Concerns drop in PhD enrolments could harm sector’s reputation

ABC NEWS (Australia)

PhD enrolments at Australian universities are declining and the sector's peak body says it could damage our global reputation. A new report from universities Australia has found enrolments dropped by eight per cent in the five years to 2023.

Transcript

00:00We know that it's not news that we're in a cost-of-living crisis, and at the University

00:08of Melbourne, we know that 73% of postgraduate students say that cost-of-living is their

00:13biggest issue.

00:15And what we've seen is the top talent in the country know and see that the stipend is so

00:19low, and there's so few of them to go around in the first place, indeed, many miss out.

00:26And as a result, many decide to pursue paid work in the industry or go overseas to do

00:31a PhD.

00:33For example, overseas in the US, the stipend is almost double the Australian base rate,

00:39and in the UK, it is substantially higher.

00:42As a result, many of the best and brightest are choosing to pursue other opportunities.

00:47Can you give us an idea of how stipends work in Australia?

00:51Are all PhD researchers considered equal in the amount of money they're given?

00:59So the federal government provides these scholarship grants to the universities, and then the universities

01:09may top up the scholarships, but this creates an impossible choice between offering more

01:15scholarships to provide, and that is more opportunities for people like myself from

01:19regional Victoria to pursue cutting edge research, or to provide bigger stipends so

01:26that the existing PhD students are better supported.

01:29So it's really unfair to say that solely the university's fault, indeed, most universities

01:34utilise whatever resources they can to stretch the federal government funding as far and

01:39wide as they can.

01:41So really, it comes down to the federal government's lack of funding in these PhD scholarships,

01:46which is the root cause.

01:48So when we're looking at stipends, just how much, roughly, does the average person who

01:53is granted one receive?

01:56At the University of Melbourne, we receive this year, $38,500 a year, if you're a full-time

02:02PhD student.

02:05At the University of Sydney, I believe it's about $40,000 a year.

02:08However, at many universities, it is at the very base rate of about $34,400 a year, which

02:17for most people, they'll know that that's well below the minimum wage and just above

02:20the poverty line.

02:22So you yourself are studying, and are you on a stipend now, and is that enough?

02:28Do you have to get financial assistance elsewhere?

02:33Do you have a job?

02:34What do you do to get by?

02:36The fantastic question.

02:38So I investigate how to recover vision after stroke, and so my normal day, I do experimental

02:46eye microsurgery and use incredible instruments, which allow me to see if my interventions

02:51are helping.

02:52I'm very lucky, though.

02:54I have a fantastic research institute at the University of Melbourne, where I can pursue

02:58such research.

03:00And normally, I work, such as today, I started at 8am and worked all day until about 3pm

03:06doing surgery.

03:08And normally, once I finish in the lab, I start my work as national president to organise

03:14and work for our almost 500,000 postgraduate students every night doing interviews like

03:19this.

03:21And I'm working with the rest of my CAPA team to improve the conditions and fight for our

03:26postgraduates across the nation.

03:28I'm very blessed to have such a team.

03:30And I'm very lucky that I'm able to do a job that I love, where I get paid to support other

03:35people when I know that so many other PhD students are working casual gigs, Uber Eats,

03:42fast food or retail just to make ends meet.

03:44Now, this is no doubt valuable research work, which you're putting your time and energy

03:50into.

03:51What happens if people are turned off by the fact that they don't receive enough money?

03:55Are we seeing all these researchers moving elsewhere, such as overseas?

04:01I think long term, there are serious implications for not having adequate funding for our future

04:08researchers.

04:09Either the best and brightest will pursue opportunities overseas in research, whether

04:16that's doing a PhD, or they might decide that, especially in such a cost of living crisis,

04:24that they're best served by moving to industry and joining the workforce, rather than pursuing

04:32cutting edge research and contributing new ideas and knowledge to our country.

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