The idea that a person is qualified because their parent paid for their Phd is preposterous. The title 'doctor' or 'doctore' used to only be conveyed upon a person by their peers after decades of work in the field. Then universities saw the opportunity to go whoring and sell titles to the children of parents with money. Later the student loan industry turned this into an even more disgraceful system in the money grubbing USA. To see some trying to suggest that a 'degree' given by a whoring institution is worth more than the trust of peers is the sort of idiocy one expects these days, not unusual in this time of the likes of the US republican party and its dedication to the stupid and avaricious.
Turning a discussion on Rossi's work into a perverse discussion about Penon's degree is such text book troll behavior as to take Vortex into utter absurdity. Those casting aspersions on Penon should post their own credentials, if they do not and are critical of Penon then they define themselves as the worst of trolls. It's too bad Vortex doesn't have a feature like Facebook where one simply block those who prove themselves to be trolls or worse. -----Original Message----- From: a.ashfield [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2016 1:43 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Vo]:Fabio Penon Thanks to those that have replied with useful links. "It was almost a thousand years ago, when the University of Bologna, or Alma Mater Studiorum (Nourishing Mother of Studies), the oldest university functioning constantly started teaching various disciplines at graduate level. " "Cost effective study options and minimal tuition fees are Europe’s mere advantage and deserve commendation, therefore this advantage should not be lost. " That said, the American UNiversities have a lot more money. I my opinion they are now not good value for money. College cost increased more than 500% while the consumer price index increased 121% The actual cost of instruction only went up less than 10% Sending more money there didn’t work. Student loans now total $1.2 trillion. Only 60% graduate within six years, the remainder has to pay off the debt without a degree. A CareerBuilder Survey finds 51% of employed 2014 college grads are in Jobs that don’t require a degree. Just 27 percent of college grads had a job that was closely related to their major. It seems universities are more interested in acquiring student fees than preparing them for the world. Harvard professor Clayton Christensen predicted that in 15 years half these institutions would be in bankruptcy. It is still not clear to me what degree Penon has. It doesn't look like it is PhD but as others have pointed out, the master's degree carries the title of Dr. there. Certainly Beene belittles Penon by calling him a glorified mechanic. As a licensed engineer he should be qualified to do the assessment. Probably better than a lot of scientists who have had no practical training or experience. "The Bologna University system University studies are divided into three cycles: First cycle and Single cycle degree programmes: First Cycle Degrees, Single Cycle Degrees. Second cycle degree programmes: Second Cycle degree programme. Third cycle degree programmes: Doctoral studies (PhD) and Specialisation Schools. The University also runs vocational programmes including First and Second level Professional Master's Programmes, Post-Graduate programmes, Lifelong Learning Courses and Intensive Courses. The qualifications awarded are: first cycle degree (laurea - L) and second cycle degree (laurea magistrale - LM). To obtain a first cycle degree, students must acquire 180 educational credits (CFU) in a maximum of 20 exams; to obtain a second cycle degree they must acquire 120 CFU, in a maximum of 12 exams."
