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Concerns drop in PhD enrolments could harm sector’s reputation
ABC NEWS (Australia)
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1/17/2025
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.
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00:00
We know that it's not news that we're in a cost-of-living crisis, and at the University
00:08
of Melbourne, we know that 73% of postgraduate students say that cost-of-living is their
00:13
biggest issue.
00:15
And what we've seen is the top talent in the country know and see that the stipend is so
00:19
low, and there's so few of them to go around in the first place, indeed, many miss out.
00:26
And as a result, many decide to pursue paid work in the industry or go overseas to do
00:31
a PhD.
00:33
For example, overseas in the US, the stipend is almost double the Australian base rate,
00:39
and in the UK, it is substantially higher.
00:42
As a result, many of the best and brightest are choosing to pursue other opportunities.
00:47
Can you give us an idea of how stipends work in Australia?
00:51
Are all PhD researchers considered equal in the amount of money they're given?
00:59
So the federal government provides these scholarship grants to the universities, and then the universities
01:09
may top up the scholarships, but this creates an impossible choice between offering more
01:15
scholarships to provide, and that is more opportunities for people like myself from
01:19
regional Victoria to pursue cutting edge research, or to provide bigger stipends so
01:26
that the existing PhD students are better supported.
01:29
So it's really unfair to say that solely the university's fault, indeed, most universities
01:34
utilise whatever resources they can to stretch the federal government funding as far and
01:39
wide as they can.
01:41
So really, it comes down to the federal government's lack of funding in these PhD scholarships,
01:46
which is the root cause.
01:48
So when we're looking at stipends, just how much, roughly, does the average person who
01:53
is granted one receive?
01:56
At the University of Melbourne, we receive this year, $38,500 a year, if you're a full-time
02:02
PhD student.
02:05
At the University of Sydney, I believe it's about $40,000 a year.
02:08
However, at many universities, it is at the very base rate of about $34,400 a year, which
02:17
for most people, they'll know that that's well below the minimum wage and just above
02:20
the poverty line.
02:22
So you yourself are studying, and are you on a stipend now, and is that enough?
02:28
Do you have to get financial assistance elsewhere?
02:33
Do you have a job?
02:34
What do you do to get by?
02:36
The fantastic question.
02:38
So I investigate how to recover vision after stroke, and so my normal day, I do experimental
02:46
eye microsurgery and use incredible instruments, which allow me to see if my interventions
02:51
are helping.
02:52
I'm very lucky, though.
02:54
I have a fantastic research institute at the University of Melbourne, where I can pursue
02:58
such research.
03:00
And normally, I work, such as today, I started at 8am and worked all day until about 3pm
03:06
doing surgery.
03:08
And normally, once I finish in the lab, I start my work as national president to organise
03:14
and work for our almost 500,000 postgraduate students every night doing interviews like
03:19
this.
03:21
And I'm working with the rest of my CAPA team to improve the conditions and fight for our
03:26
postgraduates across the nation.
03:28
I'm very blessed to have such a team.
03:30
And I'm very lucky that I'm able to do a job that I love, where I get paid to support other
03:35
people when I know that so many other PhD students are working casual gigs, Uber Eats,
03:42
fast food or retail just to make ends meet.
03:44
Now, this is no doubt valuable research work, which you're putting your time and energy
03:50
into.
03:51
What happens if people are turned off by the fact that they don't receive enough money?
03:55
Are we seeing all these researchers moving elsewhere, such as overseas?
04:01
I think long term, there are serious implications for not having adequate funding for our future
04:08
researchers.
04:09
Either the best and brightest will pursue opportunities overseas in research, whether
04:16
that's doing a PhD, or they might decide that, especially in such a cost of living crisis,
04:24
that they're best served by moving to industry and joining the workforce, rather than pursuing
04:32
cutting edge research and contributing new ideas and knowledge to our country.
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