Fix the PhD: a Rebuttal. (May 19, 2011)

An editorial in the April 21, 2011 Nature proclaimed: "Most countries, convinced that higher education and scientific research are key to economic growth and prosperity, are expanding doctoral education in science. The thought, as one researcher who has studied doctoral-education trends puts it, is that you can “grow PhDs like mushrooms... [but] Widening concerns about dismal job prospects are dissuading the brightest candidates from the PhD route... One way in which governments can bring about change is to better match educational supply with occupational demand... A second route is to reform the PhD itself, and reset the expectations of those in the system.

On May 9 TFW's News and Views ran "The PhD Glut and What Can be Done About It" which describes the views of Princeton University President Shirley Tilghman who is in the process of chairing an NIH working group addressing the matter.

Below we reprint Kenneth Kosik's short correspondence to Nature which is blunt in its refutation.

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