Medical Health

Back during the 1980s, when I was busy fulfilling the requirements of a Ph.D. degree, I performed quite a bit of dangerous field work. In my line of study, field workers and their associates suffered severe injuries, including decapitation, and died in small-plane crashes. Some of them drowned.

The university gave me a temporary position as a graduate research assistant, and the rest of my funding was drawn from research grants and sholarships. But years later I discovered that neither my graduate research assistantship nor my grants provided disability insurance and/or health insurance (never mind life insurance).

Therefore, I am advising all students to refrain from risking their lives and limbs during their course of studies, and I am saying that you must insist that the university provide you with disability and/or health benefits or allow you to use part of your grant money to buy the necessary insurance.

Universities think of themselves as absolutely benevolent, but when all is said and done, you can not trust them, and you must force them to keep up their end of the deal.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 28th, 2006 at 6:45 pm and is filed under Editorial, Medical News.