Comment by MITSardine

On the contrary, my experience of US academia has been that (graduate) students are very much students, who take a lot of classes, are graded seriously with the possibility of failing, are mentored rigorously (the author even says "the classic one hour a week meeting", which I also witnessed there), and in fact enroll in a program more than they are hired directly.

I did my PhD in France where we were legally employees like any other and did 100% research with like 100 hours training over the three years which could be 5min MOOCs counting for hours or classes the professors would sign us off on. We were hired by a specific researcher for a specific topic, unlike US students who join a broader program and explore their own directions more. My mentoring was drinking coffee with my advisor and colleagues and the odd e-mail exchange the day before turning in a paper.

I believe Germany and quite a few other European countries are similar. Any country that does 3 years PhDs is bound to cut on the student part of things.