Do you want to know why a uOttawa PhD certificate may not be worth the paper it’s printed on? My PhD studies at uOttawa engineering, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), the PhD in DTI uOttawa Program, have set me back a few years in life. And I am not just talking about a burdensome student debt. It may surprise you that even uOttawa President Jacques Frémont seems to think a uOttawa PhD certificate is not worth the paper it’s printed on.
Even if you excel in your studies and do everything right you may still find yourself with little to no supervisory support whether during or after completing your PhD studies. Here’s why.
The University of Ottawa has a bullying problem. And close to null meaningful bullying countermeasures and remedy for bullied students and postdoctoral researchers.
I completed my PhD in Digital Transformation and Innovation at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in four years (in April 2020) and even did a short postdoc, after which (in February 2021) my academic supervisor Rocci Luppicini stopped responding to my messages.
My PhD thesis submission email timeline
My PhD thesis completion timeline
My PhD thesis evaluation report (example for what examiners look for in a PhD thesis)
They say three points establish a pattern.
One: my academic supervisor at uOttawa for close to 10 years abruptly cuts me off from any support just when I needed it.
But my troubles were just beginning.
The cowardly act by Rocci Luppicini would soon unearth a deep culture of bullying within DTI faculty – more specifically, within my uOttawa PhD thesis advisory committee, which also includes professors Liam Peyton and Andre Vellino, and beyond.
I’ve already told my uOttawa supervisor bullying story (see Related content below).
Suffice to say, cutting me off from support was the tip of the iceberg and the latest episode in a long running series of deliberate academic and career sabotage acts by Rocci Luppicini … but it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I had to speak out about it.
Two: I posted about my supervisor bullying story on LinkedIn (initially to connections only) and soon discovered that openness, transparency, and free speech are not tolerated. When I contacted Professor Liam Peyton for support, he would not help unless (it was clear) I covered up about what happened.
Three: I approached Professor Andre Vellino for academic support and he too advised me not talk about it and to get over it because “academia is very political”.
[Four, though I am not counting it here (but in the event of a full inquiry, I would be happy to present the evidence): a professor in the DTI program advised me through email on May 6, 2021, to not speak about my grievance in public (implied: or else no one will help me).]
Four: University President Jacques Frémont replied to my email letter asking him to launch an internal investigation of my supervisor bullying case by addressing me as “Mr. Abu-Shaqra”. Go talk to the human rights people, he said. Read the letter: Letter to uOttawa President Jacques Frémont: Supervisor bullying and policy reforms. You may also be interested in How to end supervisor bullying at uOttawa (and beyond).
So either the President does not read emails or he meant it as a jab (as in, go pound sand). Either way: bullying.
So much for the treasured notions of meritocracy, equality and fairness … and freedom of expression, which are core Canadian values that last time I checked.
Sabotaging an academic and professional career is a crime. Penalizing the victim for speaking out is even a bigger crime.
It can happen to you too.
So before you apply for a PhD program at the University of Ottawa, know this:
1. Even if you excel in your studies, you’re at the mercy of a whim or an impulse of a uOttawa thesis supervising professor. Your academic future hangs in the balance at the best of times.
2. You can expect “third world” treatment if your academic advisor decides to sabotage your academic career or to exploit your intellectual work – for example, if they decide to fail you a term to subjugate you or to show you who’s boss. Malpractice in academic supervision is hushed and covered up at uOttawa.
3. uOttawa is the most political university in Canada, for several reasons including its deep links with the institutions of the federal government and the software industry in Ottawa and its identity as bilingual though privileging the French language. This spill over into routine operations and how professors work in polarized ideological or political silos -and you see it in things like a rigid power hierarchy and how professors trade favors (e.g., in granting interviews for data collection).
From personal experience, politics manifest in the manner in which University laws are deemed relevant or applicable to a grievance situation. When it became clear to me that I was being handled by the University administration–e.g., I was told I should use the workplace harassment form for students (Procedure 36-1 of Policy 67a) and yet I would not be considered a student under University Policy 110 sections 5 and 6–I abandoned the go-to-the-human-rights-office route for my grievance and decided to go public.
No HRO whip has ever dissuaded a spiteful or vengeful university professor from ruining the career of a graduate student.
I am not saying uOttawa is a bad school. Nor am I suggesting supervisor bullying is unique to uOttawa. But you can look for a graduate school that emphasizes a first-rate student experience (e.g., Google a university’s name and “student experience”) and/or has a whistleblowing office as a mechanism of self-correction.
uOttawa is generally considered a good school by international standards, and has graduated some of Canada’s finest and most accomplished social and technological pioneers and politicians. But it can be a graveyard for talent, until it takes supervisor bullying seriously.
uOttawa can be a meritocracy, but only within the constraints of despotic nepotism. I have seen colleagues who trailed me in academic progress become university professors (and power to them, I don’t envy them or consider delays their fault).
For some students, a uOttawa PhD certificate will not be worth the paper it’s printed on. Those are the victims of supervisor bullying.
Related content
1st Annual University of Ottawa Supervisor Bullying ESG Business Risk Assessment Briefing
Disgraced uOttawa President Jacques Frémont ignores bullying problem
How to end supervisor bullying at uOttawa
PhD in DTI uOttawa program review
Rocci Luppicini – Supervisor bullying at uOttawa case updates
The case for policy reform: Tyranny
The trouble with uOttawa Prof. A. Vellino
The ugly truth about uOttawa Prof. Liam Peyton
uOttawa engineering supervisor bullying scandal
uOttawa President Jacques Frémont ignores university bullying problem
uOttawa Prof. Liam Peyton denies academic support to postdoc
Updated uOttawa policies and regulations: A power grab
What you must know about uOttawa Prof. Rocci Luppicini
Why a PhD from uOttawa may not be worth the paper it’s printed on
Why uOttawa Prof. Andre Vellino refused academic support to postdoc
