News & Views item - February 2010

 

 

Australian PhD and Masters Through Research Among Lowest in Developed World. (February 22, 2010)

Geoff Maslen, reporting in the February 21, 2010 issue of University World News writes that: "So difficult has life become for Australian PhD and masters by research students that the numbers starting the degrees are falling and completion rates are among the lowest in the developed world... In the natural and physical sciences, the fields that have the greatest need for new scholars, the number of Australian students beginning PhD degrees fell between 2002 and 2008," and he quotes the statistic: "Despite the huge rise in the foreign student population on Australian campuses over the past decade or so, they comprise only 17% of total research training students compared with a staggering 40% in the United Kingdom."

 

So why isn't Australia training its own young to become researchers and the next generation of academics? One reason for the lack of interest in research degrees is the low value of postgraduate awards and scholarships as most barely exceed $20,000 (US$18,000) a year.


Students undertaking their second and third degrees work for the equivalent of $5 an hour, says the Council of Australian Postgraduates. The result of the declining interest is that Australia faces what the vice-chancellor of the Australian National University Professor Ian Chubb calls "a national calamity".

 

If research graduates decide to stay on in universities, 90% of them will be employed on limited-term contracts that offer no security and prevent them from even obtaining bank loans to buy homes. That is no doubt why more than two in every three PhD graduates are employed outside the universities.


Australia is experiencing a decline in domestic PhD commencements at a time of fierce international competition for the best talent available. As critics point out, other countries are not just investing in their own "they are seeking the best of ours"