tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/postgraduate-2851/articlesPostgraduate – The Conversation2023-05-18T20:01:40Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2034182023-05-18T20:01:40Z2023-05-18T20:01:40ZThese 5 equity ideas should be at the heart of the Universities Accord<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526151/original/file-20230515-15-e5zzmo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C162%2C4521%2C2842&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is part of our series on <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/universities-accord-big-ideas-137143">big ideas for the Universities Accord</a>. The federal government is calling for ideas to “reshape and reimagine higher education, and set it up for the next decade and beyond”. A review team is due to finish a draft report in June and a final report in December 2023.</em></p>
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<p>Decades of <a href="https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/equity-data__home/">research</a> shows how the higher education system has failed to give Australians a “fair go”. For example, young people in major cities are <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/education/education-and-work-australia/latest-release">much more likely</a> to have a university degree than those from regional or remote areas. This is despite an increase in <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/612854/australia-population-with-university-degree/#:%7E:text=Over%20the%20past%2020%20years,reaching%2050.8%20percent%20in%202022.">overall university participation</a> over the past 20 years. </p>
<p>The Albanese government says it is aware of such discrepancies. “Greater access and participation” for students from underrepresented backgrounds is one of <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/australian-universities-accord/resources/terms-reference">seven key areas identified</a> for the University Accord review.</p>
<p>But how can we move from good intentions to long-overdue change? </p>
<p>The accord review team can begin by making recommendations that prioritise five key ideas: address student poverty, make it easier to study near home, properly understand disadvantage, support teaching staff and help marginalised students get a job when they graduate.</p>
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<h2>1. Address student poverty</h2>
<p>Many Australian university students experience devastating poverty. A 2017 Universities Australia survey found <a href="https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/media-item/one-in-seven-uni-students-regularly-go-without-food/">one in seven</a> regularly go without food or other necessities. This pre-pandemic figure increased to almost one in five for those from lower income backgrounds. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/god-i-miss-fruit-40-of-students-at-australian-universities-may-be-going-without-food-156584">'God, I miss fruit!' 40% of students at Australian universities may be going without food</a>
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<p>We know the prospect of debt also <a href="https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/publications/perceived-risks-of-going-to-university/">deters some students</a> from studying in the first place, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. </p>
<p>Changes to course fees <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-universities-accord-should-scrap-job-ready-graduates-and-create-a-new-multi-rate-system-for-student-fees-203910">in 2021</a> under the Job-ready Graduates scheme mean some undergraduates are now accruing record levels of debt. </p>
<p>So poverty does not end with graduation. According to a 2023 Melbourne University report, average debts are now <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/4509852/Gender-equity-and-policy-neglect-in-student-financing.pdf">as much as A$60,000</a>. Former students can take more than nine years to repay their fees, with repayment times trending upwards. </p>
<p>We urgently need a national review of financial support for students separate from the accord process. </p>
<p>This should not just tinker around the edges but interrogate everything from <a href="https://changetheage.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Locked-out-of-youth-allowance-student-poverty-and-centrelink-in-Australia-1.pdf">student benefits</a> such as Austudy, to the HELP scheme and the number of scholarships and bursaries available. </p>
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<h2>2. Make it easier to study near home</h2>
<p>My <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1755458618302226">research on Australian students</a> has shown students in rural areas may be reluctant to go to university if it means leaving their communities.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp2122/Quick_Guides/RegionalRemoteHigherEducation">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a>, 48.6% of 25 to 34-year-olds in major cities had a university degree as of May 2021. This figure drops the further away someone is from a city, from 26.9% (inner regional) to 21.1% (outer regional) and approximately 16% (remote and very remote). </p>
<p>If we want more students outside of urban areas to go to university, we need to give them more opportunities to study close to where they grew up. This is sometimes referred to as a “<a href="https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/publications/moving-from-community-to-university/">place-based pathway</a>”. </p>
<p>We can do this through a nationally consistent approach to recognising studies undertaken across <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/productivity/report">different education providers</a>. This would see people able to move between universities, technical colleges, community colleges and regional university centres to complete their qualifications. </p>
<h2>3. Properly understand disadvantage</h2>
<p>The university sector continues to rely on an outdated approach when it comes to understanding disadvantage among its students. </p>
<p>Most students with a disadvantage are assigned into six blunt equity groups: low socio-economic status, students with a disability, rural and remote students, Indigenous students, women in non-traditional areas of study and students with English as a second language. </p>
<p>But about 50% of Australian students from underrepresented or marginalised backgrounds fall into <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1360080X.2021.1933305">more than one equity group</a>. For example, someone could be from a low socioeconomic background and have a disability.</p>
<p>A 2019 Queensland University study <a href="https://issr.uq.edu.au/case-study-investigating-effects-cumulative-factors-disadvantage">showed</a> experiencing many types of disadvantage reduces a student’s chances of entering or completing higher education.</p>
<p>Australia needs a national approach to understanding and responding to this complexity. </p>
<p>A 2020 federal government-commissioned <a href="https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:2a76ba9">study</a> has already proposed how to do this. The University of Queensland team developed five prototype measurements to capture multiple disadvantaging factors. We need these types of measurements to properly support the diverse needs of our most vulnerable learners. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/1-5bn-has-gone-into-getting-disadvantaged-students-into-uni-for-very-small-gains-so-what-more-can-be-done-186630">$1.5bn has gone into getting disadvantaged students into uni for very small gains. So what more can be done?</a>
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<h2>4. Don’t forget academics as part of this</h2>
<p>The accord <a href="https://ministers.education.gov.au/clare/release-australian-universities-accord-discussion-paper">discussion paper notes</a> 50–80% of undergraduate teaching in universities is done by casual or contract staff. </p>
<p>This means the delicate work of supporting, engaging and teaching students from diverse backgrounds is often done by staff on temporary, precarious contracts. </p>
<p>Recent Australian studies show these staff often feel <a href="https://theconversation.com/some-of-them-do-treat-you-like-an-idiot-what-its-like-to-be-a-casual-academic-201470">stressed, excluded</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-unis-could-not-function-without-casual-staff-it-is-time-to-treat-them-as-real-employees-203053">over-worked</a> because of the nature of their work. </p>
<p>We cannot expect people to behave inclusively when they themselves are not <a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/sspapers/2280/">included or valued</a> in an institution.</p>
<p>Creating sustainable and secure employment options for academic staff would benefit staff and positively impact student outcomes and experience.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-unis-could-not-function-without-casual-staff-it-is-time-to-treat-them-as-real-employees-203053">Australian unis could not function without casual staff: it is time to treat them as 'real' employees</a>
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<h2>5. Supporting graduates to get jobs</h2>
<p>Assuming a student from a diverse background makes it to and through university, we need to support them when they <a href="https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/publications/post-graduation-outcomes-first-family-university/">look for a job</a>.</p>
<p>Students from underrepresented groups can take longer to, or in some cases, are <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-12224-8_7">are less likely to find a job</a> compared to their more advantaged peers. According to the <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/surveys/graduate-outcomes-survey-(gos)#anchor-2">2022 Graduate Outcomes Survey</a> 79.8% of undergraduates from a high socioeconomic backgrounds were in full-time work within six months of graduating, compared to 76.6% of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds. </p>
<p>Undergraduates with a reported disability had a full-time employment rate of 68.4%, compared to 79.5% for those with no reported disability. Those who spoke a language other than English at home have a full-time employment rate of 66%, compared to 78.9% of students whose home language was English. </p>
<p>There are many reasons for these differences, including less <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1360080X.2023.2180161">access to professional and social networks</a>. These differences perpetuate ongoing cycles of disadvantage.</p>
<p>We need a targeted national graduate employment strategy to level the playing field in a congested and competitive graduate employment environment. This should include ongoing support and advice offered to students to assist job-seeking activities even after graduation. </p>
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<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>The accord promises to be a vast document with many recommendations. But if it really wants to live up to its promise to reshape and reimagine Australian higher education, equity can no longer be regarded as an add-on, bolted onto existing activities or structures. </p>
<p>Instead, it needs to be embedded across all the changes proposed by the University Accord.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203418/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah O' Shea receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Department of Education. She is affiliated with University of Wollongong (Honorary Fellow) and the Churchill Trust.</span></em></p>Decades of research shows how the higher education system has failed to give Australians a “fair go”. How can we move from good intentions to long-overdue change?Sarah O'Shea, Professor and Higher Education Researcher, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1880522022-08-09T01:21:08Z2022-08-09T01:21:08ZRacism, exclusion and tokenism: how Māori and Pacific science graduates are still marginalised at university<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478173/original/file-20220808-8055-4gf2r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4570%2C3030&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Given most New Zealand universities have goals for increasing Māori and Pacific student and staff numbers, we need to ask why their numbers still remain stubbornly low in the research sector – and even lower within “STEM” (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) departments. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03036758.2020.1796103">previous research</a> showed that one New Zealand university had failed to employ a Māori or Pacific academic in their science department for at least 20 years. </p>
<p>But while the numbers provided a snapshot of the workforce, they don’t explain <em>why</em> so few Māori and Pacific researchers stay in the tertiary system. Our <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03036758.2022.2097710">latest research</a> aims to explain this better by looking at the experiences of 43 past and present postgraduate STEM students. </p>
<p>We show that simply bolstering university enrolments and plugging more students into a broken pipeline will not solve the under-representation of Māori and Pacific peoples. Furthermore, a lack of representation is negatively affecting those Māori and Pacific postgraduate students already in STEM courses.</p>
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<h2>Isolated and invisible</h2>
<p>Universities are charged with training the next generation of scientists and growing a sustainable scientific workforce. Graduates will go on to perform research that provides solutions to emerging crises, informs national policy and creates new knowledge to help understand the world we live in. </p>
<p>But are universities providing an environment where Māori and Pacific postgraduate students can thrive and develop into the researchers society needs? In 2021 just <a href="https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/tertiary-participation">13% of domestic doctoral students</a> were Māori and 5% were Pasifika. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/maori-and-pasifika-scholars-remain-severely-under-represented-in-new-zealand-universities-122330">Māori and Pasifika scholars remain severely under-represented in New Zealand universities</a>
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<p>Our research suggests universities still have a lot of work to do. These low numbers of Māori and Pacific students and staff also affect their educational experiences. Frequently isolated, some of those who participated in the research said they felt invisible. As one put it: </p>
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<p>The lack of Māori and Pacific postgraduate researchers made life for me as a Pacific researcher difficult. </p>
<p>Having come from a different background, with a different perspective and different skills to bring to the table, I found it hard to make any real connections with my fellow researchers. </p>
<p>This at that time felt isolating and was exacerbated by the fact that there were no Māori and Pacific staff members in my areas of expertise.</p>
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<h2>Persistent racism</h2>
<p>Many Māori and Pacific postgraduates in STEM subjects reported experiencing forms of racism. This ranged from being mistaken for being Māori when they were Pasifika, to having to dispel common myths about receiving a free education and only being at university due to targeted admission schemes. </p>
<p>Māori and Pacific postgraduates reported their identities being erased if they didn’t fulfil stereotypes about what they should know or how they should act. One of our interviewees said they were even told they must consider themselves “white” because they did not “act Māori”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-will-call-out-the-misogyny-and-abuse-undermining-womens-academic-freedom-in-our-universities-181594">Who will call out the misogyny and abuse undermining women's academic freedom in our universities?</a>
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<p>It is often noted that Māori and Pacific academics experience “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00187267211003955">excess labour</a>” – meaning they fulfil dual roles of being Māori or Pacific as well as being an academic. But our research found this often begins at the postgraduate level. </p>
<p>Excess labour involves dealing with racism, expectations of cultural expertise, performing cultural protocols (such as karakia and mihi whakatau), and fulfilling
tokenistic diversity roles such as being photographed for university advertising. </p>
<p>According to one person we spoke to:</p>
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<p>I was instantly deemed an expert on kaupapa Māori yet had only begun my journey of exploring this. We were often put on the spot and expected to explain tikanga, te reo Māori, mātauranga Māori to others, while simultaneously being experts in non-Indigenous science.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478179/original/file-20220809-25-vtovx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478179/original/file-20220809-25-vtovx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/478179/original/file-20220809-25-vtovx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478179/original/file-20220809-25-vtovx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478179/original/file-20220809-25-vtovx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478179/original/file-20220809-25-vtovx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478179/original/file-20220809-25-vtovx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/478179/original/file-20220809-25-vtovx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A word cloud displays the most common descriptions of Māori and Pacific postgraduate experiences in university STEM courses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>No more ticking boxes</h2>
<p>Our research also shows that New Zealand’s research funding system can lead to ethically questionable exercises in “box ticking” involving the token inclusion of Māori and Pacific postgraduate students. </p>
<p>This ranged from students being included in funding applications despite having declined to participate, to Pacific people being named as Māori investigators.</p>
<p>There were also allegations that Pākehā academics gained research funding for projects purporting to include Māori people and knowledge when in reality Māori were not included at all. As one of our collaborators wrote:</p>
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<p>My name (my mana and reputation) was used against my will to secure funding for a project that I refused multiple times to be part of.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-investment-in-literacy-skills-is-needed-if-nz-is-serious-about-ending-persistent-disparities-for-pasifika-students-187854">More investment in literacy skills is needed if NZ is serious about ending persistent disparities for Pasifika students</a>
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<h2>Where to from here?</h2>
<p>By including the often unheard perspectives of Māori and Pacific postgraduates in STEM subjects, our research adds to the growing evidence detailing how Māori and Pacific people are excluded in universities.</p>
<p>In sharing these experiences of racism, exclusion and marginalisation, we want to remind other Māori and Pacific students they are not alone. </p>
<p>We also want to use this research to challenge New Zealand’s universities to move beyond tokenistic attempts at “inclusion” and “diversity”, and to begin
dismantling the structures that continue to marginalise Māori and Pacific people and knowledge systems. </p>
<p>Our research highlights the urgent need for universities to change the culturally unsafe environment that continues to marginalise Māori and Pacific postgraduates. </p>
<p>Universities must create an environment where Māori and Pacific postgraduates in STEM subjects can move from surviving to thriving. That way they can get on with tackling cancer, solving the freshwater crisis or addressing the effects of climate change on their ancestral islands.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tara McAllister receives funding from MBIE. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sereana Naepi receives funding from Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland and Rutherford Discovery. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leilani Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research examines why Māori and Pacific representation in university STEM subjects remain so stubbornly low.Tara McAllister, Research Fellow, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLeilani Walker, Lecturer in Heath and Environmental Science, Auckland University of TechnologySereana Naepi, Lecturer in Social Sciences, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata RauLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1096542019-01-10T23:45:15Z2019-01-10T23:45:15ZGraduate employment is up, but finding a job can still take a while<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253166/original/file-20190110-32154-p9mpdh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Full-time employment is up, the gender gap has widened, and employers are generally satisfied with the quality of Australian graduates.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Four years on from the <a href="http://www.graduatecareers.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/AGS_REPORT_2014_FINAL.pdf">worst new graduate employment outcomes</a> ever, the 2018 statistics <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/about-this-site/graduate-employment">released today</a> show cause for optimism. Although full-time employment rates remain well down on a decade ago, they are improving.</p>
<h2>Graduates in health-related courses fare the best</h2>
<p>In early 2018, about four months after completing an undergraduate course, 73% of new graduates who were looking for full-time employment had found it. This continues a positive trend since the low point of 68% in 2014. But apart from the early 1990s recession, it’s still a poor result by historical standards. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253165/original/file-20190110-32139-1uru41s.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253165/original/file-20190110-32139-1uru41s.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253165/original/file-20190110-32139-1uru41s.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253165/original/file-20190110-32139-1uru41s.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253165/original/file-20190110-32139-1uru41s.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253165/original/file-20190110-32139-1uru41s.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253165/original/file-20190110-32139-1uru41s.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Full-time undergraduate employment rates, approximately four months after completion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Department of Education and Training, Graduate Outcomes Survey and Graduate Careers Australia, Graduate Destination Survey</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These overall results hide substantial differences between graduates of different degrees. As usual, health-related occupations have the best employment rate, with medicine, pharmacy and physiotherapy recording more than 90% employment. </p>
<p>Also as usual, graduates in the visual and performing arts have the worst outcomes, with just over half in full-time employment. Biological sciences graduates did better in 2018 than 2017, but with 58% in full-time employment they’re still in a tough labour market.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/docs/default-source/gos-reports/2018-gos-l/2018-gos-l-national-report-final.pdf?sfvrsn=742e33c_2">follow-up survey three years after graduation</a> suggests employment rates improve significantly over time, although the strong fields at the four-month point usually retain their top position. </p>
<h2>Job quality is stable</h2>
<p>Compared to 2017, job quality for new graduates in 2018 is stable. In both 2017 and 2018, 72% of graduates working full-time were in professional or managerial occupations. On a more subjective measure, in 2018 27% of graduates with full-time jobs felt they were not fully using their skills, slightly up on 2017. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-myths-about-australian-university-graduate-outcomes-87074">Five myths about Australian university graduate outcomes</a>
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<p>Unfortunately, graduates from courses with poor overall full-time employment rates also have relatively low rates of professional and managerial employment and relatively high rates of reporting their job does not fully use their skills. </p>
<h2>Starting salaries are up slightly, but the gender gap has increased</h2>
<p>Median starting salaries also differ significantly between fields in 2018, ranging from a high of A$83,700 for dentistry to a low of A$47,000 for pharmacy. This reflects their <a href="https://www.pharmacyboard.gov.au/registration/internships.aspx">system for professional registration</a>. </p>
<p>The overall median starting salary in 2018 was A$61,000, up from A$60,000 in 2017. This roughly reflects salary increases <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/allprimarymainfeatures/CBC188AEC406299BCA25817D0019F9CC?opendocument">across the overall labour market</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253336/original/file-20190110-43529-1yjnfzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253336/original/file-20190110-43529-1yjnfzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253336/original/file-20190110-43529-1yjnfzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253336/original/file-20190110-43529-1yjnfzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253336/original/file-20190110-43529-1yjnfzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253336/original/file-20190110-43529-1yjnfzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253336/original/file-20190110-43529-1yjnfzk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The gender pay gap for graduates widened again in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2017, the graduate gender pay gap had narrowed to men earning 2% more than women. But in 2018 it widened again to 5%, or A$3,000 a year. Some of this is due to men choosing courses that lead to higher-paying jobs. But even in highly-feminised fields such as nursing and teaching men report slightly higher median salaries. </p>
<h2>Prestige universities do not provide better outcomes</h2>
<p>At first glance, the most surprising results in this survey are those reporting outcomes by university. Students from some of the most prestigious universities report poor employment and salary outcomes, while students from some regional universities do very well.</p>
<p>These counter-intuitive results highlight the importance of looking carefully at other characteristics of graduates. Regional universities enrol more mature-age students than big-city sandstone universities. Older people often already have work histories and current jobs, which is why they earn more when they graduate.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/does-it-pay-to-graduate-from-an-elite-university-not-as-much-as-youd-think-95658">Does it pay to graduate from an ‘elite’ university? Not as much as you'd think</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Sandstone universities are also more likely to have large arts and science faculties, and graduates in those fields can drag down median salaries. Even so, <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/816-mapping-higher-education-20142.pdf">previous studies have found</a> employers typically don’t initially pay a wage premium to graduates from sandstone universities. They want to see performance before they pay more, rather than trust university prestige. </p>
<h2>Employer satisfaction</h2>
<p>The complicated issue of graduate quality is examined in another report released today, the <a href="https://www.qilt.edu.au/about-this-site/employer-satisfaction">employer satisfaction survey</a>. This survey has a bias, as it relies on graduates nominating their supervisor to participate. </p>
<p>Graduates who think they’re doing badly are unlikely to nominate their supervisor, so the report’s 85% overall employer satisfaction is probably above the true number. But the survey is still useful for comparisons.</p>
<p>As with some of the other employment outcomes, employer satisfaction by university does not follow any prestige-based pattern. Only one sandstone university, the University of Queensland, makes it to the top ten universities by employer satisfaction. Bond University graduates have the most satisfied employers, followed by Western Sydney University and James Cook University graduates. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-problem-isnt-unskilled-graduates-its-a-lack-of-full-time-job-opportunities-90104">The problem isn't unskilled graduates, it's a lack of full-time job opportunities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>While employers were generally happy with their graduate hires, 40% said the qualification could have better developed graduates “technical and professional skills”. That seems high. On the other hand, few employers (5%) suggested the qualification could improve “teamwork and interpersonal skills”. </p>
<h2>Job growth is critical to employment outcomes</h2>
<p>The government wants universities to do more on graduate employment. Graduate job outcomes are likely to be part of new <a href="https://www.education.gov.au/performance-based-funding-commonwealth-grant-scheme">university performance funding scheme</a>. </p>
<p>But as the Minister for Education, Dan Tehan, <a href="https://ministers.education.gov.au/tehan/uni-graduates-taking-advantage-strong-economy">says in his media release</a> on these reports, job creation is crucial. Especially as <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/node/51381">total graduate numbers continue to increase</a>, job growth is the vital link between employability, which universities can help with, and actual employment for their graduates. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/DetailsPage/6291.0.55.003Feb%202014?OpenDocument">In 2014</a>, an increasing number of graduates collided with a declining number of professional and managerial jobs for people aged between 20 and 24 years. This is what caused the worst-ever graduate employment outcome. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253179/original/file-20190110-32139-1338ak9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253179/original/file-20190110-32139-1338ak9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253179/original/file-20190110-32139-1338ak9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253179/original/file-20190110-32139-1338ak9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253179/original/file-20190110-32139-1338ak9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253179/original/file-20190110-32139-1338ak9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253179/original/file-20190110-32139-1338ak9.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Professional and managerial jobs, people aged 20 to 24 years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Australian Bureau of Statistics, Detailed labour force</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But since 2014, with a couple of hesitations, the jobs trend has been positive. Job numbers were still going up in late 2018, which is a good sign for recent graduates looking for work. </p>
<p>The labour market will always fluctuate, but at least in the short term both the outcomes survey released today and the latest ABS figures suggest employment opportunities for graduates are increasing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109654/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Norton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>At least in the short term, employment opportunities for graduates seem to be increasing.Andrew Norton, Higher Education Program Director, Grattan InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/986422018-06-25T13:55:08Z2018-06-25T13:55:08ZForeign doctorates are attractive – but don’t write off homegrown PhDs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224392/original/file-20180622-26564-12jk5i2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Obtaining a foreign PhD is seen as attractive but data suggests local alternatives shouldn't be dismissed.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Introducing more skilled employees into the economy is an important path to development for many middle income countries. That’s why increased and improved training at the top end of the education level – PhDs – is <a href="https://era.ideasoneurope.eu/2014/03/11/the-value-of-the-phd-in-a-knowledge-based-economy-beyond-financial-and-career-gains/">considered so vital</a>.</p>
<p>Many countries encourage students to pursue their PhDs abroad in nations with well ranked universities, particularly in Europe and North America, on the presumption that what’s offered in the developed world is better quality. They know that some of those students won’t return after graduating, but take the risk since they believe those who do return will bring with them the necessary qualities for future growth.</p>
<p>But until now there’s been little concrete evidence that would allow one to judge whether this is an effective approach. Does encouraging students to obtain their PhDs elsewhere improve the quality or quantity of scientific output in their home country?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733318300453">Our recent research</a> sought to address this gap. In our study, we found that an individual who goes abroad to do a PhD and returns to his or her home country – South Africa in this case – has a more productive academic career than an individual who does his or her advanced schooling in South Africa.</p>
<p>There are at least two possible sources of advantage. First, it could simply be that better students are selected to enter foreign PhD programmes. If that’s the case, these people would have better careers regardless of their alma mater. Second, foreign programmes might provide superior training to those offered in South Africa. That would mean it’s the foreign aspect of the PhD that drives higher performance later in someone’s career. </p>
<p>The data we used in this study allowed us to separate the selection from the training effects, so we could identify the source of future performance. </p>
<h2>What the data reveal</h2>
<p>Our data were drawn from the <a href="http://www.nrf.ac.za/rating">National Research Foundation’s</a> rating system of South African researchers. This gives most of the country’s research-oriented academics a grade that describes the quality and quantity of their research output. We then correlated this grade with individuals’ educational profiles.</p>
<p>Looking at those who returned to South Africa, we found that the quality of the institution from which academics received their PhD was correlated with future career success. </p>
<p>It is clear from our analysis that the globally top institutions, commonly perceived as offering the best training, exert a very strong selection and self-selection effect. The best students are attracted to and are found attractive by, top universities. </p>
<p>This is true even for foreign universities from the second or third tier. This effect seems to be driven by reputations of countries rather than of universities. Education scholar Simon Marginson has noted this trend, <a href="https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/1664315/HEd_2006_national_and_global_competition.pdf">writing that</a> “for the foreign graduates returning home to Thailand or Tajikistan, all reputable foreign degrees provide positional value”. “Foreign” does seem to be closely associated with “desirable”.</p>
<p>This suggests that those with the resources to make studying abroad possible, will see it as an attractive alternative to working towards a PhD at a domestic institution. But our findings don’t suggest a simple equation of foreignness with high quality. </p>
<h2>The effectiveness of local universities</h2>
<p>While foreign universities are perceived as attractive, there’s strong evidence that, all things being equal, leading South African universities provide “world class” training at the PhD level.</p>
<p>This is not a universal statement: it applies to a comparison of academics working in South Africa after the completion of their PhD either in South Africa or abroad. Despite that disclaimer, it’s a striking finding.</p>
<p>It has long been thought that the role of local universities in an emerging economy is essentially to train technicians or teachers rather than researchers pushing the knowledge frontier. As scholar Richard R. Nelson <a href="https://epdf.tips/technological-change-and-economic-catch-up-the-role-of-science-and-multinational.html">puts it</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Indigenous universities will play a key role as the source of students who take advanced training abroad, and as the home of faculty who have been trained abroad.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In other words, local universities have long been expected to produce functionaries, not to generate new knowledge or thinking. But our research suggests that local scholars are doing the kind of work that puts them among the top tiers.</p>
<p>This permits a certain cautious optimism about universities in emerging economies catching up with their “first world” counterparts. There are already very good local universities in developing economies. With policy support these could well produce research and training that are as good as any generated elsewhere. </p>
<h2>Policy and possibility</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733318300453">Our results</a> suggest there’s a valuable place for local universities in the development processes that emerging economies are trying to foster. </p>
<p>Investment in local science will indeed produce the good technicians and teachers as others have discussed. But there is more there: local universities can also provide advanced training that meets global standards, as well as producing frontier science. </p>
<p>And it’s useful to remember that while local students benefit from going abroad to obtain PhD degrees, not all foreign universities provide the same value. </p>
<p>This implies that a certain selectivity should be applied when policy makers are designing support structures for students who wish to study abroad. Our results suggests that the appropriate distinction is not between local and foreign universities – but rather a distinction drawn along the lines of the roles they play in their economies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98642/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robin Cowan receives funding from Institut Universitaire de France. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helena Barnard and Moritz Mueller do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There’s strong evidence that, all things being equal, leading South African universities provide “world class” training at PhD level.Helena Barnard, Director: Doctoral Programme, Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of PretoriaMoritz Mueller, Assistant Professor at University of Strasbourg and researcher at BETA (CNRS), Université de StrasbourgRobin Cowan, Professor of Economics, Université de StrasbourgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/965532018-05-28T13:47:31Z2018-05-28T13:47:31ZUniversity writing groups provide an unexpected space for change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219380/original/file-20180517-155558-9x8fcj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ZephyrMedia/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0260293930180102">a seminal paper</a> on what constitutes quality in education, scholars Lee Harvey and Diana Green argue that a “quality education” is one in which a student experiences a “personal transformation” as a result of enhancing and empowering mechanisms. </p>
<p>They claim that students are “enhanced” when they are positioned at the centre of the learning and assessment process, and are “empowered” through being involved in the decision-making around their own transformation. </p>
<p>Such transformation conversations, especially in African contexts, almost always include contested debates on <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC132752">curriculum</a>. Notably, scholars have highlighted how the problem is not only what universities teach – that is, the curriculum – but also the way they teach it. This refers to ways of teaching that can sufficiently engage with and problematise “normal” practices in higher education spaces.</p>
<p>So the question becomes: what can universities do to enhance both personal and curriculum transformation?</p>
<p>We set about answering this question in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2018.1450361">a study</a> about university writing groups. These groups are inspiring and empowering spaces run by and for students. Here, students use feedback from peers to develop their writing practices. It’s a collaborative and collegial environment.</p>
<p>Writing groups might also have unexpected benefits for transformation, as <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2018.1450361">our research</a> has shown. In South Africa, calls for the decolonisation of university practices and curriculum have dominated transformation conversations. Writing groups provide a space where students can learn and engage with these complex issues. </p>
<p>Our study focused on a writing group programme at a research-intensive university in South Africa. Data from the initial pilot programme as well as the 13 current groups were collected through anonymous reviews and interviews with participants. The groups are multidisciplinary in composition although we made a general divide between the Natural Sciences and Humanities. Each group consists of between six and eight students with meetings co-ordinated by a PhD student or post-doctoral fellow.</p>
<p>Our findings show that writing groups can play a key role in transforming students by providing a space where their own “voice” can be developed in their writing. Developing a sense of voice is a difficult part of academic writing and takes a lot of practice. The regular, constructive and encouraging feedback from peers and the long-term, ongoing interaction provides a consistent and supportive network that students value. This suggests steps towards transformation in both the way we teach academic writing and the individual student’s writing practices. </p>
<p>We found that the collegial “safe space” offered by writing groups allows for students’ emotional well-being to be actively supported by a committed community of scholars. Being untied from evaluation, students can engage freely without risk of judgement. Writing groups are also seen to provide a space for students to experiment with, and explore their changing identities.</p>
<h2>Altering practice</h2>
<p>The teaching structure of writing groups is also important; these are not “top-down” spaces. Rather, they are organised, maintained and led by the students themselves; creating an egalitarian setting where students can develop their practices in a flexible, supportive environment.</p>
<p>But perhaps of most interest was the ways in which the writing groups also played a key role in transforming practice. </p>
<p>Multidisciplinary groups are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07294360902725025">particularly useful</a> for making disciplinary practices explicit to students because they highlight how academics in different subjects write in different ways.</p>
<p>Challenging and negotiating the choices made in their writing exposes students to how writing reflects disciplinary norms and values – that is, particular ways of being and doing in academia. This enables students to start recognising that there is not only one way of “doing”. It incites them to start challenging the norm. </p>
<p>For example, Natural Science writing tends to be more objective and detached. Humanities tends to be more subjective, with claims being justified according to the theoretical perspective being used. The differences in the kinds of knowledge being made in different fields plays out in myriad differences in style and tone. </p>
<p>Writing groups also provide a space where many of the “rules of the game” of academia became revealed to students. They provide invaluable opportunities for these different rules and conventions to be debated, unpacked and challenged by students in ways that standard learning platforms or teaching spaces cannot achieve to the same degree.</p>
<h2>Questioning and challenging</h2>
<p>Our research suggests that writing groups provide an ideal space where personal transformation can occur. They not only provide support for student writing through feedback activities, they also put the onus of writing support back into the hands of the students themselves. This enhances students by putting them at the centre of decision-making around their learning and empowering them to take a proactive approach in their development and transformation into academic scholars.</p>
<p>While writing groups are not a panacea for the complex academic literacy challenges students face in transforming university contexts, they can and do play a valuable role in providing a transformative space for postgraduate students to learn, question and challenge.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96553/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Writing groups provide a space where the “rules of the game” of academia become clear.Kirstin Wilmot, PhD Candidate, University of SydneySioux McKenna, Director of PG Studies & Higher Education Studies PhD Co-ordinator, Rhodes UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/846422017-11-06T15:08:39Z2017-11-06T15:08:39ZAfrica needs to start creating its own medical technology. Here’s how<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192436/original/file-20171030-18686-14dazsi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Biomedical innovations can work with traditional methods like x-rays to guide doctors' decisions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Adriane Ohanesian</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Biomedical engineering can save lives. It draws on and integrates knowledge from disciplines like engineering, computer science, biomedical sciences, and public health as well as clinical practice. This knowledge is combined to improve health – often through the design of medical devices for diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation. </p>
<p>Most of Africa’s medical equipment <a href="https://www.trade.gov/topmarkets/pdf/Medical_Devices_Executive_Summary.pdf">is imported</a>. “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/09/the-inadequacy-of-donating-medical-devices-to-africa/279855/">Equipment graveyards</a>” become the final resting place for medical devices that aren’t suited to local conditions. This can include dust, heat, humidity and an <a href="http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/news/blogs/Electricity-for-all-in-Africa-Possible">intermittent supply of electricity</a>. Some machines are discarded because hospital and clinic staff haven’t been trained to operate them or because replacement parts are not available when they’ve broken.</p>
<p>African countries need to start producing and developing their own medical devices. A cadre of suitably skilled biomedical engineers is needed for this sort of innovation to take root. That’s what prompted a number of African universities to establish the <a href="http://abec-africa.org/">African Biomedical Engineering Consortium</a>. We advance education and research in biomedical engineering across the continent. </p>
<h2>Skills development</h2>
<p>We know that biomedical engineers alone won’t suddenly make Africa a world leader in medical device innovation. Other elements <a href="https://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/PublicationFiles/innovating_for_better_health_final_.pdf">are needed</a> – like well-equipped laboratories that enable experimentation and prototyping. Funding to support the translation and scaling of prototypes is another. Manufacturing infrastructure is important. So are regulations to ensure equipment safety and structures to oversee intellectual property management. </p>
<p>But the consortium’s focus is on producing people to bring innovation to life. Now five years old, it brings together established and emerging biomedical engineering programmes at African universities to develop the continent’s capacity for innovation in health technology. The network has grown stronger as more member institutions have introduced degree programmes in biomedical engineering.</p>
<p>Now some members of the consortium have turned their attention to a more focused transfer of skills and knowledge across participating universities. This is being done with the aid <a href="https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/intra-africa/funding/intra-africa-academic-mobility-scheme-2017_en">of funding</a> from the European Commission. </p>
<p>We’ve launched a <a href="https://www.africanbmemobility.org/">capacity-building project</a> to support the training of postgraduate students. Six African universities are involved. These are Addis Ababa University; Cairo University; Kenyatta University; Uganda’s Mbarara University of Science and Technology; the University of Cape Town (UCT); and the University of Lagos. Italy’s University of Pisa is also participating.</p>
<p>The first round of applications has just been concluded. Our postgraduates will be drawn from the six participating African universities as well as others on the continent. Each student will receive a full scholarship to cover tuition, travel and living expenses. This will support training for Master’s and PhD candidates at partner institutions outside their home countries over a five-year period. </p>
<p>The initiative particularly focuses on building skills that address African needs by engaging students in projects that arise from local realities. Examples include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Creating prosthetic limbs for landmine victims </p></li>
<li><p>Using mobile phones, along with custom-built applications, as diagnostic tools in remote areas. </p></li>
<li><p>Eliminating the need for expensive imaging equipment that’s not always readily available, by developing software that enables 3D visualisation of the anatomy from ubiquitous X-ray images.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>We’ll start training the first cohort of students in 2018.</p>
<h2>Building the academic base</h2>
<p>But training emerging scholars isn’t enough. Africa needs more academics who can navigate the interdisciplinary environment needed to develop technological solutions to health problems. </p>
<p>That’s why the project also supports academics who want to improve their skills. They can travel between African partner universities to develop their research and training capacity. An academic from a new biomedical engineering programme in Uganda, for instance, could work with colleagues at UCT, then share teaching approaches back home. Or a lecturer from Cairo could spend time in Lagos teaching and sharing research methods.</p>
<p>This is also a good way for universities to harmonise their biomedical engineering curricula and benchmark them against those of partner universities. And it’s a way to promote the sharing of scarce resources.</p>
<p><em>This article is based on <a href="http://www.sajs.co.za/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/SAJS-113-7-8_Douglas_NewsViews.pdf">a piece</a> which appeared in the South African Journal of Science.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84642/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tania Douglas receives funding from the National Research Foundation, the Medical Research Council, the National Institutes of Health (Fogarty International Center), and the European Commission (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency). She has, in the past, received funding from Lodox Systems and CapeRay Medical.</span></em></p>African countries need to start producing and developing their own medical devices. Suitably skilled biomedical engineers are needed for this sort of innovation to take root.Tania Douglas, Professor & Research Chair - Biomedical Engineering & Innovation, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/865522017-10-31T13:16:19Z2017-10-31T13:16:19ZSouth Africa can’t afford to see its universities pitch over the precipice<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/192447/original/file-20171030-18700-cdgn8j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">South Africa boasts world class universities. It must not allow their quality to drop.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the past two years the actions of <a href="http://chet.org.za/data/sahe-open-data">government</a> and protesting <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/student-protests-democratic-south-africa">students</a> have slowly started squeezing South Africa’s universities into a shadow of their former selves.</p>
<p>In his book “<a href="http://nb.bookslive.co.za/blog/2017/05/23/as-by-fire-an-urgent-and-necessary-book-on-the-south-african-student-protests-crisis/">As by Fire</a>” prominent educationalist Jonathan Jansen argues that South Africa is witnessing the end of its universities. He explains that this doesn’t mean the doors will close. Registration will not stop. The day to day business of universities will continue. But, he warns, the excellence evidenced by the rankings of South African universities will slowly dip into oblivion.</p>
<p>South Africa is the only country in Africa with ten universities that regularly feature on at <a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2018">least one</a> world <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2017/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats">ranking list</a>. These ten are institutions that South Africans can be hugely proud of and whose achievements could serve as models for expanding excellence to other institutions.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.uct.ac.za/usr/news/downloads/2016/UniversitiesFundingSouthAfrica_FactSheet.pdf">decline in government funding</a> to South African universities has meant that institutions have had to look elsewhere to cover costs. This has inevitably included <a href="http://www.uct.ac.za/usr/news/downloads/2016/UniversitiesFundingSouthAfrica_FactSheet.pdf">increasing student tuition</a>. In turn, this contributed to student protests in 2015 and 2016. In some instances those protests shut down institutions – suspending their normal functioning for days or weeks at a time. </p>
<p>Shut downs have knock-on effects, some of them long lasting. If universities have to close their doors terms are delayed. Students don’t graduate and don’t pay fees. Universities cannot balance their budgets and infrastructure is not maintained. Staff salaries can’t be paid and academics have to work two or three jobs to survive. </p>
<p>The impact is also felt when it comes to funding. Funding agencies have deadlines and if research outputs are not met grants get cancelled. If grants are cancelled there is less money for equipment. Post graduate student bursaries are cancelled. Post graduate students drop out and go elsewhere and even if new research grants are awarded the students are no longer available to do the research. Then the research outputs cannot be met - again. </p>
<p>Universities elsewhere – in <a href="https://theconversation.com/when-politics-and-academia-collide-quality-suffers-just-ask-nigeria-67313">Nigeria</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/kenyas-universities-are-in-the-grip-of-a-quality-crisis-54664">Kenya</a> and, as Jansen <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2017082408304974">himself writes</a>, Zimbabwe and Uganda – stand as a stark warning. South Africa must act to halt the decline and save its universities’ well deserved global reputation of excellence.</p>
<h2>Sustaining universities</h2>
<p>Who cares about universities’ world rankings? Isn’t this just an elitist system in which South Africa cannot afford to compete given its <a href="http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=9989">declining economy</a>? </p>
<p>No, it’s not. Excellence in academia is a self perpetuating cycle. Break this cycle and universities dive into a spiral of decline. </p>
<p>Excellent students complete their degrees in the minimum time. They drive excellence in an institution’s research programmes. They then become top quality post graduate students who in turn become top class academics and a university’s research machine benefits. These graduates have the ability and the interest needed to engage with a university’s research activities. Because they excel academically, they are often keen to get to grips with more advanced research.</p>
<p>What I’ve found is that getting students involved early on in research often inspires them to study further, equipping them to be future lecturers and professors. Many research programmes – including <a href="https://www.fabinet.up.ac.za/index.php/research-groups/dst-nrf-centre-of-excellence-in-tree-health-biotechnology">my own</a> and that of the faculty in which I work – offer opportunities for undergraduate students to work in their laboratories. In this way students can participate in an institutions’ research activities. </p>
<p>In turn, increased research output <a href="http://www.dhet.gov.za/Policy%20and%20Development%20Support/Research%20Outputs%20policy%20gazette%202015.pdf">benefits universities financially</a>. </p>
<p>Keeping a steady flow of research output will ensure that South Africa can continue to boast some of the world’s top ranked research programmes. The universities of Pretoria, the Witwatersrand and Cape Town are considered <a href="http://www.heraldlive.co.za/news/2017/04/10/three-sa-universities-score-top-marks-world-subject-rankings/">world leaders</a> in mycology, ornithology, anthropology and area studies. The research programmes that earned them these rankings depend on access to top quality postgraduate students. These bright young minds drive world class research – and they come from all over the world.</p>
<p>My own programme has attracted students from Australia, China, Iran, Kenya, Korea, Nigeria, Vietnam and Zimbabwe who are now studying with me. I have in the past also had the privilege of supervising students from Cameroon, Colombia, Chile, Ethiopia, Germany, Lesotho, Namibia, Oman, Switzerland, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zambia. This internationally rich group of students benefits my research and is hugely stimulating to the South Africa students in the programme. </p>
<h2>Preventing brain drain</h2>
<p>The common thread here is engaging students and providing them with the facilities and environment that will keep them in South Africa. Brain drain is <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/general/120211/this-map-shows-where-all-south-africas-skilled-workers-are-going/">a reality</a>. The country <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2016-06-10-00-scarce-skills">needs more</a> doctors to staff its hospitals and engineers to build its power stations. Losing skilled professionals is <a href="https://businesstech.co.za/news/wealth/193764/how-the-rush-to-leave-south-africa-is-starting-to-hurt-business/">bad for the economy</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, university students the world over have changed the direction of business, governments and politics because they are a country’s intellectual leaders. When the strongest of these students choose not to study at universities in their homeland the country is robbed of its next generation of leaders.</p>
<p>Universities must maintain their excellence – or watch their best and brightest minds <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/r/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2016/07/13/Editorial-Opinion/Graphics/KF_Report.pdf">choosing to study</a> and perhaps settle elsewhere.</p>
<p>The role of universities is to educate. They need to produce research and attract brilliant young thinkers who will, ultimately, contribute to a stronger economy and society. South Africa’s universities have long fulfilled these roles. The country cannot afford to see its tertiary education sector pitch over the precipice.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86552/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brenda Wingfield is a Professor in Genetics at the University of Pretoria
She holds the DST-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics
She is one of the vice presidents of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) </span></em></p>South Africa must act to halt the decline and save its universities’ well deserved global reputation of excellence.Brenda Wingfield, Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and DST-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics, Professor of Genetics, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/829152017-09-28T03:02:58Z2017-09-28T03:02:58ZBaby boomer women make up for lost study time and head back to university<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/186528/original/file-20170919-16703-1x0gauy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">We should encourage older women to see academic study as a fruitful, challenging way forward, regardless of age.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Statistics from the Department of Education and Training show a steady cohort of baby boomer postgraduates, mostly women, enrolling at university at the age of 60 or over.</p>
<p>“Why on earth are you doing that?” friends ask. “Aren’t you a bit old? Your grandchildren will feel neglected.”</p>
<h2>An upward trend</h2>
<p>Between 2012 and 2015, Australian universities recorded a steady stream of enrolments. The larger the university, the higher the numbers. Take Western Australia’s five universities for example: </p>
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<p>The numbers for male postgraduates were similar, occasionally slightly lower. Available figures for 2016 do not indicate appreciable changes in enrolment numbers of males or females. Both groups may include existing academic staff, but the question remains as to why baby boomers are moving towards higher academic studies rather than retirement.</p>
<p>Completion rates for senior researchers indicate that whatever their reasons, they are highly successful:</p>
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<h2>The old status quo</h2>
<p>Social changes for women since the 1950s explain a lot. Women, it seems, are reaching towards long-held but unsatisfied desires for academic study. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233479892_%27A_study_corner_in_the_kitchen%27_Australian_graduate_women_negotiate_family_nation_and_work_in_the_1950s_and_early_1960s_1">In 1960s Australia</a>, only 27% of university students were female. University was not a common goal for girls in that era. They were not expected to have long careers, if any at all. Acceptable options were nursing, clerical positions, teaching or hairdressing, none of which required a degree. Young married women were asked at job interviews if they intended to become pregnant, and learned to say “no” regardless of their intentions, rather than risk failing the interview. </p>
<p>University was not a common pathway for a girl, but marriage was. In the same time period, 45% of girls who left formal education after secondary school were married by the time they were 20. On the flip side, only 20% of those who did attend university were married by 20. </p>
<p>The era’s unwritten rule was marry early, have children straight away. Once children arrived, returning to work was frowned upon. For example, one colleague waited until her children were over 18, then delayed her academic aspirations even longer to help care for grandchildren. “Family first,” she said. She was halfway through a PhD when we met, and closer to 70 years old than 60. </p>
<h2>Social change</h2>
<p>Since the 1960s, the status of women and the acceptability of post-marriage careers and further social changes have made university education for young women a viable option. Baby boomers who missed out are now seizing their opportunity. Their motivation is not the apprehension of retirement and subsequent loss of identity, as is the case with older male postgraduates, but rather the lure of a new phase of life. One that was out of reach before. At university, senior women are achieving in their own right, no longer functioning as complementary bodies to men as mothers, wives, sisters or daughters. </p>
<p>I began postgraduate research at 63. In 2015, I was among 118 women over 60 at Western Australia’s five universities who successfully completed their degrees. In Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, 373 senior women from 13 universities gained postgraduate degrees.</p>
<p>Studies show the intellectual, physical and emotional benefit of such challenges for older people. In 1989, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ageing-and-society/article/bond-john-peace-sheila-dittmannkohli-freya-and-westerhof-gerben-eds-ageing-in-society-european-perspectives-on-gerontology-third-edition-sage-london-2007-384-pp-pbk-2099-isbn-13-978-1-4129-0020-1/28346E919B4C3AD475CA6DCEFBF1160A">UNESCO viewed</a> academic and further education for older people as a legitimate use of higher education. In 2005 <a href="http://www.oecd.org/edu/skills-beyond-school/35268366.pdf">the OECD recognised</a> the needs and aspirations of older people.</p>
<p>While it may still be seen as unusual for women to begin academic studies in their later years, it is not strange for women in their sixties to continue fulfilling academic careers. Academia is one place where seniors of any gender continue working until they decide to call it a day. Examples of women who do just that are easy to find: Professor of Classics at Cambridge University Mary Beard, age 62. Germaine Greer, writer and Professor at Warwick University, age 78. Curtin University’s Associate Professor Liz Byrski, age 73. The list goes on. </p>
<h2>Senior female academics’ potential</h2>
<p>We should encourage older women to see academic study as a fruitful, challenging way forward, regardless of age.</p>
<p>For the trailblazing cohort of older researchers, the question remains - is there a future for them after graduating? They can assure themselves that they are role-models to grandchildren, other women, and the wider community. Some become mentors, officially or unofficially, to younger postgraduates or they may take up sessional academic positions - but they can do and be so much more. </p>
<p>People are living longer. We are healthier and more active in our later years. We are told 50 is the new 40, so surely 60 can be the new 50. Baby boomer postgraduates want to participate long after they are 60. It is shortsighted not to see <a href="http://www.tai.org.au/documents/dp_fulltext/DP63.pdf">the social and economic benefits</a> of this. To the universities who nurtured them, and awarded scholarships, these women are an untapped asset. They could easily become research pods of energy and output, supported by their alma maters, to the advantage of both.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82915/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Lesley Neale does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Female baby boomers who missed out earlier in life are now jumping at the opportunity to further their education.Dr Lesley Neale, Adjunct Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/784812017-06-05T16:37:50Z2017-06-05T16:37:50ZUniversity tests should be part and parcel of teaching - not stand-alone events<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/171790/original/file-20170601-25658-1hvw188.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Standardised tests exist in education systems <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/06/exams-around-the-world/395540/">all over the world</a>. South Africa is no exception – and its test results often make for depressing reading.</p>
<p>In 2014 education accounted for 6.2% of South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product and 19.1% of total <a href="http://www.treasury.gov.za/publications/igfr/2015/prov/03.%20Chapter%203%20-%20Education.pdf">government expenditure</a>. International benchmarking studies like the <a href="http://www.timss-sa.org.za/">Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study</a> and regional assessments such as the <a href="http://www.nbt.ac.za/">National Benchmark Tests</a> suggest this money is not being well spent. The level and quality of South African schools’ learning outcomes tend to be lower than those of countries that invest significantly less in their schooling sectors. For example, Singapore spends 3% of its GDP on education, yet <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-tops-oecd-s-global-education-ranking-report-8278406">scores top</a> in Mathematics and Science among 76 countries.</p>
<p>This shouldn’t be surprising. South Africa’s National Benchmark Tests are little more than a screening system for university applicants. They only assess students’ ability to combine aspects of prior learning in a few competency areas. They don’t address the <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20090816082047397">systemic problem</a> of poor learner performance. </p>
<p>This points to a much larger problem: namely, the deficiencies in South African schools’ and universities’ assessment practices. In our book <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/view/product/78618">Education, assessment and the desire for dissonance</a> we argue that assessment should not be considered as a one-directional activity that’s detached from teaching and learning. Rather, assessment needs to involve doing things with others, rather than for others. It has to be embedded with teaching and learning.</p>
<h2>Exam stress</h2>
<p>Assessment should be a part of teaching and learning at universities. It’s important because it will subvert exclusion and allow all students to take responsibility for their work. </p>
<p>The problem is with how this assessment is currently structured. As university lecturers we have experienced it in quite a negative way.</p>
<p>Our students – we teach educational theory and practice – are enthusiastic about their education, and committed to it. But most worry a great deal about exams, as if their learning can be appropriately ascertained just through their performance in these tests. This concern is compounded by the overwhelming emphasis many lecturers place on examination results. Exams <a href="http://www.nber.org/papers/w12199">are seen as</a> the ultimate corroboration of students’ understandings and insights.</p>
<p>This only happens because assessment is considered as that which “measures” learning: that is, assessment of learning. On top of that many of the formal opportunities students receive to consolidate and expand their insights are often erroneously connected to short pieces of work. These are mostly tests and assignments, according to which they are assessed. </p>
<p>At university, the repercussions of focusing on short bursts of measurable tasks often only present themselves when students opt to pursue postgraduate degrees. It’s not unusual, at the institution where we teach, to encounter students who access the master’s programme with remarkable results – since this is the criterion our institution uses to attract students in the first place. </p>
<p>These students come to us with particular understandings of their capacity to study and learn based on the results that we have given them.</p>
<p>Yet many of these “excellent” students battle at master’s level. Any attempt to extend the basics on which they had been assessed in the previous academic year, such as short pieces of work, is often met with serious ineptitude. They struggle to proffer their own perspectives or to articulate their own opinions. This is seemingly because they were not required to do so in previous programmes.</p>
<p>So neither the student nor the lecturer can exercise his or her governmentality. This is <a href="http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781403986528">a term</a> coined by French philosopher and social theorist Michel Foucault, which refers to the way in which the state exercises control. </p>
<p>The student doesn’t have the autonomy to bring what’s required to fruition, such as a research proposal. This affects the student’s responsibility and self-esteem. The teacher does not have the autonomy to undo what’s been put in place in the first instance: institutional sanctioning via results.</p>
<p>There seems to be a disconnect between teaching and learning and assessment.</p>
<h2>A new approach</h2>
<p>Assessment in university remains at odds with a plausible notion of assessment because it does not lend itself to responsible and esteemed pedagogical action: that is, teaching and learning. For this shift to happen a different understanding of assessment is needed; one that transcends the notions of assessment <em>of</em> learning and assessment <em>for</em> learning.</p>
<p>We consider assessment as embedded in teaching and learning. It needs to unfold <em>within</em> teaching and learning. This implies that lecturers and students give an account of their actions to one another by making assertions, expressing doubts through questioning and indicating their desires by making particular requests. </p>
<p>As it stands now, you teach a particular concept and then assess whether a student has understood and learnt by posing particular questions. </p>
<p>What we’re suggesting, quite differently, is that assessment for learning occurs while the teaching unfolds. A student is able to give their own initial thoughts on a particular concept while it’s being taught. Students collaborate with their teacher to reach particular understandings. Teaching and learning takes on a deliberative rather than an instructional form.</p>
<p>In this space both lecturers and students are in a position to ask what is “good” and “best” in the enactment of their learning desires. They can do things differently so that assessment enhances rather than regulating teaching and learning. That is, without entirely doing away with assessment, start using assessment for learning as well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78481/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nuraan Davids receives funding from NRF. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yusef Waghid does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Assessment should be a part of teaching and learning at universities. It’s important because it will subvert exclusion and allow all students to take responsibility for their work.Nuraan Davids, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy of Education, Stellenbosch UniversityYusef Waghid, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Education, Stellenbosch UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/728992017-03-01T15:00:29Z2017-03-01T15:00:29ZA degree with a difference: using South African sign language instead of the written word<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156912/original/image-20170215-19591-13yqzvy.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nyeleti Nokwazi Nkwinika acknowledges the applause after graduating with her Masters degree.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wits University</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nyeleti Nokwazi Nkwinika was a year into her Master’s dissertation in English, and she was struggling. This has nothing to do with her work ethic: the problem lay with her hearing. Nyeleti was born deaf and like many others in her situation, she battles with written language.</p>
<p><a href="https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/z.199/main">Most deaf people</a> are born into hearing families who don’t have any skills in Sign Language. In Nyeleti’s case, she only learned to use <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iesx_3euFO0">South African Sign Language</a> fluently at school. When she got to high school she attended a mainstream hearing school with several other top performing deaf pupils from her previous school. </p>
<p>By then, she had missed out on too many years of access to English. South African Sign Language and English are differently structured. This can make it hard to learn for deaf people who’ve only ever used sign language to communicate. It’s also very difficult to learn written English when one has never heard the language or used it for conversational purposes.</p>
<p>Nyeleti was so frustrated and disheartened by the end of 2014 that she considered dropping out. Instead, we came up with a radical idea that would put Nyeleti, ourselves as her supervisors and a number of university structures to the test: she would submit her proposal and, ultimately, her dissertation, entirely in South African Sign Language.</p>
<p>In November 2016 Nyeleti graduated with her Masters degree. Her achievement is remarkable. It sets a precedent in South Africa and is one of only a few in the world – other signed postgraduate degrees have been completed in the UK, Japan and the US. We hope our experiences might offer some ideas and lessons to universities that wish to be truly inclusive.</p>
<h2>Forging new paths</h2>
<p>Neither of us had ever supervised a Deaf student producing a signed South African Sign Language MA. Both of us are hearing and Andrew doesn’t know any South African Sign Language. But his expertise as a co-supervisor were necessary because of his background in historical linguistics, the topic of Nyeleti’s dissertation. </p>
<p>Once we’d decided to go ahead with this ambitious plan and Nyeleti’s proposal had been approved by the external reader, we put together a video proposal for the university’s ethics committee. This body approves all postgraduate research proposals. </p>
<p>We arranged for Nyeleti to submit a DVD of her proposal as well as the standard written ethics application form. Initially the committee asked for an English translation of the proposal. It didn’t specify if this should be written by Nyeleti or spoken by someone else. We agreed to organise this – on condition that the committee paid the bill, which would have come to at least R2 000.</p>
<p>They let it go. Nyeleti’s ethics application was approved on the basis of her written abstract and completed forms.</p>
<p>Then the real work began. </p>
<p>It came with challenges we couldn’t have anticipated, like the length and nature of supervision sessions; the need to have an interpreter at each session and how best to film Nyeleti as she presented her work in South African Sign Language. Later on, we had to find a suitable external examiner and work out how best to present footnotes. And what about organising data into tables? </p>
<p>We suggested that Nyeleti initially create her tables with written words for signs on a flip chart and then sign each row while standing next to the flip chart. This was very lengthy (four hours of filming) and we later suggested she move these signed tables into the appendix and insert word document tables into the video with a short summary explanation of her findings while cross referencing the appendix.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Nyeleti in action, outlining her literature review in SASL.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The challenges all three of us faced along the way may offer valuable lessons for others in future. Deaf people still represent a tiny fraction of South Africa’s university students. There are no hard figures, but an informal survey among our colleagues at other institutions suggests there are around 24 SASL students – those who cannot hear enough to access spoken language – and around 44 non-signing oral deaf students who have sufficient hearing through hearing aids or cochlear implants to access spoken languages.</p>
<p>Hopefully these numbers will climb at all universities in future. South African Sign Language was introduced as a <a href="https://journals.co.za/content/perling/32/2/EJC197015">school subject</a> for Deaf learners in 2015. The first Grade 12 cohort will write their final year exams in 2018.</p>
<h2>Lessons learned</h2>
<p>Nyeleti’s success comes down to a number of factors. She showed extraordinary resilience and perseverance. The supervision process was non-conventional, but it was also team based, which added valuable support to a tough process.</p>
<p>Those who want to follow a similar path should bear in mind how important it’s to have a person with an academic background or an academic interpreter present during filming. Deaf students who want to take this approach also need more sophisticated editing training. </p>
<p>It’s also crucial to have engaged, understanding university departments involved. The involvement and understanding of different university departments in how to deal with a South African Sign Language proposal such as the ethics committee and the library in terms of uploading the completed filmed dissertation has also been highlighted. There’s also the time factor to consider – the supervisors need to be willing to put in the increased time needed and recognised for this at department and school level.</p>
<p>We had discussed the issue of signing rather than writing an MA before and the other side of the debate was that using South African Sign Language as the language to document research narrows the number of people who then have access to the research. It’s too expensive to get a translator to translate the sign language version into a written version. We are not sure it’s even possible as the translator would have to have an in-depth knowledge of the topic at hand. </p>
<p>Our response to this issue is that we as supervisors will co-publish a journal article with Nyeleti about her research.</p>
<p><em>Authors’ note: Deaf with a capital ‘D’ refers to being culturally Deaf while small ‘d’ deaf refers to audiological deafness. Oral deaf people are referred to with a small ‘d’ as they don’t use any sign language.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72899/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This Masters degree sets a precedent in South Africa and gives universities that want to be truly inclusive a lot to think about.Ruth Zilla Morgan, Lecturer South African Sign Language, University of the WitwatersrandAndrew van der Spuy, Senior lecturer, Linguistics, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/656552016-10-12T16:32:16Z2016-10-12T16:32:16ZDiaspora academics and those in Africa can do great things together<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141395/original/image-20161012-8385-172nczx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Collaboration is key.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What happens when you pair an African academic living in the diaspora with one who is teaching and conducting research on the continent? </p>
<p>That’s the thinking behind the <a href="http://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article2249">African Academic Diaspora Support to African Universities</a> programme, which I have been involved in since November 15 last year (2015). The programme is organised by the <a href="http://www.codesria.org/">Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa</a> (CODESRIA) and African scholars in the diaspora with their counterparts at African universities. It hopes to invigorate the social sciences, which include subjects like Geography, Population Studies and Sociology, and to groom Africa’s future social scientists.</p>
<p>I am a Ghanaian living in the US, and an Associate Professor of Geography at Delaware State University. I’m part of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/harnessing-the-potential-of-africas-global-academic-diaspora-41644">large African academic diaspora</a>. We have much to offer our colleagues on the continent. Our institutions are doing cutting edge research and teaching, and we’re able to offer great support to scholars at Africa’s less well resourced universities. Working with us also gives postgraduates on the continent a broader world view.</p>
<p>But the benefits don’t just flow one way. Diaspora scholars can learn an enormous amount about research, theories and practise from those still in Africa.</p>
<h2>A partnership</h2>
<p>My partner on the programme was <a href="http://www.ug.edu.gh/aehrs/staff/drjohn-kwame-boateng">Dr John Boateng</a> of the University of Ghana’s Department of Adult Education and Human Resource Studies.</p>
<p>Our project investigated the role of technology in student-instructor interaction and its impact on learning outcomes. We were particularly interested in how universities can adopt new technology for teaching and learning. It was important to understand how any technology we chose could be adapted to the Ghanaian context. </p>
<p>We had several tasks. Firstly, we needed to introduce students to new technologies for teaching and learning. We had to get the postgraduate students he was supervising involved in research about these technologies. And we had to disseminate our findings through publication. </p>
<p>I travelled to Accra to launch the project, but since then Dr Boateng and I have worked electronically using WhatsApp, Skype, emails and Google Hangouts. There have been times when Ghana’s <a href="http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/07/ghana-government-criticised-power-cuts/">erratic power supply</a> and internet network failures have got in the way, but these technologies have generally proved invaluable.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141077/original/image-20161010-3897-1sytp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141077/original/image-20161010-3897-1sytp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/141077/original/image-20161010-3897-1sytp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141077/original/image-20161010-3897-1sytp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141077/original/image-20161010-3897-1sytp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141077/original/image-20161010-3897-1sytp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141077/original/image-20161010-3897-1sytp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/141077/original/image-20161010-3897-1sytp23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Dr John Boateng, left, and Dr Raymond Asare Tutu.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Giving students great opportunities</h2>
<p>Students are central to the CODESRIA programme. The skills and knowledge I’ve acquired working in the US allowed me to help Dr Boateng set up assessment exercises for one of his courses that went beyond traditional exams and tests. He had noticed that students’ strengths and inadequacies cropped up during courses and wanted to learn how to intervene early – before the exam stage. I helped him to design interventions.</p>
<p>It was wonderful to work directly throughout the programme with postgraduate students. </p>
<p>These students were able to get involved in practically implementing a pilot research project. They learned about the different research instruments we used, how to understand the database we created and how to code data. They didn’t just help to collect data, as is often the case for student researchers. The students have also learned the difference between focus group discussion and in-depth interview skills, as well as the art of transcription.</p>
<p>The students helped with the meat of the project: Dr Boateng and I taught them how to identify gaps in the existing literature around our project’s central issues. For example, I told them to review previous work on technology-mediated student-faculty interactions. That included any work, qualitative and quantitative, about teaching and technology; technology and learning; social media and learning; teaching methods, technology and learning. </p>
<p>As they reviewed, they had to pay particular attention to the broad theoretical debates on these topics. They were looking out for variables on online course management systems and learning, online management system and teaching, types of social media platforms used for teaching, students’ perceptions and use of teaching and learning technologies, and so on. </p>
<p>Then they were asked to write up their review of this work with the intention of publishing it in a scholarly journal. This is still a work in progress; the students have worked hard but need more guidance to get their writing journal-ready.</p>
<p>The students’ involvement at every step inculcates in them a sense of ownership. They have shown a high sense of responsibility and a desire to learn. They don’t offer excuses when they make mistakes. Instead, they enthusiastically make corrections and forge ahead.</p>
<p>I find this attitude tremendously exciting. I know I am not wasting my time and energy, and that Africa’s potential future social scientists are gaining incredible experience. </p>
<h2>Collaboration continues</h2>
<p>Our collaboration has gone beyond the boundaries of the original proposal we submitted to CODESRIA. Dr Boateng and I have worked well together. We’ve encouraged each other’s interests and curiosity and developed new interests. I’m delighted to report that we’ve published one <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10708-016-9723-1">journal article</a> based on this collaboration. More will follow.</p>
<p>This kind of initiative, which brings diaspora scholars and their counterparts on the African continent together, is very worthwhile. Successful interventions will undoubtedly lead to an increase in research findings and publications by scholars living on the continent. </p>
<p>More importantly, postgraduate students who get involved will come to understand the essence of scholarship. They’ll be able to see that becoming a scholar of repute is not beyond their reach, no matter where they live and work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65655/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Raymond Asare Tutu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>African academics living in the diaspora have access to resources that can really help their peers working on the continent.Raymond Asare Tutu, Associate Professor of Geography, Delaware State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/662232016-09-29T17:23:42Z2016-09-29T17:23:42ZSouth Africa’s research output will be the biggest victim of student protests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/139759/original/image-20160929-27042-dn2yk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The costs of student protests are far higher than imagined.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rogan Ward/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It will cost <a href="http://businesstech.co.za/news/government/138169/damage-to-sa-universities-hits-r600-million-and-counting/">around R600 million</a> to repair the damage caused by student protests across South Africa. That’s according to the country’s Minister of Higher Education and Training.</p>
<p>I’d suggest that this figure is merely the tip of the iceberg. The true cost of these protests is far higher. This cost can’t be measured in hard currency – yet. The higher education sector is being held to ransom and universities could lose the ability to do their core work: to teach and to conduct research. </p>
<p>This will have dire consequences for the entire country. South Africa is already struggling to produce enough skilled labour to meet demand. If universities cannot complete their academic years, as <a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/uct-stop-feeding-the-crocodile">some fear</a>, some students may miss out on the chance to graduate on time. They may choose to drop out entirely rather than trying to fund another expensive year of study. </p>
<p>Bright academics and postgraduates are likely to seek work or study opportunities elsewhere and major research projects could stumble as higher education’s crisis deepens.</p>
<h2>Damaging the research machine</h2>
<p>I have been an academic for more than 30 years. I have taught students; I still supervise postgraduates and I run a very successful <a href="http://www.fabinet.up.ac.za/">research programme</a>.</p>
<p>I have a deep understanding of the value of education and what it takes to establish a vibrant research culture at a university. I’m also keenly aware of what it takes to do internationally leading research in a developing world environment. I hold a <a href="http://www.nrf.ac.za/division/rcce/instruments/research-chairs">research chair</a> in Fungal Genomics. These chairs are designed to attract and retain research excellence at public universities. My research focuses on understanding tree pathogens, predominantly fungi which cause tree disease. I have trained almost 100 Masters and PhD students and currently supervise 10 post graduate students. </p>
<p>Such postgraduate students are the lifeblood of research programmes. The quality of research done in any country is hugely influenced by the quality of postgraduate students in these programmes. In recent years, more South African students in my research programme have chosen to stay in the country to carry out postgraduate research; they know that the quality of our research is internationally <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/best-universities-in-africa-2016">competitive and respected</a>.</p>
<p>These local students are joined by postgraduates from elsewhere in the world. They are also drawn by South Africa’s globally competitive research culture.</p>
<p>International postgraduates are an important asset in South Africa’s bid to produce more scientific PhD holders in the coming years. The country’s department of science and technology has identified a need to <a href="http://www.sagreenfund.org.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/10-Year-Innovation-Plan.pdf">graduate more PhD students</a>.</p>
<p>The department has set a very ambitious target for universities to graduate 3000 Science and Technology PhD graduates by 2018. South Africa doesn’t have the academics to train this many PhDs. But research intensive universities have been increasing their supervisory capacity by attracting post doctoral students from around the world to help train postgraduates.</p>
<p>Will these post doctoral students and foreign postgraduates still come to South Africa if protests persist? Will local students choose to stay and study towards their PhDs – or will they look for university systems that are not rocked by disruptions?</p>
<h2>The potential for brain drain</h2>
<p>Research is a global activity. Top researchers in South Africa annually host leading researchers from elsewhere in the world. These research leaders interact with academics and graduate students. In this way South African researchers are inspired by the best in the world and will then go on to produce internationally leading research. </p>
<p>But why would these international guests come to campuses racked by protests? As I write this a number of seminars by overseas visitors at my own institution have been postponed and in some cases cancelled. South Africa is poorer for this.</p>
<p>Much of the research I’m referring to here is focused on the country’s own, often unique problems. If this research machine is compromised South Africa will have to “import” – at a significant cost – researchers from other countries to solve its problems.</p>
<p>Local academics, too, are unsettled by what’s happening. Many of my colleagues are very concerned about their futures. Some have told me they are looking actively for positions elsewhere. Young academics who’ve grown up and trained in South Africa could well look for opportunities elsewhere and, given the quality of education they’ve received, they will probably succeed.</p>
<h2>Research programmes do not develop overnight</h2>
<p>Much has <a href="http://www.aau.edu/research/article.aspx?id=15486">been written</a> about the <a href="http://www.dsm.com/corporate/science/science-can-change-the-world.html">value of research</a>. For those who remained unconvinced, it’s useful to think of research as the equivalent of an insurance policy. In doing research you insure that a country and its people are able to understand and deal with future challenges.</p>
<p>A research programme is not something that appears overnight. It takes years to develop, nurture and grow. It often involves the life time endeavour of the researchers concerned. Running a research programme involves a commitment that is essentially 24 hours a day and 365 days of the year. A research programme cannot be switched off for a day, week or a month and then restarted where you left off.</p>
<p>Any breaks mean that you have to restart many activities, often from scratch. This results in delays in delivery and this is very problematic as research is most often done using grant or industrial funding. Granting agencies expect annual reports and that one delivers on what was promised. Industry funding often requires quarterly reporting and funding can be cut if the research outputs are not achieved.</p>
<p>The current student protests are already having a negative impact on research across South Africa. Some universities are suggesting that the academic year will have to be extended into 2017. If campuses are closed and post graduate students and lecturing staff told to go home, the cost to the research machine is incalculable – certainly far more than R600 million.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66223/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brenda Wingfield receives funding from industry and government granting agencies to support her research. She is the DST-NRF SARChI research chair in Fungal Genomics.</span></em></p>There is a very real risk that South Africa’s major research projects will stumble and the whole research machine will be shut down by ongoing student protests.Brenda Wingfield, Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and Professor of Genetics, University of PretoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/652842016-09-20T18:13:30Z2016-09-20T18:13:30ZAfrica’s universities can shrug off history and stage science revolutions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138073/original/image-20160916-6342-1c5hkqx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The sky is the limit for African science when universities work together.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>South Africa’s <a href="https://www.uwc.ac.za/Pages/default.aspx">University of the Western Cape (UWC)</a> has been ranked <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2016/09/07/Sky-science-sees-University-of-the-Western-Cape-beat-big-names-in-Nature-ranking">number one</a> for Physical Science in Africa by top journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html">Nature</a>. Nico Orce, an associate professor with UWC’s nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics group, tells The Conversation Africa what lessons there are for other universities on the continent – and why there’s more work to be done.</em></p>
<p><strong>UWC still serves a historically disadvantaged community and is less well-funded than many previously white universities in South Africa. Against this backdrop, what did it take for you, your colleagues and your students to get this far?</strong></p>
<p>Being ranked number one on the continent is strongly linked to the <a href="https://www.ska.ac.za">Square Kilometre Array (SKA)</a> telescope being built in South Africa. A number of UWC’s scientists are very involved in this project. </p>
<p>Smart strategic planning and a real push for funding helped to stimulate the physical sciences at UWC. That energy attracted more and more talented researchers, including post-doctoral candidates. This is a crucial way to speed up transformation: bringing in highly skilled researchers from all over the country and the world to train a new generation of local scientists.</p>
<p><strong>The sciences have had a good year at UWC. Your group is also about to become the first from an African institution to <a href="http://www.netwerk24.com/ZA/Tygerburger/Nuus/uwc-students-on-the-way-to-cern-20160830-2">lead an experiment at CERN</a>, the <a href="https://home.cern/about">European Organisation for Nuclear Research</a>. How did that happen?</strong></p>
<p>When I was finishing my degree in Fundamental Physics back in Spain I convinced some of my friends to attend a summer school at CERN. We asked the professor in charge of international exchange programmes to sign our applications. He told us with malicious pleasure that, “Only the crème de la crème goes to CERN – students from Harvard, Oxford or Cambridge. You come from the University of Granada. I cannot believe you even thought of it.” He wouldn’t sign it, so there went our slight chance of working at CERN.</p>
<p>Since then, I promised myself that one day I would go to CERN through the big door and open it up to the ones behind me: young hopeful students.</p>
<p>That promise came to fruition in September 2013 when our group’s proposal to run an experiment at CERN was approved. Our work, which will finally be conducted in November 2016, involves measuring the nuclear shapes of very rare nuclei. Some of our postgraduates have already received training, and did so well that they were awarded a prestigious CERN fellowship.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138236/original/image-20160919-11108-es00iq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UWC students (bottom from left to right) Kenzo Abrahams, Makabata Mokgolobotho and Craig Mehl. They are with CERN employees, including (back, second from left) Professor Maria Garcia Borge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This experiment will open the doors of CERN to all African institutions. We walked through first. Now others will be able to follow.</p>
<p><strong>Enrolling more women students, as well as those who are not white and those from poor backgrounds, is a huge imperative for South African universities. Are you getting that right in the Physics department?</strong></p>
<p>One of the Physics and Astronomy Department’s highest priorities is to attract and enthuse South African students. We have strong outreach programmes to achieve this. One that I like very much is when we give talks to high school students; those in Grades 10, 11 and 12 who are close to finishing school. Our staff members and postgraduates present examples of the work we do.</p>
<p>It’s especially amazing when one of our postgraduates returns to their own school. You should have heard the eruption when one postgraduate, Sivuyile Xabanisa, told kids at his Khayelitsha high school that he was studying the oldest stars in the universe – and going to Oxford University as part of his training.</p>
<p>We also invite high school groups to events organised at the university. In 2013 <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2012/haroche-facts.html">Serge Haroche</a> visited our Science Research Open Day. He was the 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics. The auditorium practically shook with excitement when he handed over a new microscope to pupils from a high school in Wallacedene, a poor area quite close to UWC.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-ipl6CLiLnc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Nobel Laureate Serge Haroche visits the University of the Western Cape.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another really valuable initiative has been the MaNus/MatSci programme for Nuclear Science and Material Science. In the same way that the SKA is driving strong growth in astronomy, this Honours and Masters programme is attracting growing numbers of future nuclear physicists. It trains about 25 South African students each year, most of them black and from poor backgrounds. These students are drawn from historically disadvantaged institutions like the universities of Fort Hare, Venda, Limpopo and the North West – and from UWC’s undergraduate programmes.</p>
<p>All of this work and outreach has produced impressive results. Today there are more than 100 postgraduate students in the Physics and Astronomy Department. Most of them are black South Africans from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. </p>
<p><strong>What are the lessons other African institutions’ science faculties and individual departments can learn from UWC’s recent successes?</strong></p>
<p>We need to break history to change things dramatically. And we must do it the South African, or African way – using our own strengths and methods, not adopting European approaches.</p>
<p>Universities need to work harder to make sure women and all races are equally represented in their science classrooms. At UWC we’ve got a number of postgraduate women students who are doing great science, winning awards and raising the bar for everyone. Having women there makes other women realise the door is open for them. In the same way, having postgraduates like Sivuyile Xabanisa visiting schools in poorer communities makes pupils realise they also have a place in science labs. Role models are so important.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138237/original/image-20160919-11090-sfbdlu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">UWC’s Dr Nico Orce with pupils from Khayelitsha’s Zola High School.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ultimately, UWC wants to be number one for physical science not just in Africa but in the world. To do that, we cannot constantly fight among ourselves as individual researchers or with other institutions on the continent. The only competition we need is the healthy sort that improves everyone’s performance. </p>
<p>Collaboration is really crucial. UWC applied for about R30 million from country’s the National Research Foundation and its Department of Science and Technology to build a new detector system called <a href="https://www.uwc.ac.za/Faculties/NS/NuclearPhysics/Pages/Gamka.aspx">GAMKA</a>.</p>
<p>The construction will happen at iThemba LABS in Cape Town and involves a consortium of both wealthy and less well resourced universities. We’ll all have to work closely together, with the same aim, to be successful. That’s the key to making African science soar: knowing that if you try to do it alone, you won’t have all the skills or equipment. Together we can lead science worldwide through work done right here on the continent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65284/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nico Orce receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF), the South African-CERN Collaboration (Department of Science and Technology) and the University of the Western Cape.</span></em></p>Collaboration is one of the keys to making African science soar: when the continent’s universities work together, they can produce amazing results.Nico Orce, Associate Professor in the Department of Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Astrophysics, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/634012016-08-03T20:07:41Z2016-08-03T20:07:41ZThere’s work (and life) outside of universities for PhD graduates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132739/original/image-20160802-17177-e3b9fl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">PhD graduates should aim for careers in industry.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Syda Productions</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The number of PhD students graduating from Australian universities continues to rise, with <a href="https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/2014-award-course-completions">more than 8,000 in 2014</a> and about one in three in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.</p>
<p>Our best estimates are that about half of these students will begin an academic career as postdoctoral research fellows or research assistants.</p>
<p>But over time most will move out of – and much less frequently back into – academic jobs.</p>
<p>Only around 2% of PhD graduates are expected to reach professorial levels and enjoy the privilege of an <a href="https://royalsociety.org/%7E/media/Royal_Society_Content/policy/publications/2010/4294970126.pdf">uninterrupted academic career</a>.</p>
<h2>Options and expectations</h2>
<p>Most PhD graduates are driven by a passion for their field and commit years to study. Some are sold on the promise that they will one day have an independent research career, like their supervisors.</p>
<p>The reality of fierce competition for grants, intense pressure to perform, inflexible funding regulations and 12-month contracts is often <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/the-perilous-road-for-graduating-phds/7652818">a stark and unwelcome revelation</a>.</p>
<p>But the modern PhD is not only a training to conduct specialised research. It is also a wider preparation for diverse employment.</p>
<p>A PhD equips people with the ability to think critically, to assess a problem in the context of the wider body of knowledge, and to produce original solutions independently. It also gives them the ability to communicate and articulate solutions. </p>
<p>Irrespective of whether they find careers in academia, graduates with STEM PhDs are more likely to be employed and <a href="http://acola.org.au/PDF/SAF13/SAF13%20RTS%20report.pdf">will earn higher salaries</a> than bachelors and higher-degree graduates from most other disciplines within five years of graduation.</p>
<p>This is seen by those in government as a positive for the economy. People with STEM PhDs are increasingly seen by employers in government, industry and the community sector as some of the best generalist graduates on the market. </p>
<p>So we need to do more to help PhD students understand that their training opens up a wide range of possibilities, with academic research being just one, and we need to support PhD students to explore what fits best for them.</p>
<p>We need better enrolment processes, supervision, skills development and internship opportunities. That way our most highly trained graduates would be better prepared to embrace the many opportunities that a PhD will bring.</p>
<h2>For those who stay in academia</h2>
<p>One key issue we need to address is how to plan for and achieve a healthy balance of senior, junior and mid-career researchers across the disciplines. We need to do this with equal opportunities for men, women and those from diverse groups to nurture a healthy pipeline of talented new scientists for the future.</p>
<p>But both the National Health and Medical Research Council (<a href="https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/">NHMRC</a>) and the Australian Research Council (<a href="http://www.arc.gov.au/">ARC</a>) have struggled to develop schemes that build and nurture research careers while simultaneously supporting proposals judged by peer-review to be the best and most worthwhile research ideas. </p>
<p>One scheme that has changed the game to an extent is the <a href="http://www.arc.gov.au/future-fellowships">ARC Future Fellowship</a> scheme. The Academy of Science <a href="https://www.science.org.au/supporting-science/science-policy/submissions-government/response%E2%80%94arc-future-fellowships">advocated strongly and instrumentally for</a> prior to its establishment in 2009, and for its continuation when <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-we-want-to-be-a-smart-nation-we-should-keep-future-fellowships-39323">threatened by budget cuts</a> more recently.</p>
<p>But with funding for just 100 Future Fellowships each year, this scheme is only a drop in the ocean. There is clearly much to be done.</p>
<h2>Investing in capability</h2>
<p>Australia is starting to recognise that to be a successful player in the world economy we do need to move into the innovation age. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/turnbull-seeks-ideas-boom-with-innovation-agenda-experts-react-51892">National Innovation and Science Agenda</a>, released last year, started that process.</p>
<p>Many have argued Australia needs to <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/federal-budget/federal-budget-scientists-push-for-more-research-funding-20160411-go3uaa.html">invest about 3% of GDP</a> in science and research to be on par with countries which have strong and successful innovation performance.</p>
<p>To achieve this, Australia would have to commit in the order of A$5 billion a year of additional public funding of research to leverage an additional A$10 billion a year in industry research and development. This is not an easy task and not something that will happen quickly.</p>
<p>Only when there is a firm commitment to investing in the research sector can the focus shift to building capacity in the longer term.</p>
<p>But the financial quadrant of government (and the industry sector) is often reluctant to make longer-term commitments, and wherever possible tends to retreat to short term programs because this maximises the flexibility to shift resources in response to the demands of the day. </p>
<p>The message that we need to reinforce is that good research is not done in little bites. Moving away from an environment where short-term funding cycles for research are the norm and towards a framework which commits to larger, deeper and longer-term programs would instantly provide a vehicle in which career structures for researchers can be embedded.</p>
<h2>Review of research training</h2>
<p>Looking at research training itself, we need to make sure the many thousands of PhD graduates produced each year are both better prepared for (and less shocked by) the reality that many will end up working in government or industry, and not in academia.</p>
<p>There is also a need to help students to attain and/or recognise their transferable skills. Industry, government or community sector placements can both expose students to those opportunities and to employer needs outside of academia. It also shows to employers the skill sets of PhD graduates.</p>
<p>We need to do more both to support and encourage the most intellectually and experimentally capable scientists at all levels to flourish in the research sector. That way we better prepare our most highly-trained graduates to contribute to society through a variety of rewarding occupations and careers, outside of academia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63401/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor Les Field is the Secretary of Science Policy, Australian Academy of Science. He receives funding from the Australian Research Council and is Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor at UNSW.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Holmes has received funding from UK (EPSRC and BBSRC) research councils, from the ARC, the European Commission, the Australian Government, the Victorian State Government, and various industrial research companies. These funding sources have all been acknowledged in peer-reviewed publications.
He has supervised some 100 doctoral candidates and 100 postdoctoral research collaborators. </span></em></p>Australia produces thousands of PhD graduates every year but many will find it hard to secure a university career. So we should do more to help them consider a career outside of academia.Les Field, Secretary for Science Policy at the Australian Academy of Science, and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor, UNSW SydneyAndrew Holmes, President of the Australian Academy of Science, Laureate Professor Emeritus, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/622322016-07-13T20:56:54Z2016-07-13T20:56:54ZWant to do your PhD in Africa? Here’s what you need to know<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/129845/original/image-20160708-24067-lrhpc7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Embarking on the path to a PhD is a scary business.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A Doctor of Philosophy, which most people know as a PhD, is the highest academic accolade. It demands a substantial investment of time, equipment, meticulous supervision and conscientiousness.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.scidev.net/global/education/multimedia/map-phd-enrolment-africa.html">More and more students</a> are registering for doctoral studies across Africa. They’re doing so in pursuit of higher qualifications and better future career opportunities. But many are left floundering when they try to actually get working on their PhDs. Masters’ programmes simply don’t equip students with the research skills they need, nor the conceptual thinking and critical analysis that’s so important for PhD study.</p>
<p>So what is holding Africa’s PhD candidates back and what can be done differently? To answer these questions, I’ve drawn from lessons learnt while working with a group of fellows in the <a href="http://cartafrica.org/">Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa</a> (CARTA). This is a consortium of nine African public universities that supports 140 fellows who are pursuing PhDs in population and public health. Their experiences and concerns may help others who are embarking on the tough, sometimes lonely journey to obtaining a PhD.</p>
<h2>The dark alleys of research</h2>
<p>The CARTA fellows are mostly full-time faculty members, usually assistant lecturers or lecturers. They are talented, well respected and have the potential to be developed into research leaders. But evaluations conducted with the latest cohort reveal that none of these factors keep them from battling with even the basics of starting their PhD work.</p>
<p>One of the problems lies with the structure of masters’ programmes in Africa. These tend to last for two or three years. They’re traditionally assumed to be the foundation for career advancement in academia. But their focus tends to be on a strong component of course work, with limited opportunities for serious research. And research, of course, is the backbone of any PhD degree.</p>
<p>When research is included in masters’ programmes, the scope of the work is narrow and the quality of supervision is poor. Candidates are left to flounder in the dark alleys of research. In Kenya, where I am based, it is very rare for masters’ students to produce work that’s good enough to publish in peer-reviewed journals. Their work doesn’t influence policy- and decision-making. Masters’ graduates get a feather in their cap, but that’s really all.</p>
<p>During their evaluations, the fellows said they were struggling to comprehend the philosophical underpinnings of their research topics. They seem not to know that research methodologies are informed by diverse paradigms. Those from “hard” sciences backgrounds indicated that they didn’t understand philosophy nor see its value to research.</p>
<p>Most have difficulty in identifying the research gap in their topic of interest and insist that the topic has not been studied in the geographical area they’re focusing on. They fail to appreciate that the essence of PhD research is to generate new knowledge and that one cannot contribute to this without a clear understanding about the current state of affairs in their subject.</p>
<p>Our work has found that many PhD students are apathetic about searching for and reading relevant articles. They don’t have the basic software skills needed to search databases and often haven’t heard of open-source software that might make their task easier and cheaper.</p>
<p>Without reading and a critical appraisal of sources, the students really battle to develop a workable research question. A good number end up joining sentences derived from various journals conveniently to create what is submitted as the literature review. The write-up lacks logic and coherence, and is marked by high levels of plagiarism.</p>
<p>One problem leads to another: most students struggle to understand and develop theoretical and conceptual frameworks for their proposed study.</p>
<p>Some of the approaches we’re trying through CARTA might really improve people’s experiences of their PhDs. They have certainly boosted the fellows’ experience of this challenging academic journey.</p>
<h2>Jump-starting the journey</h2>
<p>CARTA has developed a month-long residential seminar during which new students are equipped with the necessary skills and competencies to jump-start their doctoral journey.</p>
<p>Topics in the curriculum include knowledge philosophy; reading, writing and referencing; and how to develop a good research question and a conceptual framework. The seminars are learner-centred, with space for group work and one-on-one consultations. Since the seminars are residential, the fellows also get to spend lots of time with each other, sharing ideas and advice, and with mentors.</p>
<p>Feedback from previous seminars has suggested that this approach is really working. Fellows say that they find the sessions very helpful and this is obvious in the quality of their work. Some have even changed their PhD topics because of the seminars and are comfortable defending their new ideas when they return to their institutions.</p>
<p>Of course, PhD students must bear a great deal of the responsibility for bringing their research to life. They ought to know that one cannot lead a pedestrian life and expect to receive the highest possible academic accolade. It requires hard work, commitment and developing the skills I’ve outlined here.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62232/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Ngure is the Programme Manager of the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) at the Africa Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in Nairobi.</span></em></p>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.Peter Ngure, Associate Professor of Parasitology and Entomology, African Population and Health Research CenterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/515502015-12-14T10:54:22Z2015-12-14T10:54:22ZWhy today’s long STEM postdoc positions are effectively anti-mother<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105571/original/image-20151213-16329-1t9dhgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Does it need to be so hard to be a mom and a professor?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/4328012789">Quinn Dombrowski</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The fallen leaves remind, once again, that the Hunger Games of securing coveted tenure-track academic jobs have begun. This is my second year serving on the Northwestern University Department of Neurobiology Search Committee, and we’ve received nearly 300 applications for a single faculty position this time around. Less than a third are from women.</p>
<p>We often hear about the leaky STEM pipeline, and the data bear this out, both at the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/495022a">national levels</a> and within our local search. From what I see as a recent female postdoc with children and now an assistant professor making hiring decisions and advising postdocs seeking academic positions, there are some serious problems uniquely faced by women in academic STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105608/original/image-20151213-9591-jlhi6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105608/original/image-20151213-9591-jlhi6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105608/original/image-20151213-9591-jlhi6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105608/original/image-20151213-9591-jlhi6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105608/original/image-20151213-9591-jlhi6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105608/original/image-20151213-9591-jlhi6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105608/original/image-20151213-9591-jlhi6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105608/original/image-20151213-9591-jlhi6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=702&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demographic data for this year’s applicants to a tenure-track position at Northwestern.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yevgenia Kozorovitskiy</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Here’s who I see applying</h2>
<p>Our applicants are impressively accomplished, and their age matches their scientific contributions. On average, this group – both men and women – defended their PhDs a little before 2008. </p>
<p>That means that now at the close of 2015, the bulk of our applicants have lingered in postdoctoral limbo for more than half a decade. A postdoc position used to be an optional step toward independence in my field of neuroscience. Eventually, a year or two of research experience after receiving a doctoral degree and before winding up in a faculty job became expected. But now, seeing strong candidates with less than five years of high profile post-PhD work is rare.</p>
<p>The lengthening of this training period is reflected in the aging pool of recipients of R01 grants, the key funding mechanism for biomedical science laboratories, administered by the National Institutes of Health. The average age of first-time recipients has <a href="http://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2012/02/13/age-distribution-of-nih-principal-investigators-and-medical-school-faculty/">crept up to 42</a>, while the proportion of R01 holders younger than 36 has dropped from 16% in 1980 to 3% by 2010. </p>
<h2>Stretching the STEM career path affects women disproportionately</h2>
<p>The National Science Foundation <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/chapter-2/c2s2.htm">reports</a> that women have comprised half of STEM undergraduate degrees since the 1990s. Yet, a gender gap emerges during the long years of academic training, and it grows substantial in time for faculty appointments. As seen in our representative pool of applicants, the average applicant age for tenure-track assistant professor positions is now past the peak age of <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22082792">female fertility</a> (think a PhD at 28-29 years of age, plus a 5-7 year long postdoc).</p>
<p>Here’s where things get sticky for those who think the advances of feminism mean women should be able to cobble together some version of “having it all.” Building a family while pursuing a STEM career has pitfalls. Delaying childbirth until reaching a tenure-track job could mean long years trying to conceive and expensive assisted reproductive technologies – average price of an IVF cycle is over <a href="http://www.resolve.org/family-building-options/making-treatment-affordable/the-costs-of-infertility-treatment.html">US$10,000</a> – with no guarantee of success. So, a female scientist who wants a family must seriously consider childbirth during her postdoc.</p>
<p>However, postdoctoral salaries are low, and the days are long. The recommended starting salary for a new research fellow is below <a href="https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/research/funding/general/nrsa-fund-guide">$43,000</a>, per National Institutes of Health. A year of high-quality childcare for two kids at daycare centers near prominent research institutions costs more than a postdoc salary – even before taxes are taken out.</p>
<p>While high daycare costs in US cities (even surpassing <a href="http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-much-youll-spend-on-childcare_1199776.bc">$2,000</a> per child per month in some places) seems like a problem for male and female postdocs, it disproportionately affects aspiring female academics. As described in the <a href="http://gender.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/DualCareerFinal_0.pdf">Dual-Career Research Report</a> from the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, academic females are more likely to be partnered with academic males. The same is not true for the more numerous males. Many successful academics acknowledge the <a href="https://theconversation.com/workaholism-isnt-a-valid-requirement-for-advancing-in-science-44555">importance of stay-at-home partners</a>, or partners with flexible jobs, in their rise to academic fame. As described in the same Stanford report, 20% of male academics, but only 5% of females, have a stay-at-home partner. These gender differences, together with the fact that even in our egalitarian society, accomplished women in leadership positions still tend to be responsible for the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7326/M13-0974">majority of childcare</a>, mean that the careers of women in STEM are hindered by the choice to have a family.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105572/original/image-20151213-16329-1sjwmuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105572/original/image-20151213-16329-1sjwmuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105572/original/image-20151213-16329-1sjwmuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105572/original/image-20151213-16329-1sjwmuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105572/original/image-20151213-16329-1sjwmuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105572/original/image-20151213-16329-1sjwmuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105572/original/image-20151213-16329-1sjwmuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105572/original/image-20151213-16329-1sjwmuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Here come the professors… but were they on a level playing field?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cliffspics/149470906">Jack Duval</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Institutional support needs to change</h2>
<p>Universities today are doing more for the families of their faculty and, increasingly, many are expanding benefits programs to cover all of their staff. But postdoctoral fellows, often classified as trainees, can fall through the cracks, receiving different, lesser benefits than faculty and staff. Sometimes, they receive no benefits at all. Recently, the National Postdoctoral Association released a large <a href="https://npamembers.site-ym.com/?page=policy_report_databa">Institutional Policy Survey</a> that highlighted considerable variability in benefits and programs available to postdocs in responding institutions. Postdoctoral training features benefits that are remnants of an earlier time when postdocs were rare and transient positions. </p>
<p>How do we upgrade to Postdoc 2.0, a version of life for young academics that plugs the leak of talented women in STEM? Prestigious female-targeted postdoc awards, like the glamorous <a href="http://www.lorealusa.com/Foundation/Article.aspx?topcode=Foundation_AccessibleScience_Fellowships">L'Oreal Fellowship</a> that supports only five STEM female postdocs every year, are woefully few. Yet, research universities themselves have the power and the funding structure to implement a variety of strategies that would support women in STEM. Here are concrete examples I think would be valuable to consider:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Award several thousand dollars to female postdocs with children when they go on the academic job market. This can cover high-quality childcare, travel with children or living costs for family caretakers.</p></li>
<li><p>Create competitive internal scholarships to fund a research technician for a year, when a female postdoctoral fellow is pregnant, or with infant. The technician would carry on the fellow’s experiments during the time she must be away from the bench. </p></li>
<li><p>Ensure that postdocs’ benefits don’t vary based on salary funding sources (that is, grants, fellowships, etc), and that their benefits are comparable to faculty and staff.</p></li>
<li><p>Train and perhaps financially support the laboratory directors of female academics with families. University faculty are taught to <a href="http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2015/09/protecting-students,-faculty,-staff-from-sexual-misconduct.html">recognize and avoid misconduct</a>, but not how to help pregnant female trainees design flexible work schedules that advance their career while protecting family time. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>The cost of some of these programs would be pennies in the budget of our great research institutions, but the impact on gender distribution in STEM could be transformative. Moreover, such programs are likely to have immediate measurable impact on the success of women postdocs transitioning to independence in academia. The institutions that take the lead will attract the top STEM postdocs. </p>
<p>For sure, designing programs to advance women in STEM will take careful consideration, when even a Supreme Court justice takes a stand against affirmative action, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/09/politics/affirmative-action-supreme-court-university-of-texas/index.html">suggesting</a> that minority students might fare better at less-advanced, slower-track schools.</p>
<p>But let us not silence half our voices. Diverse companies and institutions are <a href="http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/why_diversity_matters">more efficient and more creative</a>. Both pragmatic and social justice considerations support striving toward a STEM workforce that mirrors US demographics. We should ensure that the odds in academia, however low overall, aren’t stacked against female aspiring scientists who hope to have families.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/51550/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yevgenia Kozorovitskiy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The limits of fertility and an elongated academic career path are currently at odds. If the choice to bear children contributes to the ‘leaky pipeline’ of women in STEM, what can be done?Yevgenia Kozorovitskiy, Assistant Professor of Neurobiology, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/446972015-07-24T04:33:32Z2015-07-24T04:33:32ZWhat the Tim Hunt brouhaha shows about how junior and senior academic voices are heard<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89394/original/image-20150722-1418-pgwsz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pronouncements even from Nobel laureates should not be accepted as if from on high.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stasiland/674310677">Sara Stasi</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sexist comments recently made by Nobel laureate Sir Tim Hunt have been the subject of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/distractinglysexy-sir-tim-hunts-gift-to-feminism-in-science-43247">heated and lengthy debate</a>, including whether the quotes have been <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/11726907/Sir-Tim-Hunt-will-not-be-reinstated-as-UCL-professor-after-trouble-with-girls-speech.html">taken out of context</a>. Of course, it’s the content of what he said that’s fueled much of the controversy. All the hoopla is representative of concerns that scientists have generally about the structure of science.</p>
<p>But questions have also arisen about how the debate has played out, with senior scientists expressing their views in mainstream media and junior scientists taking to social media. The two camps have essentially talked past each other. </p>
<p>As a researcher in the early stages of my career, I have seen this unconstructive dynamic play out repeatedly in discussions over how we should carry out and communicate our science now and in the future. When <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1509901112">discussions are inclusive</a>, all parties feel able to reach constructive conclusions. When we aren’t communicating directly, we have little chance of addressing important issues that need to be resolved. </p>
<h2>Science has a respect problem</h2>
<p>The outrage against Tim Hunt’s words has not arisen just because of one isolated incident. Rather, it’s part of wider frustration with the culture of science and the explicit bias that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/18/opinion/what-its-like-as-a-girl-in-the-lab.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0">female</a> and <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071201883.html">transgender</a> scientists face.</p>
<p>Over the course of the last year, references to younger scientists as “riff-raff” by the <a href="http://www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday/201409/PresidentsMessage/">president of a scientific society</a>; peer review requests to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/01/sexist-peer-review_n_7190656.html">add male authors</a>; advice to younger female scientists to take inappropriate behavior from male superiors <a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2015/06/01/science-pulls-advice-post-suggests-student-put-up-with-advisor-looking-down-her-shirt/">“with good humor”</a>; and further perspectives on working <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/349/6244/206">long hours while leaving parenting to wives</a> have reinforced a culture in science in which <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/carolineodonovan/the-21st-century-has-really-not-been-great-for-women-and-min">young female scientists still face much adversity</a>. The academic journal <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/catferguson/science-journal-reinforces-dangerous-stereotypes">Science has also come under fire</a> for <a href="http://retractionwatch.com/2015/07/16/hundreds-sign-letter-criticizing-science-for-reinforcing-harmful-stereotypes/">reinforcing harmful sexist stereotypes</a>.</p>
<p>The firestorm around Hunt’s comments is therefore not simply a reaction to what was said, but to a perception that his comments reflect the general attitudes of established researchers toward women in science. Implicit bias against women in science is <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/495033a">an acknowledged problem</a>, and any apparent reinforcement of explicit bias adds to frustration within the community.</p>
<h2>Power imbalance and unproductive conversation</h2>
<p>There has been very little actual constructive discussion among the academic community about the issues that have been raised.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"609146851368022016"}"></div></p>
<p>The original backlash arose via social media, predominantly from younger scientists and junior faculty throughout the scientific community. The mainstream media prominently picked up subsequent calls by <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11688134/Nobel-prizewinners-defend-Sir-Tim-Hunt-amid-sexism-row.html">eight other male Nobel laureates</a> to protect Tim Hunt’s academic freedom. These stories tended to be particularly dismissive of the social media discussion, for instance, using the term <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/science/article4475398.ece">“lynch mob”</a>.</p>
<p>Jon Ronson’s recent book, <a href="http://www.penguin.com/book/so-youve-been-publicly-shamed-by-jon-ronson/9781594487132">So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed</a>, discusses the role of social media in such cases of public shaming. It makes the argument that in these instances, the outrage stems from an imbalance of power.</p>
<p>The power of junior scientists to have a voice in discussions about the structure of science is limited compared to that of senior influential academics. Senior scientists have greater representation in discussions about concerns regarding the structure and efficiency of science. This disparity has increasingly driven the junior scientific community to <a href="http://f1000research.com/articles/3-291/v2">raise its voice to be heard</a> via institutional associations such as graduate student societies and postdoctoral associations, and national groups such as the <a href="http://www.nationalpostdoc.org/">National Postdoctoral Association</a> and <a href="http://futureofresearch.org/regional-meetings/">Future of Research meetings</a>.</p>
<p>It is unproductive for the discussion to be played out publicly in isolated venues. And when language such as “lynch mob” or <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/19/tim-hunt-the-victim-of-self-righteous-feeding-frenzy-says-richard-dawkins">“a feeding frenzy of mob-rule self-righteousness”</a> is used, it publicly dismisses real concerns by reinforcing the imbalances in the debate’s power dynamic. </p>
<p>The lack of a venue for an open and free debate on the issues has resulted in a long and protracted discussion across many avenues, with a dearth of actual discussion and instead the expression of opinion. What has suffered is the public’s perception of science and how it relates to women.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89396/original/image-20150722-1418-1bw3lm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89396/original/image-20150722-1418-1bw3lm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89396/original/image-20150722-1418-1bw3lm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89396/original/image-20150722-1418-1bw3lm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89396/original/image-20150722-1418-1bw3lm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89396/original/image-20150722-1418-1bw3lm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89396/original/image-20150722-1418-1bw3lm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89396/original/image-20150722-1418-1bw3lm2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nobel laureate Tim Hunt got into hot water for his public comments precisely because his position imbued them with authority.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/palomabaytelman/2209864530">Paloma Baytelman</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>For good or ill, esteemed scientists speak with authority</h2>
<p>Irrespective of the debate over what Tim Hunt said and meant or didn’t mean, his words have been taken quite literally as scientific observation because of the status that he is granted as a Nobel laureate. Boris Johnson, UK member of Parliament and mayor of London, wrote that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/15/scientist-tim-hunt-should-be-reinstated-after-girls-row-says-boris-johnson">Tim Hunt was merely making an observation as a scientist</a>. However, these observations, extended to science as a whole, were from a subjective opinion and were not scientific. It is for this reason that the pulpit senior academics and Nobel laureates can be given must be used with great care.</p>
<p>So where do we go from here?</p>
<p>One hope, of course, is that this discussion leads to <a href="http://occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald/2015/06/15/what-next-after-tim-hunt-just1action4wis/">practical ways</a> to <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/practical-policies-can-combat-gender-inequality-1.17856">advocate for women in science</a>.</p>
<p>But we should also use this moment to take stock of the dangers of scientists at different career stages not communicating with each other, instead railing against each other without engaging.</p>
<p>In discussing the freedom that Tim Hunt should have to speak, the ability of younger faculty to speak freely also needs attention. Early career researchers are currently watching to see just <a href="http://www.wbur.org/2015/04/06/harvard-tenure-lawsuit-sexual-assault">how political</a> scientists can be before reaching tenured positions; there’s a lot of nervousness about speaking your mind but paying the price by not advancing in your field.</p>
<p>Today’s media landscape feels like it is designed to have people yelling past each other. We need to encourage academics to talk to each other across all levels. Hopefully science as a whole can advance toward this goal via steps such as the <a href="http://rescuingbiomedicalresearch.org/">Rescuing Biomedical Research</a> initiative, which aims to bring all voices to the table for a productive conversation about the future of science.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary McDowell is affiliated with the Future of Research organization (futureofresearch.org).</span></em></p>Shouting past each other via different kinds of media isn’t going to help researchers – from éminences grises to new postdocs – effectively work together on issues in the field of science.Gary McDowell, Postdoctoral Fellow in Regenerative and Developmental Biology, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/445292015-07-21T04:07:15Z2015-07-21T04:07:15ZThere’s a new mood of determination in Africa’s universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88053/original/image-20150710-17447-1p6pfc6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Beginning and Ending', a sculpture by David Hlongwane, stands at the entrance to the University of the Western Cape.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">University of the Western Cape media office</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Great things are happening in African universities. There is a new mood of determination in higher education institutions across the continent, from South Africa to Ghana to Uganda and in many places in between. Special metrics are <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20150709124418900">being developed</a> to measure African universities’ performances in the global higher education landscape. </p>
<p>Some institutions have turned themselves around remarkably and are meeting the continent’s various challenges head on.</p>
<p>I was reminded of this recently when I spent a week at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa. By the turn of the millennium, the institution – which is about 20 kilometres outside Cape Town – was in a precarious position.</p>
<p>It was also <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/bid-to-merge-uwc-and-pentech-1.81605#.VaOjT_mqqko">poised for a merger</a> with a nearby technical institute. This would have been part of the higher education sector’s <a href="http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20101127225149638">radical restructuring</a> after the end of apartheid.</p>
<p>The merger didn’t go ahead because of what the country’s then-education minister <a href="https://pmg.org.za/committee-meeting/1521/">called</a> “many impressive institutional changes and positive academic developments” at UWC. In the 13 years since the minister’s comments, UWC has undergone a remarkable transformation.</p>
<p>It boasts the <a href="http://prospectus.uwc.ac.za/educate/faculty-of-dentistry/">largest</a> school of dentistry in Africa and is a World Health Organisation <a href="http://apps.who.int/whocc/List.aspx?subjects=Oral+health&">collaborating centre</a> focusing on oral health, HIV/AIDS and informatics and <a href="http://www.americantelemed.org/about-telemedicine/what-is-telemedicine#.Vazlvfmqqko">telemedicine</a>.</p>
<p>In its 2007 to 2011 assessment period, South Africa’s National Research Foundation <a href="https://biblio.ugent.be/input/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=4357326&fileOId=4357327">placed</a> UWC first in South Africa in Physics, Molecular Biology and Genetics; and in Biology and Biochemistry, and second in the country in Computer Science and in Space Science. </p>
<p>Many of these subjects can lead to careers in areas where South Africa currently lacks <a href="http://www.inseta.org.za/downloads/Top%20100%20scarce%20skill%20occupations%20in%20south%20africa.pdf">crucial skills</a>.</p>
<h2>Winds of change</h2>
<p>On this last point, UWC is echoing an emerging trend. More and more African universities are realigning themselves to tackle their countries’ societal and economic problems. A <a href="http://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/britishcouncil.uk2/files/graduate_employability_in_ssa_final-web.pdf">recent study</a> by the British Council highlighted some of the issues that the continent’s universities face. They include:</p>
<p>1) Gender inequality: Just 38% of the continent’s student intake is female. Here, UWC bucks the trend, especially in the crucial realm of science. The gender split of students in science is roughly equal. I was told by one of the university’s key planning specialists, Larry Popkas, that in 2014 slightly more women were awarded postgraduate degrees than men – a ratio of 175 to 166. </p>
<p>2) Brain drain: The council warns that sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rate of outbound student mobility of any region. This leads to significant risk of brain drain. </p>
<p>The University of Ghana and Uganda’s Makerere University are doing well to develop and retain talent by increasing postgraduate numbers. The University of Ghana’s Vice-Chancellor Ernest Aryeetay outlined his institution’s improved figures <a href="http://www.ids.ac.uk/events/strengthening-african-universities-for-economic-transformation-approaches-that-work">in a presentation delivered</a> as part of the Sussex Development Lecture series earlier this year.</p>
<iframe src="https://matterhorn-presentation.uscs.susx.ac.uk/engage/ui/embed.html?id=4ca99ed6-db0c-4fd5-b554-3d678eb2d413&hideControls=false&hideAPLogo=true" style="border:0px #FFFFFF none;" name="Professor Ernest Aryeetay shares some of Africa's university success stories" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" marginheight="0px" marginwidth="0px" width="100%" height="304"></iframe>
<p>In 2008-09, postgraduates made up 7% of the university’s student population. In 2010-11, the figure had risen to 11%. In the same period, the number of doctoral students has doubled from 0.4% of the student population to 0.8%.</p>
<p>For Makerere, Aryeetay said, the equivalent figures mark slower progress: for masters students from 4% (2008/09) to 5% (2010/2011), and for doctoral students from 1% to 2%. These are slow but steady gains in an important sector of the student population.</p>
<p>3) Skills: The council’s report also warns that too few African graduates are adequately skilled. It seems that universities don’t research or understand their continent’s economic needs and produce graduates to meet those needs. </p>
<p>Again, UWC has done well in this regard. Its new vice-chancellor, Tyrone Pretorius, has <a href="http://www.uwc.ac.za/RectorsOffice/Pages/RectorsInaugurationSpeech-.aspx">described</a> the university as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… one of the key anchor institutions to help regenerate and shape the future identities of the areas where we are located. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Pretorius wants to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… improve our neighbourhood’s capacity, accelerate economic development (and) … bring university education and health services in support of struggling communities. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This message is echoed in a statue by David Hlongwane that stands at the university’s entrance. It shows a <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/docs/WCMS_209773/lang--en/index.htm">domestic worker</a> celebrating her son’s graduation and suggests a focus on the university’s own, economically impoverished backyard - and immediate, local needs.</p>
<h2>What the pioneers teach us</h2>
<p>The experiences of UWC, Makerere and the University of Ghana give some pointers for strategy. For starters, it must be home grown. Institutions can’t just rely passively on government or donors, but must actively seek intellectual and funding partners.</p>
<p>They must also drive up teaching quality and standards for academic staff; and insist on academic quality, integrity and relevance for the labour market. Finally, university leaders must remember that they are preparing students for life, not just a job and an easy ride.</p>
<p>It’s a challenging environment, but with strong direction and leadership, the university at all levels can catch the vision. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Author’s note: This article has been adapted from a <a href="http://www.wider.unu.edu/publications/newsletter/articles-2015/en_GB/06-08-2015-RW/">longer version</a> in WiderAngle July-August 2015.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/44529/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roger Williamson retired from working for the UK government in 2010.. He has a portfolio of unpaid and paid work for the UNU-WIDER (paid) and Institute of Development Studies (unpaid) as Visiting Fellow for each.
</span></em></p>More and more African universities are realigning themselves to tackle their countries’ societal and economic problems.Roger Williamson, Visiting Fellow, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/374922015-03-03T10:59:17Z2015-03-03T10:59:17ZMaybe the hardest nut for a new scientist to crack: finding a job<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73482/original/image-20150302-15953-215g2q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A love of science and a lifetime of work don't guarantee a successful job hunt.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-95950105/stock-photo-new-career-ahead-concept-road-surface-marking-with-arrow.html">Woman image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The typical biography of a scientist might look something like this.</p>
<p>At a young age, a boy or girl <a href="http://physics4u.info/?p=169">discovers a love for science</a>. Their dream is to become perhaps a <a href="http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/geology.html">geologist</a>, a <a href="http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/adventures-in-chemistry.html">chemist</a>, or a <a href="http://www.seaurchinsmag.com/">marine biologist</a>.</p>
<p>At school they work hard at math and science, and they supplement this with everything else they can get their hands on: books, documentaries, public talks and visits to museums. They take <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2010/08/02/advice-for-young-aspiring-scie/">all the right courses at college</a> and then <a href="http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1286">embark on a PhD</a> in their chosen field.</p>
<p>After many years of hard effort (including chunks of time <a href="http://phdtalk.blogspot.ca/2013/09/20-tips-for-surviving-your-phd.html">racked with doubt and frustration</a>), they complete a solid body of work that contains <a href="http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/">some genuinely new discoveries</a>. They’ve had the chance <a href="http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/just-met-my-science-hero.453953473/">to meet some of the big names</a> they read about as a kid, and now actually know some of them on a first-name basis.</p>
<p>The day a young graduate receives his or her science diploma is the most thrilling and satisfying day of their life. They are finally, officially, a scientist.</p>
<p>But there’s one thing that all those years of study and research has not prepared them for: <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/02/the-phd-bust-americas-awful-market-for-young-scientists-in-7-charts/273339/">the job market</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73484/original/image-20150302-15960-tottx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73484/original/image-20150302-15960-tottx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73484/original/image-20150302-15960-tottx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73484/original/image-20150302-15960-tottx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73484/original/image-20150302-15960-tottx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73484/original/image-20150302-15960-tottx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73484/original/image-20150302-15960-tottx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73484/original/image-20150302-15960-tottx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There must be a job out there somewhere….</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/tripletlads/2611648015">Michael Salerno</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Pounding the pavement as a scientist</h2>
<p>No matter what your profession, job hunting is not fun. But for scientists and other researchers, it’s a weird world of intense competition, painfully long time scales, and uncertain outcomes.</p>
<p>The strangest thing about a scientific career is that the application deadlines are often <a href="https://diracseashore.wordpress.com/2008/11/13/postdoc-season-officially-open/">ridiculously early</a>. Hoping to find a university position starting in September? If you wait until February or March to begin your job search, you’ve likely left it way too late. The application deadlines for some of the juiciest positions were <a href="http://jobregister.aas.org/archives/issue?year=2014&month=11">way back in November and December</a>.</p>
<p>Because of this advanced schedule, only the things that someone accomplishes a year or more before actually needing a new job will matter for their career prospects. Any amazing discoveries made after the application deadline are largely irrelevant.</p>
<p>The problem is that this is not always how science works.</p>
<p>For many important research topics, <a href="http://www.researchgate.net/post/Paper_writing_before_or_after_thesis_writing">all the headline results emerge only at the very end</a>. Students whose research is part of a massive longitudinal study or who are members of a big project team suddenly find themselves at a huge disadvantage, because they often can’t provide instant evidence of the quality of their work a whole year before needing a job.</p>
<p>The other daunting thing is the intensity of the competition. For most specialized scientific topics, there are far more PhD degrees than job postings: across all of science, doctoral degrees outnumber faculty positions <a href="http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v31/n10/fig_tab/nbt.2706_F1.html">by a ratio of 12 to one</a>. An advertisement for a fellowship or junior faculty position will routinely draw <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/hundreds-of-phd-students-chasing-every-early-career-post/2016799.article">hundreds of applications</a>, and only 1%-2% of graduates will <a href="http://sciblogs.co.nz/code-for-life/2013/01/29/from-science-phd-to-careers-outside-academia-what-might-help/">eventually land a coveted professorship</a>.</p>
<p>How to proceed, when the odds are so stacked against you? Inevitably, the only way to counter the competition is to apply for lots of positions. A budding scientist is expected to apply for <a href="https://labandfield.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/the-long-and-winding-road-or-the-applicationinterview-ratio/">a dozen or more jobs</a>, spread all over the world.</p>
<p>This situation immediately creates some challenges and problems.</p>
<p>By increasing the quantity of applications, the quality suffers. In an ideal world, an applicant will provide <a href="http://www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday/asbmbtoday_article.aspx?id=48927">a carefully wrought narrative</a>, weaving a story as to how their skills and background perfectly dovetail with the interest of the department they hope will hire them. But there’s no time for that. Instead one typically sends out a generic CV and research plan, and then essentially just hopes for the best.</p>
<p>The process is also incredibly inefficient. Professors all over write <a href="http://science-professor.blogspot.ca/2010/03/wasted-time.html">endless careful letters</a> of recommendation, most of which <a href="http://www.newappsblog.com/2011/10/should-we-abolish-letters-of-recommendation.html">have little bearing on the outcome</a>. Selection panels spend hundreds of hours reading huge piles of applications, but can only afford a scant 10-15 minutes considering the merits of each candidate.</p>
<p>What’s more, not everyone can freely pursue jobs anywhere the market will take them. Young children, aging parents and other personal circumstances result in a large pool of outstanding scientists with strong geographic constraints, and hence <a href="http://www.uq.edu.au/research/research-management/uq-postdoctoral-research-fellowships-for-women">limited options</a>.</p>
<p>Overall, the harsh reality is that <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-pushes-for-more-scientists-but-the-jobs-arent-there/2012/07/07/gJQAZJpQUW_story.html">many applicants will simply not get any offers</a>. A lifelong dream of being a scientist, combined with an advanced postgraduate degree, is tragically not a guarantee of a scientific career.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73479/original/image-20150302-15991-18m4m0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73479/original/image-20150302-15991-18m4m0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73479/original/image-20150302-15991-18m4m0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73479/original/image-20150302-15991-18m4m0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73479/original/image-20150302-15991-18m4m0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73479/original/image-20150302-15991-18m4m0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73479/original/image-20150302-15991-18m4m0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even for bright, prepared scientists the road ahead is not clear.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-95950105/stock-photo-new-career-ahead-concept-road-surface-marking-with-arrow.html">Road image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Good scientists should be able to find jobs</h2>
<p>The frustration, disappointment and disillusionment grow every year. Things need to change.</p>
<p>First, employers need to make much more of an effort to tell applicants what sort of scientist they are looking for. Instead of reducing the job searching process to the scientific equivalent of speed dating, advertisements need to set out a <a href="http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/hiring-and-training/job-descriptions/main">clear and detailed set of selection criteria</a>, with lots of context and background on the role and working environment. By properly telling the community what they’re looking for, labs and research institutes can focus their time on candidates with useful qualifications, and applicants can focus their energy on only those jobs for which they have a realistic chance.</p>
<p>Second, we need to create <a href="http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Our-vision/Flexible-research-careers/index.htm">flexible career paths</a>. Part-time positions, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-body_problem_%28career%29">“two body” hires</a> for couples with both members in academia, and accommodation of career interruptions need to become <em>de rigueur</em>, rather than whispered legends we’ve all only ever heard about second- or third-hand.</p>
<p>And finally, a specialist science degree needs to move beyond the expectation that it offers training only in one particular type of science.</p>
<p>A good scientist graduates with passion, vision and brilliance, and also with persistence, organization, rigor, eloquence and clarity. A scientist can incisively separate out truth from falsehoods, and can solve complicated problems with precious little starting information. These are highly desired attributes. The scientific community needs not just accept but celebrate that the skills and values we cherish are the paths to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/513005a">a wide range of stimulating and satisfying careers</a> – both in and out of academia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/37492/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryan Gaensler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A lifetime of study and preparation are no guarantee of success for PhDs when they hit the job market. Things can and should be improved.Bryan Gaensler, Director, Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics , University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/381872015-03-03T06:22:49Z2015-03-03T06:22:49ZIraq government cuts threaten its brightest students abroad<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73529/original/image-20150302-15987-1wu2iv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A protest by postgraduate students near the Iraqi cultural attache in London on March 2. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Iraqis pursuing postgraduate study abroad face a difficult future, after the country’s higher education minister <a href="https://www.facebook.com/scholarship4000/photos/pcb.729383330493882/729382697160612/?type=1&theater">signed two measures</a> cutting their stipends by up to 50% and limiting support to three years.</p>
<p>The measures, due to come into effect from April, will also affect any student hoping for an advanced degree from a foreign institution. Only candidates whose visas have been approved will be supported by the higher education ministry. All new scholarships have been frozen indefinitely by other funding bodies such as the <a href="http://hcediraq.org/HCED_english_website/homeen.html">Higher Committee for Education Development in Iraq</a> (HCEDI).</p>
<p>Demonstrations and sit-ins near Iraqi embassies and consulates are envisaged all over the world. In Britain, Iraqi students <a href="https://m.facebook.com/events/584422345028767?ref=m_notif&notif_t=plan_mall_activity">protested</a> on March 2. </p>
<h2>Financial struggles to come</h2>
<p>As the supervisor of numerous PhD and Masters candidates, including many from the Middle East, I am concerned by the chilling effect on Iraq’s top students and thus on the country’s future.</p>
<p>Tuition fees paid directly by the Iraqi government to global universities are unaffected for existing students, but the reduction in funding means that many will struggle with living costs for themselves and their families.</p>
<p>Stipends are slashed by 33% for the most expensive countries, such as Britain, the US, Canada, and Australia. In other countries, including Turkey, Malaysia, and Lebanon, the reduction is up to 50%.</p>
<p>The effect is compounded for some students by the unequal distribution of the cuts, set out by a special committee in the Higher Education Ministry. The reduction in support for a single student is 15% and 22% for a married student without children. Married students with children will lose 33% of their support, irrespective of the family size.</p>
<p>The decision to halt all funding for a fourth, “writing-up” year for PhD students was made in defiance of the 1971 Government Scholarships Law, which states that funding must cover the period to complete the dissertation.</p>
<p>The changes are part of austerity policies as the government of Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi faces the challenge of the Islamic State, internal conflict, issues with energy production, and declining global oil prices. </p>
<h2>Reversing progress in higher education</h2>
<p>The decision is a reversal of Baghdad’s efforts after the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein to encourage the <a href="https://theconversation.com/iraq-needs-academics-to-rebuild-reputation-of-its-university-sector-24175">regeneration of Iraq through the higher education</a> of promising youth. </p>
<p>Before 2003, it was impossible to obtain a government scholarship unless the candidate was a member of the ruling Ba'ath Party. Although it took successive governments several years to pass a scholarships law, and although this the result was far from flawless, qualified students had their hopes raised. This was particularly the case after the <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/iraq-massive-fraud-and-corruption-in-higher-education/15214">Iraq Educational Initiative</a> supported by then prime minister Nuri al-Maliki in 2009, beginning as the pilot project of the HCEDI. </p>
<p>The committee flourished between 2010 and 2013, intending to send around 10,000 top students to Britain, the United States, Australia, and Japan. Meanwhile, the Higher Education Ministry announced an additional plan for 10,000 scholarships to world universities from 2012 onwards. </p>
<p>Economic issues have restricted these ambitions. According to information from Iraqi officials, the HCEDI has funded approximately 2,000 scholarships and the ministry about 4,000. Only scholarships sponsored by the Iraqi Kurdistan Government for Kurds have met declared goals. </p>
<p>Many candidates have obtained or are close to being awarded degrees, despite the challenges of Iraq’s security situation and the complicated visa and travel procedures for foreign study. Despite concerns for their families and loved ones in Iraq – threatened by daily violence, suicide bombs, and kidnapping, with the situation getting worse after the atrocities of the Islamic State – students have shown great determination to succeed.</p>
<h2>Will Baghdad reconsider?</h2>
<p>While recognising the difficult economic situation that has prompted the cuts, students are arguing that the government’s austerity measure seem to target those without means, while leaving the wealthy and powerful unaffected. They <a href="https://www.facebook.com/scholarship4000/">have launched an electronic campaign</a> under the hashtag “No” to protest, calling first for a reduction in the salaries of MPs. </p>
<p>As one student comments: “These scholarships are the only ray of hope in an unstable country for us, and we will challenge all the difficult circumstances to keep it shining.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38187/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Lucas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reduction in funding for overseas students sparks protest from Iraq postgraduates.Scott Lucas, Professor of International Politics, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/380262015-03-02T11:08:01Z2015-03-02T11:08:01ZEarly-career researchers the missing link for STEM diversity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73365/original/image-20150228-16179-17n4i4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who's missing from the STEM picture? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-224174704/stock-photo-interior-of-modern-research-laboratory.html">Lab image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When high school physics teacher Moses Rifkin wrote a recent blog post on “<a href="https://quantumprogress.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/guest-post-teaching-social-justice-in-the-physics-classroom-part-1/">Teaching Social Justice in the Physics Classroom</a>,” he ignited a new round of conversation about white privilege and the kinds of skills scientists need. Rifkin outlined how he incorporates into his teaching a unit on “Who does physics, and why?” to highlight the lack of diversity in science, particularly physics.</p>
<p>The problem isn’t new and it isn’t going away by itself. But it is getting more and more attention. The United States National Science Foundation (NSF) recently released a <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_key=nsf15037a">report</a>, “Pathways to Broadening Participation in response to the Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering 2011–2012 Recommendation,” intended to “build on best practices and offer new approaches” that would “increase participation in STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math] from underrepresented groups.” This isn’t the first initiative of its kind for the agency; since 1980, NSF has had a <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/nsf/nsfpubs/straplan/mission.htm">mandate</a> to increase the participation of women and minorities in science and engineering.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/news/2012/07/12/11900/the-top-10-economic-facts-of-diversity-in-the-workplace/">diverse science and engineering workforce</a> is critical for innovation, entrepreneurism and a competitive national economy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73361/original/image-20150228-16172-ybpl3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73361/original/image-20150228-16172-ybpl3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73361/original/image-20150228-16172-ybpl3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73361/original/image-20150228-16172-ybpl3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73361/original/image-20150228-16172-ybpl3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73361/original/image-20150228-16172-ybpl3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73361/original/image-20150228-16172-ybpl3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73361/original/image-20150228-16172-ybpl3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers should reflect the country’s population.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bassclarinetist/6905633213">MissTessmacher</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Scope of the problem</h2>
<p>Although women earn about half the bachelor’s degrees awarded in <a href="http://www.aps.org/programs/education/statistics/womenmajors.cfm">biology and chemistry</a>, they are underrepresented in all other STEM disciplines – mathematics, computer science, earth sciences, engineering and physics. Women are half the population, but hold only 28% of science and engineering jobs.</p>
<p>Native American and Alaska Native students earn bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields at about the same rate as white students (<a href="http://www.niea.org/Research/Statistics.aspx">21% for women and 27% for men</a>), but are not employed in STEM fields proportionally. The number of <a href="http://www.aps.org/programs/education/statistics/aamajors.cfm">black</a> and <a href="http://www.aps.org/programs/education/statistics/hispanicmajors.cfm">Hispanic</a> students earning degrees in STEM fields is lower than the national average, and their employment in STEM – once again – isn’t proportional. We train students in STEM fields, but ultimately they leave the <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/harsh-reality-1.16465">carousel that is employment in research</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73036/original/image-20150225-1780-6sg3hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73036/original/image-20150225-1780-6sg3hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73036/original/image-20150225-1780-6sg3hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73036/original/image-20150225-1780-6sg3hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73036/original/image-20150225-1780-6sg3hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73036/original/image-20150225-1780-6sg3hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73036/original/image-20150225-1780-6sg3hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73036/original/image-20150225-1780-6sg3hi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The current demographics of scientists do not reflect our population.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Science Foundation Broadening Participation Report</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The issues with relying largely on one demographic group to do science are many, particularly when that group does not reflect the population. <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0079147">Research has shown</a> that “promoting diversity not only promotes representation and fairness but may lead to higher quality science.” Policies that increase equity are often good for everyone – <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2012/01/06/surprise-surprise-gender-equal/">here</a> is a recent example showing this using standardized math test scores.</p>
<p>Increasing the diversity in science opens up the possibility of stable, high-paying jobs in STEM fields to more Americans. Pulling from the entire population, including <a href="http://informalscience.org/projects/ic-000-000-000-131/Hispanic_Pathways_to_Family_Science_Literacy,_STEM_Careers_and_Green_Jobs">traditionally underrepresented communities</a>, provides a more robust base for economic innovation and the knowledge-intensive jobs of the future. </p>
<p>Equity is good for business, too. Although women in technology are some of the <a href="http://www.illuminate.com/whitepaper/">highest performing entrepreneurs</a>, men receive <a href="http://www.kauffman.org/%7E/media/kauffman_org/research%20reports%20and%20covers/2014/11/sources_of_economic_hope_womens_entrepreneurship.pdf#page=16">2.8 times</a> more startup capital. </p>
<h2>Where do we need to be?</h2>
<p>The National Science Foundation is a key player for academics, as its budget (<a href="http://www.nsf.gov/about/congress/114/highlights/cu15_0109.jsp">$7.3 billion for 2015</a>) funds approximately <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/about/glance.jsp">24%</a> of all federally supported basic research. NSF uses a <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/bfa/dias/policy/merit_review/reviewer.jsp">peer-based merit review system</a> to invest in basic research that lays the foundation for important discoveries, as well as applied research that provides innovative fodder for our economy. Its prominence as a funding source for colleges and universities is part of the reason its initiatives are important for many researchers.</p>
<p>According to the new diversity report, “the <a href="http://nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15037/nsf15037.pdf#page=10">ultimate goal</a> is to have participation in STEM fields mirror the population of the Nation.” Specifically, that means we need to focus on recruiting and retaining the best talent from currently under-represented groups: blacks, Latinos and indigenous communities, including Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders. Based on recent <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/progressive-movement/report/2015/02/24/107261/states-of-change/">estimates</a>, by 2044 the United States will be a majority-minority country, so to have the research workforce mirror the population we need a clear path to retain people in research positions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73035/original/image-20150225-1814-11eeps6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73035/original/image-20150225-1814-11eeps6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73035/original/image-20150225-1814-11eeps6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73035/original/image-20150225-1814-11eeps6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73035/original/image-20150225-1814-11eeps6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73035/original/image-20150225-1814-11eeps6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73035/original/image-20150225-1814-11eeps6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73035/original/image-20150225-1814-11eeps6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=979&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By 2044, the United States will be a majority-minority country.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/progressive-movement/report/2015/02/24/107261/states-of-change/">Ruy Teixeria, William H. Frey, Rob Griffin/Center for American Progress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There is a need for a clear, well supported career pathway for early- and mid-career researchers, with an emphasis on retaining traditionally underrepresented groups. And NSF isn’t the only institution focusing on this issue. The <a href="http://commonfund.nih.gov/diversity/overview">National Institutes of Health</a>, the <a href="http://www.nsfagep.org/evaluation-resources/">American Association for the Advancement of Science</a>, and the scientific journals <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/diversity-1.15913">Nature</a> and <a href="http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/diversity-issues">Science</a>) have all discussed the problematic lack of diversity in science. In 2013 the White House <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/stem_stratplan_2013.pdf">released</a> a 5-year strategic plan for STEM Education, which emphasized creating a diverse STEM workforce.</p>
<h2>How do we get there?</h2>
<p>NSF has pulled together the most current evidence-based strategies to increase diversity in STEM. The report groups proposed interventions into the following six categories.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Financial support</strong>, primarily geared toward supporting college students</li>
<li><strong>Professional and social support</strong>, with renewed emphasis on the importance of learning in both formal and informal settings</li>
<li><strong>Mentoring</strong>, to provide one-on-one career advice and role models to show the path, as well as the destination</li>
<li><strong>Research experience</strong>, critical to <a href="http://nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15037/nsf15037.pdf#page=31">develop and sustain interest</a> in STEM education and careers</li>
<li><strong>Combating stereotype threat</strong>, the <a href="http://nsf.gov/pubs/2015/nsf15037/nsf15037.pdf#page=30">fear of “confirming a negative stereotype</a> about one’s group (e.g., women aren’t good at math)”</li>
<li><strong>Community building</strong>, combining all the above ideas, adding institutional commitment and support for building scientific capacity. Setting and measuring the achievement of specific goals, and accountability when they are or are not met, is key</li>
</ul>
<p>Most importantly, what is the career pathway that will take students on to careers in science and engineering research? The total number of postdoctoral researchers (those who have recently earned their PhD) at federally funded research centers dropped <a href="http://nsf.gov/statistics/2015/nsf15312/#chp1&chp2">between 2012 and 2013</a>; the loss was more pronounced for women (-13%) than for men (-4%).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73356/original/image-20150227-16179-qh9vxs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73356/original/image-20150227-16179-qh9vxs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73356/original/image-20150227-16179-qh9vxs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73356/original/image-20150227-16179-qh9vxs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73356/original/image-20150227-16179-qh9vxs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73356/original/image-20150227-16179-qh9vxs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73356/original/image-20150227-16179-qh9vxs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73356/original/image-20150227-16179-qh9vxs.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These data were compiled from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Survey of Postdocs at Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, Fall 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>NSF could expand postdoctoral fellowship <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503214">programs</a>, implementing some designed to foster collaboration with industry. They could increase funding for the <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=6668&org=NSF">Centers for Research Excellence in Science and Technology</a>, which earmarks resources for minority-serving institutions and historically black colleges and universities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73363/original/image-20150228-16160-12mmq3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73363/original/image-20150228-16160-12mmq3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/73363/original/image-20150228-16160-12mmq3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73363/original/image-20150228-16160-12mmq3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73363/original/image-20150228-16160-12mmq3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73363/original/image-20150228-16160-12mmq3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73363/original/image-20150228-16160-12mmq3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/73363/original/image-20150228-16160-12mmq3e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Traditionally underrepresented scientists should be more common, and not just in stock photos.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-126648635/stock-photo-scientists-using-microscopes-and-digital-tablet-in-laboratory.html">Scientists image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The bottom line</h2>
<p>The research community has made it clear that the reasons for attrition need to be better understood. But more importantly, we need to stem the tide of highly specialized, highly trained people leaving research. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/fox-news-america-is-behind-because-science-class-wastes-time-on-the-lack-of-black-physicists/">Non-scientists</a> – including journalists and media personalities – who comment on what skills scientists need to be successful are often terrifically far off the mark, but could be influencing the next generation of potential STEM workers. Scientists believe we need to broaden participation so we have the most creative problem-solvers trained and ready to work. Recognizing and rectifying inequity is part of our core work, because it helps us do better research. Researchers working at the cold face of problems that didn’t even exist ten years ago realize we need a diverse range of scientists to pull from to be competitive, and this is exactly what the report from NSF illustrates. </p>
<p>If we really want the best scientists doing research, as we say we do, then we must have a hiring pool that reflects the diversity of the nation. Our best scientists aren’t getting any younger, and we need support for early-career researchers in academic, industry and government positions now.</p>
<hr>
<p>Editor’s note: Maggie will be available online to answer questions about the STEM/diversity job connection from 5-6pm EST on Thursday March 5, which is 8-9am AEST on Friday March 6 . You can ask your questions about the article in the comments below.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margaret C. Hardy receives funding from The University of Queensland.</span></em></p>Even when women and minorities earn STEM degrees, they don’t take the next step into gainful employment at the same rates as white men.Maggie Hardy, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/350592014-12-09T11:08:23Z2014-12-09T11:08:23ZSTEM postdoc researchers are highly trained, but for what?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66450/original/image-20141205-8651-1lhu82x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">All dressed up with nowhere to go?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harvard_University_Academic_Hoods.jpg">Joe Hall</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The STEM fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics supposedly suffer from a shortage of graduates. Conventional wisdom says there’s no one for employers to hire for science and engineering jobs. This STEM shortage <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/the-myth-of-the-science-and-engineering-shortage/284359/">myth</a> has even figured in the immigration debate in the US.</p>
<p>But look again. There are actually plenty of STEM graduates; the US is just training them the wrong way. It’s true there are many professional <a href="http://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2014/09/15/the-stem-worker-shortage-is-real">STEM vacancies</a> but there are also many STEM grads who could fill them. The problem is the current training pipeline doesn’t direct graduates to these non-academic jobs.</p>
<p>STEM students aren’t prepped for the professional world. Instead, they are guided toward an academic workforce that has expanded through a dramatic rise in the number of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Graduate researchers and postdocs – that is, researchers with PhDs carrying out advanced research – are part of the academic career track originally designed to lead to tenured academic research positions. As renowned engineer <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/nsf50/vbush1945.htm">Vannevar Bush advised</a> President Truman in 1945, while advocating for the creation of a National Science Foundation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The plan should be designed to attract into science only that proportion of the youthful talent appropriate to the needs of science in relation to the other needs of the nation’s high priority.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, the number of permanent – that is, tenured – jobs has not increased since that time, leading to <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/111/16/5773">hyper-competition</a> and a <a href="http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/10/04/glut-postdoc-researchers-stirs-quiet-crisis-science/HWxyErx9RNIW17khv0MWTN/story.html">massive pool of postdocs</a>. Junior researchers are shamed by a culture that perceives leaving academia as a <a href="http://io9.com/this-is-what-your-professors-really-think-about-you-lea-1602546952">betrayal</a>. Colloquially non-academic jobs are referred to as “alternative” careers. But when <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0036307">only 10% of PhD students</a> end up in tenured positions, the term “alternative” is highly misleading.</p>
<p>Training relevant to other career tracks is either not forthcoming or culturally discouraged. And there’s not even adequate training for the managerial responsibilities academic researchers will be saddled with – if they’re lucky enough to secure an academic position. Practical science, and the accumulation and publication of data is where training is directed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66441/original/image-20141205-8636-kvw0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66441/original/image-20141205-8636-kvw0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66441/original/image-20141205-8636-kvw0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66441/original/image-20141205-8636-kvw0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66441/original/image-20141205-8636-kvw0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66441/original/image-20141205-8636-kvw0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66441/original/image-20141205-8636-kvw0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66441/original/image-20141205-8636-kvw0t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Junior scientists must be realistic and realize they likely won’t have a permanent seat at the table in academe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oxford_-_Keble_College_-_0594.jpg">Jorge Royan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Postdocs joining forces</h2>
<p>A group of Boston postdocs, led by Jessica Polka and Kristin Krukenberg at Harvard Medical School, organized the <a href="http://futureofresearch.org/">Future of Research Symposium</a> to bring graduate students and postdocs together to discuss these problems facing young academics and to come up with potential solutions. Attendees <a href="http://f1000research.com/articles/3-291/v1">outlined</a> the position of junior scientists in Boston and proposed a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5256/f1000research.5878.d39822">wide range of possible solutions</a> in the categories of connectivity, transparency and investment. </p>
<h2>Connectivity</h2>
<p>Graduate students and postdocs should talk. Being a postdoc can be a lonely business. Most postdocs are <a href="http://academicexecutives.elsevier.com/articles/us-research-enterprise-powered-international-postdocs">from abroad</a> and move out of their former networks to entirely new regions, so there are both social and academic reasons for greater connection between scientists. </p>
<p>These junior scientists must interact with institutions, making use of graduate student councils and postdoctoral associations, to ensure adequate training and benefits are provided. They should connect with learned societies and nominate themselves for committees that include young scientists, to make their voices heard.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66452/original/image-20141206-8636-rnf3aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66452/original/image-20141206-8636-rnf3aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66452/original/image-20141206-8636-rnf3aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66452/original/image-20141206-8636-rnf3aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66452/original/image-20141206-8636-rnf3aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=760&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66452/original/image-20141206-8636-rnf3aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66452/original/image-20141206-8636-rnf3aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66452/original/image-20141206-8636-rnf3aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=955&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Comparison of before and after concrete benefits of unionization in CA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://elifesciences.org/content/3/e05614">Cain et al. How postdocs benefit from building a union</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Organizations including the <a href="http://nagps.org/">National Association of Graduate-Professional Students</a> and <a href="http://www.npacommunity.org/">National Postdoctoral Association</a> allow nationwide interactions. Postdocs in the University of California system have unionized, and junior scientists around the country have noted the resultant <a href="http://elifesciences.org/content/3/e05614">benefits</a>, which include greater connectivity throughout the community across different campuses.</p>
<h2>Transparency</h2>
<p>Nobody knows how many postdocs there are in the US; this is unacceptable. The National Institutes of Health only recently <a href="http://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2014/11/17/better-trainee-data-streamlined-reporting/">began tracking</a> researchers on training grants. Institutions should monitor how many junior scientists they have and their career outcomes and make this data available. </p>
<p>Junior scientists lack career awareness: they need to wise up to career realities. But also institutions must be transparent about career outcomes of their trainees. We must stop telling all PhD students they will become academics; most won’t.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66443/original/image-20141205-8648-mn12rg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66443/original/image-20141205-8648-mn12rg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/66443/original/image-20141205-8648-mn12rg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66443/original/image-20141205-8648-mn12rg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66443/original/image-20141205-8648-mn12rg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66443/original/image-20141205-8648-mn12rg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66443/original/image-20141205-8648-mn12rg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/66443/original/image-20141205-8648-mn12rg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Postdocs can become the workhorses of the lab, supporting a principal investigator’s science, without future prospects of their own.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:R_Holley.jpg">Sol Goldberg</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Investment</h2>
<p>We postdocs don’t necessarily want more money. <a href="http://www.nih.gov/about/director/Neuroscience.pdf">Doubling of the NIH budget</a> in 2003 led to this crisis in the first place. Instead we call for more funding of graduate students and postdocs through training grants that give more power to the junior scientists to develop their own careers.</p>
<p>Graduate students currently need permission from their advisors to graduate; I know many who have been trapped in the lab by advisors reluctant to let go of students when they’re most productive. In the UK, my PhD was funded by a training grant: my advisor had no way to delay my graduation and indeed there was a limit of four years to submission before the funding council would actually impose penalties on future grant applications. These measures ensure security for students in their training timelines.</p>
<h2>Continuing the conversation</h2>
<p>This is a worldwide problem. In a report examining <a href="http://nuffieldbioethics.org/project/research-culture/">the culture of scientific research</a>, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics revealed that out of 100 PhD students, 30 will get postdoctoral positions, and 4 will end up with permanent academic research positions in the UK, showing that the situation is even worse than in the US, with an added bottleneck at the PhD to postdoc transition. And this is not just a science problem: there are <a href="https://chroniclevitae.com/news/593-a-brief-history-of-the-humanities-postdoc">increasing numbers of postdocs</a>, and particularly <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/04/the-adjunct-professor-crisis/361336/">adjunct faculty</a>, in the humanities.</p>
<p>Public money is being wasted by directing people towards nonexistent jobs. If junior scientists aren’t going to be trained for non-academic careers during PhD and postdoctoral research, the number of people in the system simply must be reduced. However, if we accept that PhDs and postdocs can and should be trained for other career paths, then we can produce highly-skilled professionals with analytical and communication skills, able to influence technology, policy and business to the benefit of society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35059/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary McDowell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The STEM fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics supposedly suffer from a shortage of graduates. Conventional wisdom says there’s no one for employers to hire for science and engineering…Gary McDowell, Postdoctoral Fellow in Regenerative and Developmental Biology, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/329252014-10-24T10:57:31Z2014-10-24T10:57:31ZWhy Ireland’s postgrad funding squeeze has forced me to become an academic exile<p>As a young humanities scholar at the beginning of my PhD, my experience with the Irish postgraduate research funding system has left me disillusioned. So much so that I have joined the list of emigrants from Irish academia. </p>
<p>Being faced with three to five years of tuition fees for my doctoral study on media studies, I went in search of funding in Ireland. The fees differ according to university and course, but hover close to the €6,000 mark (£4,800) for my subject area. With the fees increasing every year, four years of enrolment would cost me more than €23,000. </p>
<h2>Irish funding landscape</h2>
<p>Ireland’s <a href="http://postgradireland.com/advice-and-funding/funding/funding-postgraduate-study-ireland">postgraduate funding system</a> is made up of individual universities, commercial entities with vested interests, various state funding bodies – including government grants, and EU schemes. The application process in Irish universities is centralised in the <a href="https://www.pac.ie/">Postgraduate Applications Centre</a>.</p>
<p>Individual institutions do have postgraduate funding competitions at university, college, or departmental level – and these have to be applied for separately. But these competitions are very thin on the ground and often consist of a fees-only scholarship, rather than a full studentship including a maintenance stipend. Depending on the individual candidate’s circumstances, a fees-only scholarship might mean they will have to find employment and work long hours alongside their research. This is not an ideal situation for the creation of original knowledge.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://research.ie/">Irish Research Council</a> (IRC) has been the main national funding research body since 2012, after two separate bodies were consolidated. Before then they dealt with separate disciplines – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) on one side, and social sciences and humanities on the other. Now, it all comes out of one pot but is divided up into two streams. </p>
<h2>Highly competitive</h2>
<p>In the 2013 Government of Ireland Scholarship scheme, €17.9m was allocated through 247 awards with the majority for PhDs alongside some masters degrees, according to the IRC. Of this funding, 45% was for research in the humanities and social sciences and 55% in STEM. But the amount fell in the 2014 round, with the <a href="http://research.ie/awards/government-ireland-postgraduate-scholarships-2014">IRC awarding 219 postgraduate awards</a> totalling €16.8m. This year the breakdown was 43% for the humanities, and 57% for STEM subjects. </p>
<p>The IRC <a href="http://www.research.ie/aboutus/about-irc">declares non-bias</a> towards disciplines: “The Council funds excellent researchers across all disciplines and encourages interdisciplinary research and engagement with enterprise.”</p>
<p>IRC’s annual doctoral funding competition, which currently includes a fees scholarship and €16,000 yearly stipend, is notoriously competitive. Throughout my application, I was told by both current PhD students and senior academic staff in Ireland that it is hardly worth applying for in my discipline. The process includes a stringent and ambiguous <a href="http://www.research.ie/sites/default/files/postgraduate_2014_indicative_postgraduate_application_form.docx">application form</a>, which makes the task more difficult. </p>
<p>I asked the IRC to comment on these issues. They responded, emphasising their commitment to supporting excellent researchers across all disciplines through several highly competitive funding schemes, which are assessed by an “international panel of experts”.</p>
<h2>EU funding no easier</h2>
<p>At EU level, the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/">Horizon 2020 research strategy</a> is worth €80 billion to researchers across the member states between 2014 and 2020. A quick look at the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/opportunities/index.html">current list of funding calls</a> shows familiar demands to demonstrate quantifiability and potential commercial profit-making potential, which are perpetuated by so many funding bodies. This is to the detriment of numerous disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, which deal with less concrete, less economically quantifiable issues. </p>
<p>After nine months and more than 20 applications across the EU, I have been lucky enough to secure funding in a UK university. I will be able to concentrate fully on my doctoral research without worrying about working alongside to fund it. Too many young Irish scholars face this compromising situation.</p>
<h2>Weakness in Irish system</h2>
<p>Ireland is in a dire situation in comparison to the UK and other EU universities. I applied to more than ten UK universities that offered fully funded studentships across various humanities departments that corresponded to my research interests. On the continent, <a href="http://www.research-in-germany.de/dachportal/en/Jobs-and-Careers-in-Germany/Info-for-PhD-Students/Financing-Funding-PhD/Costs.html">Germany offers free PhD study</a>. </p>
<p>Of course, Ireland has a much smaller population than these countries and cannot offer every funding for every specialisation. Despite this, Ireland needs to look at its system of university financing for the sake of future generations of scholars. The figures since austerity policies have been implemented are distressing, with a <a href="http://www.eua.be/publicfundingobservatory">20% drop in public funding </a> for higher education between 2008 and 2012 according to the European University Association.</p>
<p>Irish universities have begun to speak out about their lack of capacity to fund postgraduate and postdoctoral research. Some have become <a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/trinity-world-ranking-funding-1701731-Oct2014/">more vocal</a> about this as their world rankings drop.</p>
<h2>Humanities left aside</h2>
<p>I am in a minority of the population pursuing higher education to doctoral level. And you may ask why should humanities researchers like me be supported? I answer that the academy is a special sector, which should not be measured according to economic criteria. </p>
<p>Innovation as commercial entrepreneurship should not be the ultimate yardstick. The social good fostered by the pursuit of human knowledge is immeasurable. The humanities have a special place in this scheme – a message that is increasingly <a href="http://beinghumanfestival.org/less-stressed-humanities/">being communicated to the general public</a>. </p>
<p>Are young Irish scholars destined to work in a system that undermines them through <a href="https://chroniclevitae.com/news/762-the-adjunct-crisis-is-everyone-s-problem">precarious labour and casual contracts</a>, <a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/college-funding-per-student-falls-24pc-to-9000-30673513.html">reduced funding</a> and <a href="http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/75806/3/wardv1.pdf">inappropriate performance criteria</a>? Are we destined to become, in a word, “<a href="http://www.hammeronpress.net/page19.htm">para-academics</a>”?</p>
<p>The <a href="http://notesonthefront.typepad.com/politicaleconomy/2014/03/normal-euro-zone-countries-dont-export-their-people.html">emigration</a> of Irish people, a special case in Western Europe, continues into academia. It doesn’t have to be this way. But the promotion of a vibrant research culture in Ireland is futile if scholars are being forced to emigrate or to change careers. To Ireland I have become another figure on the list of young emigrants.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32925/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Niall Flynn receives funding from University of Lincoln.</span></em></p>As a young humanities scholar at the beginning of my PhD, my experience with the Irish postgraduate research funding system has left me disillusioned. So much so that I have joined the list of emigrants…Niall Flynn, PhD candidate, University of LincolnLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/238462014-03-19T06:06:37Z2014-03-19T06:06:37ZNew breed of postgraduate loans could help plug PhD gap<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/43984/original/tvtrhwkc-1394820686.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Breaking the bank. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-148370279/stock-photo-piggy-bank-with-black-graduation-hat-isolated-on-white-background.html?src=oi93ExBPS3NJ-2jHz7w4zg-1-3">Piggy bank image via Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following the resounding silence on postgraduate funding in the 2010 <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31999/10-1208-securing-sustainable-higher-education-browne-report.pdf">Browne Review of Higher Education</a>, the government has had difficulty working out what to do about it. Without access to funding, postgraduate taught courses may increasingly become the preserve of those who can rely on the “Bank of Mum and Dad”. The question of how to make postgraduate education affordable to all remains a major challenge.</p>
<p>It should not be underestimated. Finding enough money to fund upfront tuition fees, together with the cost of supporting yourself for a year, is beyond most students. Yet for many professions, a masters degree is increasingly seen as essential to provide the high-level skills required by employers. </p>
<p>This need is particularly acute for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects that will provide the driving force for the government’s technology strategy and address the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/eight-great-technologies">Eight Great Technologies</a> challenge of David Willetts, minister for university and science.</p>
<h2>Out of the shadows</h2>
<p>Paul Wakeling’s article on <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-postgraduate-study-still-just-for-the-elite-23265">The Conversation</a> has highlighted that postgraduate funding is perhaps no longer quite such a Cinderella in higher education. The Higher Education Funding Council’s (HEFCE) new £25m <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/newsarchive/2013/news85254.html">Postgraduate Support Scheme</a> has funded 20 pilot projects within universities with a view to testing how to increase the proportion of UK students transitioning from undergraduate to postgraduate study. The results from the pilot will inform how HEFCE commits a further £100m of funding from 2015-16, when current postgraduate funding arrangements cease.</p>
<p>While this new funding may seem substantial, the only viable option in the long term is for students to pay their own way. If they cannot find the money then they will need to borrow it, but that is currently an expensive business. One of the few available routes is to take out a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/career-development-loans/overview">career development loan</a>.</p>
<p>These are available from a small number of providers but they have some major disadvantages that prevent them being taken up more widely. You can only borrow up to £10,000 – not enough to pay tuition fees and live for a year. You then have to start repaying within a month of finishing your course, even if you are not yet in employment. CDLs are also expensive with a 10% interest rate and a maximum five-year payback period. All these combine to make them singularly unattractive to students.</p>
<p>Other <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b74fa2cc-21cb-11e1-a19f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2vfOmy6wp">bank loans are also hard to come</a> by for students. For example, in 2011, HSBC withdrew their loan scheme aimed at MBA students and more recent discussions between universities and banks seem to be making little progress.</p>
<h2>New ways of funding</h2>
<p>Encouragingly, some new approaches to lending are being piloted through the HEFCE scheme, including using a Credit Union with a common bond of staff, students and alumni to provide loans for members to undertake postgraduate study. Durham University is <a href="https://www.dur.ac.uk/news/newsitem/?itemno=19590">currently undertaking a feasibility study</a> to establish whether such a model can be developed and sustained long-term. The intention is that this will inform the sector’s learning in this area and identify whether there is market demand for such a product.</p>
<p>Another approach developed by Cranfield University in collaboration with Prodigy Finance Ltd provides an affordable community funding model. The <a href="http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/study/postgraduate-degrees/fees-and-funding/funding-opportunities/cpls/cpls.html">Cranfield Postgraduate Loan Scheme</a> evaluates the credit risk of applicants not only on their past income (as banks do) but also on their predicted future earnings.</p>
<p>This HEFCE-sponsored scheme for UK and EU STEM masters students aims to seek funding from major industrial partners. The “sweet spot” is to bring together companies that recognise the severe skills shortages in their sectors with students who would love to work for them but can’t afford to take the masters course that will make them employable. From the students’ point of view the scheme is much more affordable than a CDL, providing a loan of up to £15,000, which can include maintenance for UK students, with repayments only commencing six months after graduation and with seven years to repay. However attractive this pilot might appear in theory, the acid test is whether it will attract students who wouldn’t otherwise have gone on to postgraduate education. </p>
<p>The continued demand for postgraduate study from students from outside the EU, highlighted recently by the <a href="http://ihe.britishcouncil.org/educationintelligence/future-world-mobile-students-2024">British Council</a>, shines a spotlight on those areas of the world where education is highly valued by individuals as the key opportunity to enhance their careers and their lives. The question is whether UK students can be encouraged to recognise the value of postgraduate education and can then find the funding mechanism that will allow them to realise that value.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23846/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Professor William Stephens headed the Institute of Water and Environment at Cranfield University before becoming Secretary & Registrar. Cranfield has received £2m funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England to pilot the Cranfield Postgraduate Loan Scheme.</span></em></p>Following the resounding silence on postgraduate funding in the 2010 Browne Review of Higher Education, the government has had difficulty working out what to do about it. Without access to funding, postgraduate…William Stephens, Secretary & Registrar, Cranfield UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/232652014-02-20T05:54:04Z2014-02-20T05:54:04ZIs postgraduate study still just for the elite?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41837/original/6hb3wb75-1392730394.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C0%2C941%2C653&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Give me a white coat any day. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> UCL Mathematical and Physical Sciences</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The funding climate for the public sector in England has been as inclement as the actual weather recently. So the government’s <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/media/hefce/content/news/news/2014/grantletter/grant_letter_annex1.pdf">recent allocation of £50m</a> to bring down the barriers for entry into postgraduate education is a welcome relief. </p>
<p>Critics will argue this is neither a new commitment, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/75-million-investment-in-removing-barriers-to-postgraduate-study">having been first announced in July 2013</a>, nor new money since funds have been re-directed from the short-lived <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/wp/currentworktowidenparticipation/nsp/">National Scholarship Programme</a>. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, this is certainly new funding for postgraduate education, responding to demands from a growing list of reports about the problems with UK postgraduate education. It follows the introduction of a <a href="http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/education-secretary-announces-help-for-postgraduate-students-at-snp-conference.1382275739">loan system for postgraduate students in Scotland</a> late last year.</p>
<h2>Postgraduate boom</h2>
<p>Why the concern? Surely postgraduate study is the esoteric activity of that small minority of graduates wishing to become academics? This is an increasingly inaccurate portrayal. Postgraduate study is becoming a prerequisite for entry to some careers and there is evidence that it offers general advantages in the labour market. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.suttontrust.com/our-work/research/item/the-postgraduate-premium/">A study for The Sutton Trust</a> found postgraduates attracted a wage premium, one that has not diminished while the number of postgraduates has increased – and increase they have. Although postgraduates are a minority of all higher education students, their numbers are substantial and growing, with little short of revolutionary growth in the last quarter of a century.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41808/original/8yj6wy8p-1392715070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41808/original/8yj6wy8p-1392715070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41808/original/8yj6wy8p-1392715070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41808/original/8yj6wy8p-1392715070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41808/original/8yj6wy8p-1392715070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41808/original/8yj6wy8p-1392715070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/41808/original/8yj6wy8p-1392715070.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Growth of UK postgraduate student numbers 1960 - 2010.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But beneath this headline growth there are worrying signs. UK universities have been exceptionally successful in attracting international postgraduates, making postgraduate education an important export. Alongside this, numbers of UK postgraduates have stagnated and <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/422358.article">declined in some areas</a>.</p>
<h2>Under supply</h2>
<p>There are three main reasons why this is a problem. The first is economic competitiveness. Our economy requires <a href="https://theconversation.com/business-drops-the-baton-in-higher-ed-innovation-22067">highly-skilled and developed workers to innovate</a> and to sustain the kind of high-value employment which British governments of all shades have prized.</p>
<p>Developing economies such as China and Brazil are investing in postgraduate education as a means of achieving this. We should be wary of simple “educational arms race” arguments, but it certainly appears that, in some sectors, there are issues with the supply of postgraduate-trained workers and entrepreneurs.</p>
<p>A second reason, closely allied to the first, relates to the nature of 21st century knowledge. In many fields, an undergraduate degree is no longer sufficient grounding and more specialised understanding and skills are needed. Humanity faces a set of challenges – climate change, financial crisis, international conflict, a growing population – requiring the application of specialist knowledge and highly developed problem-solving, the very assets which postgraduate education promises.</p>
<h2>Who can afford to be a postgrad?</h2>
<p>But questions of equity and social justice also loom large. There are concerns that postgraduate education is only available to those from advantaged backgrounds. Much attention and effort has been expended on widening participation to first degrees. There is a risk that any gains there are nullified if inequality simply passes up to postgraduate level. </p>
<p>These concerns have focused particularly on the effect of the most recent changes to undergraduate funding which <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-government-shouldnt-privatise-the-student-loan-book-22784">introduced tuition fees of up to £9,000</a> for many UK students. Carrying such large debts, will any but the most well-heeled be able to consider a higher degree?</p>
<p>Funding is difficult to obtain for domestic students on taught masters degrees. The loans available to undergraduates are not available to most UK postgraduates. Professional Career Development Loans provide one possibility, but have been <a href="http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/news/article/postgraduate/Whats-wrong-with-career-development-loans/">heavily criticised</a> for stringent terms, a difficult application process and tight restriction on eligible courses. </p>
<p>The risk here is that only those who can turn to the Bank of Mum and Dad will be able to participate. We need better evidence on whether debt is a deterrent to postgraduate study; but it certainly seems that lack of credit is an issue. </p>
<p>Perhaps a more important consequence of £9,000 undergraduate tuition fees is an accompanying rise in postgraduate fees, which have seen <a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/international-and-postgraduate-student-fees-survey-2013/2006262.fullarticle">rapid inflation recently</a>.</p>
<p>We know that graduates from higher socio-economic backgrounds are the most likely to enter taught postgraduate degrees, but it is not known how much this is due to finance or whether it is related to more academic factors, such as the university attended or subject studied. </p>
<p>Women and students from certain minority ethnic groups are also <a href="http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/news/detail/2013/progression_to_postgraduate_study_in_the_UK">less likely to enter higher degrees</a>, with finance a less obvious explanation. The Higher Education Funding Council for England’s <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2013/201334/">Intentions After Graduation Survey</a>, shows that these under-represented groups have strong aspirations for postgraduate study, but somewhere along the way ambition appears to be thwarted.</p>
<p>It is difficult to understand the situation partly because postgraduate study is complex. It includes 21-year-old graduates progressing immediately to a higher degree, alongside many early-career graduates returning for further study after underemployment. And there also also older workers taking a part-time programme related to their job, often with employer support.</p>
<p>Determining who counts as under-represented and deserving of public support in this diverse group is tricky. It is especially so for postgraduate “returners”, since traditional measures of parental circumstances may lose validity. </p>
<p>Take two hypothetical graduates. One the son of a bus driver and school cook who has just graduated from a Russell Group university on a full grant. The other the daughter of two barristers who graduated five years ago from her local university, lives independently and has been unemployed for the last 18 months. Which is the more disadvantaged?</p>
<p>Projects funded by HEFCE’s £25m <a href="http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/year/2013/cl182013/">Postgraduate Support Scheme</a>
are intended to start providing answers to these questions about access to postgraduate education. Twenty projects involving 40 English universities will investigate funding, access, internships and placements, and the advice and guidance on offer to prospective postgraduates. As the dark clouds gather, it offers a ray of sunshine for postgraduate study in the UK.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23265/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Wakeling is currently engaged by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Higher Education Funding Council for England to analyse and evaluate outcomes from the the Postgraduate Support Scheme programme. He is also working on a project funded as part of the scheme which involves his employer, the University of York and five other universities.</span></em></p>The funding climate for the public sector in England has been as inclement as the actual weather recently. So the government’s recent allocation of £50m to bring down the barriers for entry into postgraduate…Paul Wakeling, Senior Lecturer, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.