The tough life of a professor

If for some (most) of the Ph.D students their thesis are like carrying the Ring to Mordor, they can find some support knowing that professors are as stressed as we are.

OK, right you are; they earn as much as 4 times more salary. And they have permanent possitions. Yes, true, they seldom appear in the lab and even so they are authors in every paper.

Now I come to think about it, there's no support for us there. Suffering seems only starting with the thesis and the only comfort for bearing the load is that bosses are also f**k'd up. Bad of many, consolation of... students.

From the article in Mare I link above, I wish to comment the poll made among the professors of my university. It reflects that they devote only a 6% of their time to their Ph.D. students. Ahem. How many students has the average professor here? Let's say from 4 to 6. That would mean from 1 to 1.5% of their time per student. According to the official working schedule (38 hours per week), that is 1 and a half to 2 hours. According to the alleged real working schedule (60 h.p.w.), it would be in between 2 and a half and 3 hours. It seems a lot to me ;-)

By the way, if you get to the bottom of the article, it's worth reading Renata Fontana's opinion about life in Leiden and the Netherlands in general. XD