{"id":41,"date":"2006-12-13T15:41:34","date_gmt":"2006-12-13T22:41:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vocaro.com\/trevor\/blog\/2006\/12\/13\/could-you-finish-a-phd-in-six-months\/"},"modified":"2006-12-13T15:56:33","modified_gmt":"2006-12-13T22:56:33","slug":"could-you-finish-a-phd-in-six-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/vocaro.com\/trevor\/blog\/2006\/12\/13\/could-you-finish-a-phd-in-six-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Could you finish a Ph.D. in six months?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sawsan Salameh has been dreaming of getting a doctorate since the age of sixteen. Now 29, her dream has been placed on hold because none of the universities in her native Palestine offers a Ph.D. program in theoretical chemistry<\/a>, her chosen subject. Studying abroad wasn’t an option, for she comes from a traditional Muslim family and believes traveling abroad alone is improper. Making matters worse, her father recently passed away, leaving Sawsan to provide for her mother and younger sister.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, luck changed for Sawsan. She applied to Hebrew University<\/a> in East Jerusalem, just a short drive from her home in the West Bank, and not only did she gain acceptance, she received a full scholarship. She hopes to use her future degree to launch a career as a chemistry professor.<\/p>\n

Only one obstacle remains: the Israeli checkpoint at the East Jerusalem border. Protected by barbed wire and machine guns, it blocks Sawsan from even setting foot on the university’s campus. Obtaining a permit for entry is possible—fourteen Palestinian students are currently enrolled in Israeli universities—but Sawsan’s application was denied eight times<\/a>. (The government of Israel has become much tighter with permits since the Hamas takeover of Palestine in March.)<\/p>\n

With help from the human rights group Gisha<\/a>, Sawsan appealed to Israel’s High Court of Justice. After a month of delays and hearings, Sawsan’s dream was finally about to come true! The court overruled the government and approved a permit that would allow her to attend school in Israel…for six months<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Sawsan<\/p>\n

Sawsan Salameh
Photograph \u00c2\u00a9 BBC News<\/small><\/p>\n

The idea that anyone could complete a doctoral degree in six months is ludicrous. To put this in perspective, consider that in the United States, earning a Ph.D. in the sciences requires about seven years<\/a> of post-Bachelor’s study. Sawsan’s six-month permit, which the High Court apparently considers a gift, is as good as none.<\/p>\n

The Israeli authorities haven’t commented publicly on this case, so one can only imagine what they were thinking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sawsan Salameh has been dreaming of getting a doctorate since the age of sixteen. Now 29, her dream has been placed on hold because none of the universities in her native Palestine offers a Ph.D. program in theoretical chemistry, her chosen subject. Studying abroad wasn’t an option, for she comes from a traditional Muslim family […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rants","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/vocaro.com\/trevor\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/vocaro.com\/trevor\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/vocaro.com\/trevor\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vocaro.com\/trevor\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vocaro.com\/trevor\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/vocaro.com\/trevor\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/vocaro.com\/trevor\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vocaro.com\/trevor\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/vocaro.com\/trevor\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}