There has been so much talk about “masters” recently that I have sat down in a corner and pondered what this is.
Is it when we are a “master” at finding material on a subject online and then collect this with the help of movements with the mouse? Sometimes it can seem that way, but at the same time I know that most people who deliver a master’s thesis have really worked on the subject for a long time and done the work the way it should be done and should be done.
In the old days, we were taught that this was really something big and serious. It was to be independent work with a solid foundation in own research and of a certain size. It was supposed to be a job that might take about a year to complete. And we were told that when this was delivered, we were probably the ones in the country who knew the most about that subject.
Kjerkol’s master: Must have copied from Ålesund woman
Giving up basements was a matter of course and was said so clearly that no one could misunderstand it. The fact that the “cut and paste” function back then was more labor-intensive than now may have helped make it completely irrelevant. But in any case, we had so much respect for the work we were to deliver, that hardly anyone thought about it at all. Respect for the work, ourselves and the family meant that such things were never relevant.
So to the point: My impression is that our leading politicians today consider being able to include the title of a “master’s thesis” in their CV so important that they resort to easy ways to get it done. But I don’t want to put the blame solely on them. They have chosen to tempt themselves to a status that they are hardly worth! Precisely because we have got such people, those who will approve these tasks are important people and should have taken their task more seriously. That the university approves such easy solutions is a shame.
It also turns out that the different universities have practiced the assessment of assignments very differently. With the journeys that today exist for control, and which have partly been there for the last 20 years, it should be a simple matter to stop much of what is currently served to us as “master’s tasks”
Another issue is that there are also politicians who receive a salary for 15 months after they quit. This salary is 66 per cent of the Storting’s salary, and should be a help until they are able to find other work. Many of the rest of us could probably also appreciate such an arrangement! “The purpose of the arrangement is to facilitate the representatives being able to fully concentrate on exercising their duties until they leave the Storting, and at the same time provide a predictable and safe transition to a normal working life.”
But when they saw this time to write a book of 270 pages and a “master’s thesis”, one wonders if there was time to look for other work! That someone also, as Trond Giske did, decides to refuse to publish his assignment does not exactly give me the feeling that he is proud of his work.
No, let a “master” really be a master. Let the others get the name “sleip luring”, they deserve it! A lighthouse shows the way to sea, many people should probably have that on land too!