I wonder if MOOCs will reduce credentialism, or strengthen its grip...
(If I hear "You don't have a phd, you can't be first author on this paper" one more time, I'm getting the shark launcher)
(If I hear "You don't have a phd, you can't be first author on this paper" one more time, I'm getting the shark launcher)
On the other hand, one of our students from Spain managed to convince his university to validate one of our courses as credits. So I don't know. But the trend is towards projects > diplomas.
(However, for papers, that's gonna take a while)
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-ho...
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that either you're in a very archaic field or institution, or that your PI is not a nice person. In the US at least, even undergraduates are routinely first authors on papers where they did the majority of work.
I suspect that part of it is that I'm not in any sort of academic pipeline (I got out of school with a BSc, essentially apprenticed myself under a nautical engineer for a few years, then opened a workshop).