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Raw deal for young biology researchers

It's official: biology postgraduates in the United States face greater competition for tenure than ever before. A wealth of data released this month will reopen discussions about employment and training in the US biomedical system, writes Erika Check in a Nature news report (Nature 448, 848-849; 2007). According to data collected by FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) from several sources, the number of biology students in graduate programmes has increased steadily since 1966, but the number of biomedical PhDs with tenure has remained constant (See the Nature news report for a graph.)
A huge question, discussed in the News report, is why the doubling of the NIH budget from 1998 to 2003 seems not to have helped young scientists. According to anEditorial in the same issue of the journal (Nature 448, 839-840; 2007): "FASEB's data suggest that too many graduate schools may be preparing too many students, so that too few young scientists have a real prospect of making a career in academic science. More effort is needed to ensure that recruitment interviews include realistic assessments of prospective students' expectations and potential in the academic workplace. And training should address broader career options from day one rather than focusing unrealistically on jobs that don't exist.

Posted by Maxine Clarke on August 24, 2007
Categories: Careers | | Comments (1)

Comments

Interesting Maxine.

Posted by: Bob | August 27, 2007 02:43 AM

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