Ph.D. students are struggling to find employment after graduation in the economic recession.
Post doctoral students and professors are feeling increasingly stressed about their respective fields, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported Oct. 24. This stress has much to do with the difficulty of securing tenure in a weak job market, exacerbated by graduate programs taking more graduate students than there are jobs. Some at Duke, however, argue that those dedicated to pursuing their interests in academia should not be deterred by such factors.
Provost Peter Lange, who has been Duke’s chief academic officer since 1999, said he has trained many doctoral students, many of whom have gone on to pursue academic careers. He did not think students should shy away from pursuing their doctorates.
“Anybody who goes into a profession through some combination of a passion for the profession and different degrees of confidence can be really successful. If you’re really good, you’re still going to get a job,” Lange said. “But if you’re feeling a little more marginal, or if you’re not sure that that’s what you want to do, then obviously the quality of the job market can be a little scary.”
He added that, though the recession has affected Duke, it has not had as great an impact here as on other institutions. The University has not changed its “criteria” for granting tenure over the downturn.
Zachary Abzug, a doctoral student studying biomedical engineering at Duke, plans to spend the next phase of his career working as a postdoctoral researcher in academia. Eventually, he hopes to get a faculty position at a major research institution. He said he did not consider the difficulty of finding a job in academia.
“Research in academia is what I want to be doing, and I will have to take the necessary risks to follow that path,” Abzug wrote in an email Tuesday. “I’m not too nervous about finding work, but I’m sure that’s largely because I’m so far removed from looking for postdoctoral work.”
Originally planning to go to medical school, Russell Dulman, a senior majoring in biology, switched tracks and is currently applying to Ph.D. programs. He believes the opportunities with a doctorate can be better than other graduate degrees.
“Part of my consideration to switch over to pre-doctorate was financial motivations,” Dulman said. “You take on a lot of debt when you go to medical school. If I go to get a Ph.D. in the sciences it is paid for, and doctors aren’t getting paid what they used to be.”
Because he is studying the hard sciences, Dulman said he would receive an annual $30,000 stipend and pay no tuition. Afterwards he would have the opportunity to explore jobs in pharmaceuticals—an industry that has proven resistant to the recession. Dulman said he is also considering going into academia, but knows about the recent lack of job opportunities.
Lange believes the teaching opportunities at public universities may never fully recover.
“I think the current situation may be a little more severe than will be true within a few years, but I don’t think we’re going to go back to the brightest days,” he said.
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