.
Emilu 6 months ago
No way. If she hasn't done s**t; she gets s**t (aka s**t all). Sidenote: a group thesis is the sound of my worst nightmares put into words 😆 But if she didn't put the effort in, she doesn't get the credit. It's the basis for how life works. Even if she got the credit for this, she wouldn't be able to ride on your coat-tails for her graduate job afterwards. Better to show her reality now than later, IMO.
Gerry Higgins 6 months ago
Joint Thesis are for lazy professors so they only have to read/judge half as many.
Pyla 6 months ago
A few years ago our student employee shared the torment of group projects. One student just slacked off the entire time. Then about a week before it was due and they had already done most of the research and prepared the presentation to near completion, he piped up and started barking orders. he still did very little and she and another guy were doing last minute fixes. The guy barely did anything in the presentation, jsut read his part. The reward was a day after the final, a week later, he asks in a group text what time was the final. Bro, it was yesterday. It was quite the karmic moment.
Lady Eowyn 6 months ago
It wasn't a thesis, and undergrad audio/visual project back in the 70s. I did 99% of the work. I told this to the prof, I integrated the tiny bit my partner did into the project but it obviously wasn't the same quality as the rest of the presentation, so he believed me. I got a A. She didn't.
Lady Eowyn 6 months ago
"An" undergrad.... I have osteoarthritis in my fingers.
Load More Replies... Kate Johnson 6 months ago
It's dishonest for a person who has not put in the work to graduate.
Trillian 6 months ago
How can a thesis be a partner project? Never heard about that. Also, you don't do any work you don't get to graduate. Would be the same if it were individuel projects.
Lady Eowyn 6 months ago
OP specifies they're in the Philippines and it is a thing there.
Load More Replies... L.V 6 months ago
I don't know how things work in the Philippines, but I had to do a group project for my bachelor in the UK. One of the guys never turned in his part, so I had to provide a bunch of evidence about it. It was only part of our grade and separate from the final exam, but it still sucked getting penalised because of him
Tabitha 6 months ago (edited)
I have had to go to the prof and give them a heads up more than once when assigned a group project, because there is ALWAYS one person who slacks off and apparently expects the rest of the group to carry them. When they graduate—-even though everyone else did the work for them—-they then become the person in the office who slacks off and expects everyone else to carry them. If I’m out in charge of a group project, I do not carry anyone. I have had slackers even try to wheedle me into writing their presentations for them, which I shut down right away. I have also had them show up for the presentation at the last minute or even late, without calling to say they’d be late, totally unprepared and giving a half-a*s presentation of their section. That sucks if the prof is grading the presentation as a whole and not each person’s section separately, as it brings the grade for rest of the group down. I even had another slacker, who never had his stuff ready for group meetings, call me ten minutes before we were to present to tell me he’d been arrested for DUI the night before (well, wee hours of the morning after the bars closed), and was sitting in a jail cell in a town about fifty miles away. That was an interesting one to tell the prof about. He rolled his eyes and said to let my group present their parts and the DUI guy would get a zero for the project.
Load More Replies... Power puff scientist 6 months ago
inactions have consequences. why should she be allowed to graduate if she didn't do any of the work
geraldrboyle@aol.com 6 months ago
Yours is the only opinion that matters in this issue. The stress of working with someone who has such a cavalier attitude is an added burden for you. I agree you are justified in dumping her.
Kathy Brooke 6 months ago
The whole point of the education is to do the study and learn stuff - or learn how to do/research stuff. This woman has not learned anything (she already knew how to skive and freeload). It's not down to the OP: it would be dishonest of the college to give her the qualification, and would ruin ant reputation they have for educational standards. Give them the information and let them deal with it.
Phoebe Bean 6 months ago
She should not graduate. I had a similar (and individual) graduate research project (interviews and encoding) and this is a massive and time-consuming task, so absolutely NO mercy for the lazy lady because it is clear she is doing nothing here (and doesn't want to). Ugh.
Emilu 6 months ago
No way. If she hasn't done s**t; she gets s**t (aka s**t all). Sidenote: a group thesis is the sound of my worst nightmares put into words 😆 But if she didn't put the effort in, she doesn't get the credit. It's the basis for how life works. Even if she got the credit for this, she wouldn't be able to ride on your coat-tails for her graduate job afterwards. Better to show her reality now than later, IMO.
Gerry Higgins 6 months ago
Joint Thesis are for lazy professors so they only have to read/judge half as many.
Pyla 6 months ago
A few years ago our student employee shared the torment of group projects. One student just slacked off the entire time. Then about a week before it was due and they had already done most of the research and prepared the presentation to near completion, he piped up and started barking orders. he still did very little and she and another guy were doing last minute fixes. The guy barely did anything in the presentation, jsut read his part. The reward was a day after the final, a week later, he asks in a group text what time was the final. Bro, it was yesterday. It was quite the karmic moment.
Lady Eowyn 6 months ago
It wasn't a thesis, and undergrad audio/visual project back in the 70s. I did 99% of the work. I told this to the prof, I integrated the tiny bit my partner did into the project but it obviously wasn't the same quality as the rest of the presentation, so he believed me. I got a A. She didn't.
Lady Eowyn 6 months ago
"An" undergrad.... I have osteoarthritis in my fingers.
Load More Replies...
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