My university is making it very easy to hate it right now.
For one thing, it has changed it's policy so that anything published (including a thesis) must have everything saved so that your work can be audited and they can discover if you have done something dogy or not. Fair enough.
The problem with this is that
a) It isn't a case of policy changes are in effect from this point on. All researchers have to back-track for the past five years. Do they know how hard it is to go back to stuff you did five years ago? At least I'm the only one who has ever worked on my project so I don't have to try and figure out what other people have done.
b) The people who made this policy don't actually know what they want and have asked for everything. Raw data, processed data, all the analytical files. Eveything. Will the auditors even know how to use the programs? Do they realise that some projects have terabytes worth of raw data? Would they like my brain in a jar?
I can't submit my thesis until I have all this data assembled and in an easy way to follow. It wouldn't be a bad thing if the policy was introduced when I started, then I could have managed the data as I went along. But as it is, I only have my data managed for me. There is no way that anyone else could ever find my genotyping repeats. And my data analysis for my thesis is all over the place and I keep adding more and more as I go. I don't know how I'm going to organise it in a way that other people can follow. More work for me when I'm already working evenings and weekends to get everything done in time.
The other thing is that the university has changed it's online library system. Most of my problems involve the log-in window telling me that I'm an unauthorised user, something which strangely can be resolved by hitting refresh. But twice I haven't been able to log in at all. I planned to spend the weekend looking up articles for my thesis but the log-in window won't load at all. I need those fucking articles.
I can only assume that the university gives me permission to make shit up.
Seriously, who thinks it's a good idea to introduce these things at this time of year? Why not the start of the academic year?
In other (somewhat obvious) news: I'm stressed out and freaking out. Every little thing annoys me to the point that I'm swearing abuse at my plants. No art for me. Cooking is a chore. Gaming is restricted to only a few hours on the weekend.
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