Szilárd VAJDA's blog

I am quite interested in the Romanian politics. "Someone had to." (Bill Bryson) Lately, I am looking even more for details about all these "highly esteemed" politicians in order to judge them not just based on their statements but also on educational ground. The picture is quite interesting, I have to tell you. Of course, you do not need to have high education to be a really good politician (e.g. Joschka Fisher, Lech Walesa) but still, I think it should be a must in order to be able to decide about the fate of a country.

We have some guys (politicians) who really have some good educations, getting degrees from prestigious Romanian and foreign universities (mainly Europe), but some of the degrees is coming from "other Romanian universities". I do not clame the fact that all these new, mainly private universities can not provide good education/degrees, but I have my doubts. Probably it is something personal. However, it is quite strange the fact that rather old politicians obtained their university degrees just in the last few years (Gelu Visan (2008), Peto Csilla-Maria (2006)). It is really interesting ... However, probably they realized that learning is something good and this is already some achievement.

Similar interesting phenomenon can be detected among some ministers and other high rank politicians. They do not want only to exceed in politics but also in sciences. So, some of them (Raluca Turcan, Laszlo Borbely, Elena Udrea, Ioan Nelu Botis, Beres Stefan Vasile) are enrolled in different PhD programs. This is really a remarkable effort, doing such a high class research work beside their day-to-day work in the Romanian Parliament or as heads of different ministries. Congratulation!

However, there is a minor issue here, which I can not understand, probably due to my mental limitations. How come than some poor fellas enrolled in PhD programs are working day and night to finish their thesis, publish papers in prestigious journals and conferences and they barely manage to finish in 3-6 years and these politicians can do the same beside their really important work.

Probably they should give some lectures entitled "How to finish a PhD thesis once you are in politics". It may help all those researchers who can not manage their time and work. It may happen once you are in politics the time becomes different for you. I should try this one. Probably it is working!?

If somebody can advise me in that sense, I would be really grateful. Probably I would go for a second PhD.