How things work in WII

I thought it was about time that I start writing about my time here at school.  Ive officially started my project at WII, though I have yet to see the data or have more than 10 minutes to talk to my advisor....well, thats not quite fair, Ive talked to him 2 times now about the project and I am sad to say that I do not think I will be doing a leopard human conflict issue anymore.  So, I may be searching for a new project soon.  We shall see what this next week brings.  ANYway....

WII is located in Dehradun and I have been suprised at exactly HOW different it operates from the US based system.  Some of the things I am learning are shocking - particularly about the school systems and how they seem to work here.  WII is actually an institute.  NOT a university or a college.  Though, it offers a masters (they call it an MSc instead of an MS) it is still slightly different than what I am familiar with.  Lets start with them:

MSc
The MSc students are the ONLY official students to get a degree from this institute.  They accept up to 14 students every 2 years and only 2 of those are for foreign students (Usually from Nepal, Mongolia, China, etc.) - everyone else is Indian.  This year the 12 students (now 11 since one dropped out) competed against an application pool of 600 going through several tests and personal interviews.  Thats pretty cool!  I am sure there are exceptions so the rest of what I am going to say is MY impressions and MY interpretations of what I have learned thus far.  Undergraduate students in India go to school for 3 years - only.  Each and every part of their education leading up to their entrance exams for university is geared towards literal reguritation of exactly what is written in the book.  Every teacher teaches the exam to the student - even providing the test questions and the exact answer they expect.  There is NO thinking for yourself, no thinking outside the box and no expectations beyond memorization of the material.  University is not much different, but at least now they are studying a subject they enjoy. The classes here rotate and you study one subject for a week or two then move onto another.  Some weeks you are taught up to 3 topics a week.  This week they are studying Behavioral Ecology and Remote Sensing.  School starts at 9:30, there is a tea break at 11 and lunch at 1.  Afternoon classes start up at 2:30 and end at 5pm.  The topics of this week are Behavioral Ecology and in that they may have up to 5 or 6 teachers giving lectures depending on who is incharge of this "module".  There is some sort of break after 4 months and I believe they get 1 month off.  Their last 6 months are spent entirally in the field doing their research project and then writing up the results for a paper. 

In essance, it sort of reminds me of Undergraduate = community college in the USA (getting the basics and generics done as well as some "specialized" classes) and then their MSc is like the last 2 years of Undergraduate specializing in your intersted topic only intensive with a Honors Thesis/small project they have to do.  There is no expectation for an MSc student to publish at all.  Only, this comparison is not quite fair because these MSc students are really good at memorizing so they REALLY know theory.  They are very very book smart.  So, topics may be unfamiliar, but they learn very quickly.

PhD students aka Research Associates:
PhD students here are not officially registered as PhD students within this school.  Every student here (and there are a LOT of PhD's) is registered out of a different university and just has this "affiliation" with WII.  Only, they live, eat, sleep, breath WII or their field site.  All the expertise comes from faculty here at WII and its WII that provides most of the logistical support.  The universities they are reigstered with to officially graduate from - are figure heads only.  PhD students DO NOT TAKE CLASSES!  They are here for 5-7 years working on their projects.  You are expected to know your techniques or tools already...or teach yourself.  

Other students:
Tiger Project Research Associates
They have initiated a tiger monitoring project where they have just hired 29 people to come and do camerat trap and line transects in every national park in India for the next 1.5 years.  They have just hired another 25 people yesterday - all of them have an MSc in biology or some related field.  So, they go through this 2 month training program being taught programs like MARK, DISTANCE, PRESENCE, statistics, and basic ecology of other animals around India.  Getting everyone on the same page.

Diplomats
These are Forest Officer personell.  Much like if your state Fish and Game or Fish and Wildlife agency sent their employees back to school.  They come for 2 week short courses to learn new techniques or to get a better feel for a topic. 

Then there's me.  No one seems quite to know what to do with me.  I am not an MSc student, I am not a Research Associate in any way - but I have a PhD.  The faculty have nothing really to do with me - because what am I really bringing to the table?   I eat with the students in the doorm (they call them hostels) cafiteria (they call it a mess or mess hall) - but I live where they house the Diplomats.  I have given lectures and will be giving others Ive been told.  And I have been allowed to sit in on a class or two thus far which gave me some purpose there for a week...now Ive got nothing again : (