Archive by tag | employment

The urgent need to recognize and value academic labor

Posted by Rebecca Wild | Categories: , , , , , ,

The urgent need to recognize and value academic labor

Recently the House of Representatives essentially voted to destroy graduate education in the United States. By taxing tuition waivers as income — and therefore treating their taxable income as two to three times the amount graduate students are actually paid — the Republican tax bill would effectively put graduate study outside of the reach of all but the independently wealthy. While the Senate version of the tax bill does not include this provision, it is far from certain what the final bill after the reconciliation process will look like.  Read more

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Changes to the U.S. tax code will harm graduate student mobility and career prospects

Posted by Rebecca Wild | Categories: , , , , ,

Changes to the U.S. tax code will harm graduate student mobility and career prospects

A recent editorial in Nature described the harm that newly proposed changes to the United States tax code will have on graduate student finances. If passed, these regulations — ostensibly designed to simplify tax calculations — will eliminate benefits previously given to students. Of particular harm to graduate students and the scientific world would be the elimination of the tax-free status of tuition waivers.  Read more

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A picture is worth a thousand words

Posted by Rebecca Wild | Categories: , , ,

A picture is worth a thousand words

In most western countries, the number of PhD graduates in the life sciences has increased by around 50% over the last ten years. As the job market, in both academia and industry, has been largely flat in most countries, this PhD glut is creating undesirable patterns of employment — and unemployment. Some academics are calling for ‘academic birth control’, but the academic system itself profits from the resulting endless supply of cheap labour.  Read more

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The hidden costs of a career in scientific research

Posted by Jack Leeming | Categories: , , , , ,

The hidden costs of a career in scientific research

That a career in science is demanding is unsurprising. But alongside long hours spent in the lab grappling with abstract concepts, the number of years of education it takes to enter the professional ranks and the increasingly unstable nature of such employment, exists a further demand: money. It’s no secret that science costs money — building the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and sequencing the human genome cost around €3 billion each — but what is less obvious is that entry to a career in science often requires considerable personal financial sacrifice.  Read more

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It’s time to reduce the number of PhD students, or rethink how doctoral programs work

Posted by Jack Leeming | Categories: , , , ,

It's time to reduce the number of PhD students, or rethink how doctoral programs work

Gwilym Croucher, University of Melbourne  … Read more

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Ageism “as bad as racism”

Posted by Jack Leeming | Categories: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ageism "as bad as racism"

Andy Briggs, the UK government’s new adviser on older workers, told The Times this week that 27% of men of UK men aged 65 to 70 are in paid employment, compared to 15% in 2006. The figure for women is 18% and rising, and one in ten people aged over 70 are still working. And employers have an unconscious age bias.  Read more

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New squeeze on tenure in the United States?

Posted by Rachel Bowden | Categories: , ,

Hundreds of tenured staff are taking early retirement deals on offer at US universities, Times Higher Education reported last week. Universities are offering incentives of up to two years’ salary in a move that some see as a way to further reduce the proportion of tenured positions in academia, according to the report.  Read more

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