I got a job in Japan after mastering out of my PhD in the US with 2 published articles in a STEM field, and my third article is being published soon. Since my professor will never give me a PhD due to my personal conflict with him, I was thinking of using my papers and classes I’ve taken to find a program that can give me a PhD with the work I’ve already done. Is there a good way to go about this? I would like to find a grad school advisor who can point me to the right school but I can’t seem to find such a person.
2 comments
Wow, sorry to hear about your issues. It sucks if your PI is an asshole .but I am not surprised, screw academia…
There are cases when people at university got PhD because of their work. I remember one guy from my former lab – he was already employed as a researcher, though (Japanese, of course).
I am not sure whether this would be possible for a foreign student. You can try contacting some universities
Usually in Japan, transfer credit is extremely uncommon. You would almost certainly need to complete additional research with a professor in Japan for them to agree to accept you as a student, and depending on the academic requirements of the university/universities you are interested in, you might need to take additional classes to meet those requirements. There’s no harm in asking, but unfortunately I think it is a bit optimistic to expect that a university that you did not attend prior would admit you just to hand you a degree based on previous work and nothing done at their university. Have you looked at the university list on the StudyInJapan website which has English-language degrees? You can find the universities offering your major, look at the type of topics they are researching in their labs, and go from there. As a grad student in Japan who came from the US, it really is a very different experience and a grad school advisor in the way you are thinking of really doesn’t seem to be a thing here. It’s absolutely terrible what you’re going through and even in the US that kind of power harassment shouldn’t be acceptable. I’m sorry you’re going through this. I hope that you can find a suitable program and supportive research supervisor who would allow you to continue your research and earn your PhD. Best of luck to you!