This is an extremely dark take that is certainly not true in most CS and EE programs. Students change advisors all the time and there are plenty of internal mechanisms to report misconduct and blow the whistle. The fact that the student felt bullied and pressured is of course extraordinarily unfortunate, but it has more to do with cultural issues and a particularly abusive and toxic working relationship set up in that research group and maybe institution.
I'm glad to hear that some schools have good internal mechanisms and a nontoxic culture, but unfortunately I suspect this is not the case in general.
In my case (a top school in the USA), even with copious and explicit evidence of misconduct, and a history of student complaints against my advisor, whistleblowing was a year-long nightmare during which the administration consistently backed the professor.
Comments
This is an extremely dark take that is certainly not true in most CS and EE programs. Students change advisors all the time and there are plenty of internal mechanisms to report misconduct and blow the whistle. The fact that the student felt bullied and pressured is of course extraordinarily unfortunate, but it has more to do with cultural issues and a particularly abusive and toxic working relationship set up in that research group and maybe institution.
Blaming the system is wildly off base.
I'm glad to hear that some schools have good internal mechanisms and a nontoxic culture, but unfortunately I suspect this is not the case in general.
In my case (a top school in the USA), even with copious and explicit evidence of misconduct, and a history of student complaints against my advisor, whistleblowing was a year-long nightmare during which the administration consistently backed the professor.