PhD students

After discussing my second PhD year today, and after noticing that not even a single professor from the commitee was there (save my boss and a person that joined later on), I realized that the situation for students like me isn’t really the best.

A PhD program is supposed (at least here) to be a cross between a research job and a student’s position, since you should study but at the same time conduct research and (if you’re lucky) also get paid for it. But actually (and it’s really depressing), professors just “use” the students as cheap labor. Yes, cheap because they don’t pay for them, the ministry does. Who cares if they don’t follow courses, don’t go to conferences, miss presentations… All it matters is that they can do their research, only to be replaced when the three year program ends. It is really lame.