When I decided to apply for a research master (Mphil) at Erasmus University I had my hopes up. My hopes weren’t related only to the curriculum itself, but also to the philosophy of life and work.
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I truly hoped that at Erasmus University I will find and have the things I lacked of in my home country and in the way things are there. I hoped for respect and appreciation of what I know, what I can do and the things I could do in the right context and with some motivation. I hoped to not get the things I was fed up of like amateurism, carelessness, lack of interest and an obsession for compliance.
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Now I can’t say that what I found here is in total opposition to what I wished for, but for sure what I have now is not what I’ve expected. There are good things, but some of the things I ran away from are present here also.
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The main problem that I see is the appliance of Cattle management where there are no cows. At least in theory a master program, especially one that is very select and is supposed to train future researchers in business administration, is supposed to unleash the potential in the students. Each of the students in the Mphil is really smart and hard working. And all of them were full of hope (14 out of 16 are non-Dutch). They left their families, friends, homes and countries in order to achieve something great. All of them had to take very difficult exams and fill in endless applications.
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This is not the profile of a “cow”. This is most likely the profile of a “wild cat”. It is a pity that most of the things I found here are designed for cattle management and not for wild cat management.
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As far as I see now, the focus is on complying and not on engaging. The program is designed so that students comply with the demands and act like someone expects them to do. I think this is totally wrong. This kind of people are not “designed” to simply comply without thinking (even if many of them come from countries with dictatorships – Iran and China).
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Why is there no focus on engaging them (us) into learning? That’s why we came here, to learn and to become one of the best trained professionals. And no one lacks internal motivation. Let’s be serious … people who left everything behind are intrinsically motivated. There is almost no external motivation. Sometimes there is a lot of demotivation widely available. And the grading system is just a “carrot and stick” system that has been proven to be ineffective in highly creative tasks.
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People like this are motivated by autonomy, mastering, purpose and role models. I don’t see too much of that.
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What I see is a lot of carelessness – some professors could depress a bride on her wedding day, a lot of work meant to keep people busy so that they have no time to think too much and the show of power and its abuse – “although it’s of no use, you have to do this because I say so” . These are meant to make people comply and not engage. These will never bring the best in people.
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What is needed is guidance, engagement, caring and purpose.
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I know of no example of great achievement of mankind that was the result of blind compliance. I know of a lot of achievements as the result of motivation to out-do yourself.
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This cattle management is not what I left my life behind for and I believe that most international students are in the same situation as I am.
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