Poverty engulfs PhDs

Student poverty, in this case PhDs in poverty, hit the headlines again last week with the news that the stipend was expected to fall below the poverty line by the end of the year.

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations released data showing while average weekly earnings had almost doubled in the past 15 years, the stipend for PhDs had increased by a mere $5747, from $14, 260 to $20,007. Put another way, in 1992, the PhD scholarship was worth 47 per cent of average annual earnings of $30,534, but by 2007, the scholarship had fallen in value to just 35 per cent of average earnings of $55,790.

While few are holding out much hope that the issue will addressed in the upcoming budget (see pages 10-11), but there is optimism that various government inquiries may give the issue due consideration.

“We are not expecting much from this budget due to pressures to keep it fiscally restrained. However, we are hoping that various submissions to the innovation review and the parliamentary select committee inquiry into research training will but the issue on the radar,” Professor Max King, chair of the Deans and Directors of Graduate Students told Campus Review.

The Council for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences echoed CAPAs call for an increase in the stipend by 30 per cent to $26,009. It was part of a five-point plan for government on PhDs which also called for a national inquiry into how many PhDs the country needs and what skills sets were needed from PhDs.

King agreed the CHASS plan encompassed issues not confined to HASS students, including extending the term of the PhD, the need to attract more international postgraduates to Australia and vice versa and a need to address the cost funding differential between HASS and STEM students.

For information go to www.capa.edu.au and www.chass.org.au