The Prospects for the STEM Major. (June 20, 2012)

Last week TFW reported on the findings of a US National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel of an overabundance of biomedical research trainees for academic posts. The panel has made 10 overreaching recommendations to redress this imbalance while improving US competitiveness in the sector. Responding to the report Science reported: "NIH Director Francis Collins said he would like to see some 'experiments' before making 'more systemically disruptive' changes to the funding system'. But, he added, this time the Tilghman panel's recommendations 'will go somewhere. I promise you that.'"

Now The Australian's Jill Rowbotham reports that "work prospects [For STEM graduates] remain uncertain". For example a year following obtaining a bachelor's degree 51% of employed natural and physical sciences graduates thought their qualification important to their principal occupation, while postgraduates sporting STEM PhDs are finding it difficult to obtain stable employment, essentially reinforcing the findings of the Tilghman panel's findings for biomedical postgraduates.

Bob Williamson, Science policy secretary of the Australian Academy of Science, told Ms Rowbotham while only a few years ago PhDs awarded annually numbered a few hundred, "we now award about 2500 every year in scientific and medical research. There are still only a small number of jobs, and many of these are temporary". And he went on to say that postgraduates and post-doctoral researchers needed realistic and honest advisers, "who can tell them how it is: there is no guarantee of a future as a research leader any longer . . . Most new PhDs face many years of insecurity, at just the time they are thinking of settling down." He went on to say that the Academy was urging a reallocation of funding towards long-term career posts in universities, medical research institutes and the CSIRO, "which may mean allocating grants preferentially to younger researchers. Second, we must broaden PhD and post-doctoral mentoring and education so that researchers can move easily into other rewarding fields such as teaching in schools and industry where PhD skills . . . are needed."

Brian Schmidt, Australia's most recent Nobel Laureate agreed saying: "We are producing more PhDs than there are research positions. It is confronting and painful for young scientists to have to change direction, but it is part of the deal of undertaking an academic career."The skills Anna* has gained will translate well into a range of job possibilities from government through industry."

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*Anna Bellamy-McIntyre received her PhD in virology last month after seven years of study. She lost her job at the end of last year when the grant to which she was attached was not refunded. She is now temping in the office of Swinburne Leadership Institute executive director Kenneth Chern. "Six of my friends completed PhDs this year and only one of them has been able to secure a post-doctoral appointment,"