This is from todays Otago Daily Times. The pressure on academics to recruit and fund grant funding to keep graduate students is continually increasing. Graduate students (a) increase the research output of the department (b) increase the number of researchers in the field… but there is a point where this is not sustainable.
And we are past this. Grants are harder to get. External funding dried up five years in the global financial crisis. And the average student is not that stupid: they will read economic signals.
A trend of declining student numbers at the University of Otago has continued, enrolments down 2.3% on last year and postgraduate and international numbers hit particularly hard.
However, first-year student numbers increased.
Vice-chancellor Prof Harlene Hayne revealed the figures at yesterday’s university council meeting and expressed concern the Government’s decision to cut postgraduate allowances could in part be behind a drop in postgraduate research students of just over 100 equivalent-full-time students (EFTS).
The Labour Party’s tertiary education spokeswoman, Megan Woods, said the drop in postgraduate numbers showed the Government’s allowance cuts were already starting to bite and she called on Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce to act quickly to remedy the situation.
A spokesman for the minister said it was too early to determine what impact, if any, the postgraduate student allowances change would have on enrolments.
”I would note that Otago enrolments are soft overall as reported by the university and this would be expected as the economy picks up and more students head into the workforce. However, it stands to reason that there will be some people that choose not to participate in postgraduate study if a very generous student support scheme is made slightly less generous,” the spokesman said.
Government expenditure on student allowances had increased from $385 million in 2007-08 to $620 million in 2010-11 and was unsustainable, he said.
I have told my boys to get a trade: allowing that medicine and law, two of the three learned professions (the third is theology) are more of a trade where the technical training occurs at a university (like Pharmacy, Dentistry and Nursing). The academic graduate game is for either the rich,or those who need the qualification to do their job and can get their employer to give them time off, or sponsor them.
But graduate school is for the birds. Choose life, not the library.
Interesting. The thing is that there is only a limited demand for professional academics. This has been true for decades. It was true when I did my PhD at the University of New England, Armidale, NSW in 1978-82. No doubt it is worse now.
In my case, a small amount of funding did come to the department, which was no doubt an incentive to take me on as a graduate student for them. I disagree that students respond to economic signals. I wouldn’t have known an economic signal in those days if it bit me on the bum. Youth is optimistic and believes in itself.
Also in my case, I did most of my doctoral work on a fairly large grant my supervisor had just received. In the way of these things, I didn’t work on that project but it did mean that I had good equipment to use. I was lucky.
Would I recommend a young person do graduate work now. Only if you really love it, you are of a dogged personality type, you have no spouse or kids, and you do realise that it is highly unlikely to lead to a relevant job. In the long term, I did get somewhat relevant work, but it was years later and in an applied field.
“The academic graduate game is for either the rich,or those who need the qualification to do their job and can get their employer to give them time off, or sponsor them”
The problem here in America is that the job market is so competitive, greedy employers expect job prospects to already have all of their training; even if that means a year of unpaid internships.
I only need to finish 2 courses (unfortunately one is Organic Chem) to earn my degree. I’m going to delay taking the courses, though. I’m still not even sure what I want to do. I find my friends that are in graduate school are pursuing their Phds for the same reason they buy extra-large popcorn at the movie theatre. “The extra-large is only a dollar more, might as well get it” “I already have a masters, I might as well work on my thesis.”
& you’re correct, graduate school is a clever, classy way for upper class 20-somethings to still mooch off their folks. Otherwise their parents would have been pushing for them to get jobs/married/move out and become functioning members of society.