Academic Elitism
N. Intro
When did I start to be familiar with the term “Elitism”? Ah, that must be because of the post about Wee Shu Min scandal, even though I somehow have a characteristic as a natural-born elitist to certain extent. Too bad for me. I wish I could get rid of it. My wishful thinking says that all good people, whatever his/her job, are equal and in some way contribute to development of civilization.
OK, let’s start.
I. Professors in Top Research-intensive Universities
When I was a kid, I have always thought that a job in academia or scientific fields is really cool. I mean, imagine this situation: people from many countries in the world, with various educational backgrounds, united in the name of science to invent new things. However, now that I am making my path there, or maybe I can say that I have already been there (because it is the research students that do the researches anyway), I see something weird.
Some of you may be aware of world university rank systems. ARWU, THE-QS, HEEACT, and then national ranks such as in USA, UK, Australia, etc etc. Some of them also have field-specific ranks, for example, for the field of Engineering and Computer Science, ARWU, HEEACT, US News, Times for UK, etc. Then, let’s talk about big universities, which are highly-ranked in the aforementioned rank systems, and which have leading research groups. Then take a look at the professors vitae or resumes in, for example, two leading Computer Graphics labs, Stanford’s and UC Berkeley’s. Why Computer Graphics? D’oh, it’s ma feild, d00d. I have little or no competence to write about other fields. In Stanford’s Computer Graphics laboratory, the five professors got their PhDs in UCLA, Stanford, Tel Aviv, UNC, and Wisconsin-Madison, while professors in UC Berkeley’s Computer Graphics Lab are PhDs graduate of Stanford, McGill, MIT, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, Georgia Tech, and Basel. Most of them took their PhD in universities that enjoy high positions in recent university rank systems.
II. Survival of The Elites?
This is the weird thing. Where are smaller universities graduates? Why nobody is there? I took a look in other labs, but it was the same thing. Of no surprise, I found out that this also occurs in the field of Economics. Top 20 universities tend to occupy professors from top 20 universities as well. For further info, please refer to this paper: [link]. When I showed this paper to my friend, a scholarship hunter who wants to be economic researcher, he said, “Still thinking about that? Welcome to the club of academic vicious circle!” . I would rather name this as pyramid of academia. Due to gravity, people from higher position can go down easily, but it is not easy for people from lower position to go up.
Now, imagine 2 PhDs, one from Ivy League university and one from a lesser known university, both possess about the same qualifications in term of number and quality of publications, applying to be an assistant professor in a university. What I don’t want to happen is if just because of the background of the first applicant (i.e. the university this applicant got PhD), s/he will be given more preference/mark/whatever than the latter. If this what really happens in top universities, isn’t this a kind of elitism, in the sense that only PhD graduates from big universities can assume academic positions in big universities too?
To think positively, I suggest that this maybe because of the quality of research groups in the university. The more popular a research group is, the better the quality of publications. But how is it possible? I mean, for research-intensive universities which have no financial problem, their outputs must not differ very much! And I always consider Computer Science as a relatively inexpensive field. In Computer Graphics, for example, you just need to buy a decent computer with a good commercially-available graphics hardware, install Visual Studio Express 2008 and the update, download GLUT, OpenGL or any other libraries, design and implement a new ray tracing variance, submit it to conference. It was an oversimplification though. The design and implementation are the hardest and the most important parts. The point is: what else do you need?
Of course there are several exceptions, like Paul Erdős, who got his PhD from University of Pázmány Péter, Hungary but got employed in Princeton. I am quite sure that is because he came from outer space. Not to mention that Central-European universities have a long bright history in Mathematics.
Then the most evil elitist question was born. If only top universities can produce noteworthy publications, why should one apply to smaller university if s/he wants to have a career as an academic staff? Small universities should either produce more good publications ASAP, or not exist!
III. Why This Came into My Mind: A Personal Note
Scholarship informations are scarce in Indonesia. Most people compete for Chevening, ADS, Fulbright, Erasmus Mundus, Stuned, and Monbukagakusho. It affected me too. Although my knowledge about scholarship hunting was above average, I still did’t know many. I had not noticed that basically all PhD students get financial support, including in USA and Canada, countries whose graduate schools I thought were very hard to enter due to lack of financial support for Indonesians, which is wrong, before I read phdcomics. That time I only knew NTU and NUS that give scholarship to Master by Research students. Applying to NUS was not possible since the deadline was very early and I had not taken English test. I took IELTS in December, got the result and then applied to NTU which turned to be successful (and other universities, whose scholarships I failed to win).
When I had already been in NTU, after knowing that fact, I started to think about moving to another university of higher rank and reputation for my PhD study. However, later I realised that if I considered moving too much, my performance here will not be good, so this can be a bad choice too. Moreover, who can guarantee if my admission in new universities will be successful? Going back to NTU will take time, as I will need to reapply. Waste of time, waste of age. In the other side, I am satisfied with NTU performance.
This is philosophical choice for me. If I worship ranks and elitism, I will start to give more time to learn GRE etc and consider moving. However, if I become a die-hard supporter of science, staying here will be a realistic but still good choice. It is the science that I want to focus in after all. Which one should I choose? Or is middle path the best, for example by narrowing down the number of new university option? For now I choose to stay, although this might be consulted later with my professor.
FYI, I would like to mention here that while it is my career aspiration to assume a position as a professor in a well-known university with strong research groups, I am not targetting like Ivy League or Oxbridge universities in specific, although that will be extraordinary achievement. But if this is the case, doesn’t this mean that the choices of PhD graduates from smaller universities are kind of limited?
BTW, I am quite sure that NTU want to give more focus on the PhD programme since the abolishing of scholarship support for new Master by Research applicants. I am probably in the last batch of Master by Research students who get university scholarships. It’s fine, and in fact I support their decision.
IV. Outro
While this admission criteria still remains a mystery to me until I am ascended from studentship (unless I cheat), deep inside my brain I still believe that the essence of education and research is the science itself. The individual record, including the number and quality of publications, and individual skills, such as language proficiency, should be what really matters during the admission. Nevertheless I still think that, due to the situation, to be a noteworthy researcher and contribute to science advancement better (I know, cliché), one must (?) be employed in a big university. Simple proof. Take a look at this. Most of the times it is correct.
Lastly, I should learn from Luca Toni.
Ah, I think I’ll take numerous postdoc positions first. Moving to Japan, Ireland, or Sweden may be good options. I can continue my career there afterward. Beautiful countries. 
I love the whole world, love my imagination…
Boom de yada boom de yada…
(Heyyyy!! Finish your Master and PhD first lah before thinking postdoc…)
PS: Muse’ songs are great for writing this kind of post. They will raise your geekiness significantly ;;)
PS2: Somehow I hope there is a tenured professor or admission committee that reads this post and gives some comments.
PS3: As for the elitism, I really really hope I am wrong. I mean it.
PS4: Thanks to Mr Yayan for his suggestion about mechanical device and Mr Eric for the short interview. As for Mr Yayan, sorry for not using your suggestion. I found out that that was OOT.
PS5: I remember there is a former Professor of Computer Graphics in University of Utah, Michael Ashikhmin, who quit this field, arguing that it had a problem with elitism, especially with the existence of ACM SIGGRAPH, the most adhered prestigitious conference in Computer Graphics. So? 
Images are taken from Wikimedia and Despair.
) and plans to do postdoc afterwards. The postdoc programme that he is interested to apply urges him to change citizenship. So, which one should he take? Taking this programme in change for his citizenship, or seeking another programme but with “longer and more winding road”? Currently he decides not to take this programme and look for another programme that does not need him to change citizenship. His senior, a Chinese citizen, was also offered the same programme, but she declined, since “She is a proud Chinese”, said my friend about her.
), I argued that had they worked in Indonesia, they could not get the same achievements. Then I showed them some foreign researchers. The late 
)
–> logika yang aneh 
. Namun demikian saya jadi kepikiran, sejauh apa sih saya bisa mendukung itu? Sepertinya tidak terlalu jauh. Jujur saja saya ini takut tertarik dengan orang yang berasal dari negara yang "aneh", terutama kalau berasal dari keluarga yang "aneh". Jangan protes dulu, tolong lihat contoh kasus di bawah ini.
