PhD students draw on their specialised and advanced skills to make a vital contribution to Australian research. Putting them on an income that’s below the poverty line doesn’t reflect their value.
Life for graduate students can be hard work and often isolating, and COVID-19 piled on the pressures. That’s when having an academic leader and program dedicated to supporting them proved its worth.
Non-academic mentors, especially those familiar with the culture of academia, can offer empathy, validation and healthy perspectives.
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The realities of the job market mean most PhD students no longer work alongside people whose professional paths they will follow. Universities must do more to support non-academic mentorships.
There is no pleasure without pain in the doctoral journey, but with the right frame of mind and supportive supervisors, the joys certainly outweigh the suffering.
Canadian universities need to reform the culture of the humanities so that careers outside the university are seen as just as valuable as tenure-track jobs.
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With the support of universities, PhD graduates working beyond the academy could bring their knowhow into PhD seminars or classrooms to help current students expand their career horizons.
PhD students can’t wait for universities and governments to reconcile the demands for a more educated workforce and a scarcity of academic jobs – they should plan their own careers.
Australia’s top scientist Alan Finkel says too many poor quality research papers are being published in Australia, and the system may inadvertently encourage academics to behave badly.
Self-help strategies such as mindfulness now have a proven place for supporting the PhD journey.
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Completion rates for PhD courses are very low. Here are some things students, supervisors and universities can do to help support these students through to completion.
Obtaining a foreign PhD is seen as attractive but data suggests local alternatives shouldn’t be dismissed.
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There are currently far too few vacant academic jobs in Australia each year to employ all our PhD students. It’s time to rethink the training of doctoral students.
Embarking on the path to a PhD is a scary business.
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Peter Ngure, African Population and Health Research Center
Many people are left floundering when they try to get working on their PhDs. In Africa, this is often because the skills they need haven’t been developed earlier in their academic careers.
With 70 percent adjunct faculty, who work on a semester-to-semester basis, the current system is not helping students. What can replace the traditional tenure system?
One in five research graduates is dissatisfied with the supervision they received.
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Professsor of Public Health; Co-Director Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa; Panel Member, Private Healthcare Market Inquiry, University of the Witwatersrand