To do or not to do a PhD, that is a burning question on the minds of many TU Delft international MSc students. With Dutch
students increasingly turning their backs on post-graduate academic research, the numbers of foreign PhDs in the
Netherlands continues to rise.
It’s well past 19:00 on a beautiful Friday evening but Emmanuel Olivi remains buried in his seat, his expressionless face glued to the computer screen. A not uncommon sight around the faculty building, and usually these people hanging around universities at late hours are PhD students. Universities usually recruit the brightest students as their PhDs students, since they know that it takes such extra zeal and commitment to successfully deliver results at the end of a doctoral research project.
Many TU Delft international MSc students now face the very difficult decision of deciding to pursue a PhD after graduation or instead taking jobs in private industry. The question then is how do PhDs fare in comparison to their counterparts who opted for private sector jobs?
In his article titled, ‘So long, and thanks for the PhD!’, Professor Ronald Azuma, research leader at the Nokia Research Center (US), writes: “Being a graduate student is like becoming all of the Seven Dwarves. In the beginning you’re Dopey and Bashful. In the middle, you’re usually sick (Sneezy), tired (Sleepy), and irritable (Grumpy). But at the end, they call you Doc, and then you’re Happy”.
Meanwhile, a recent article in the Economist (December 16, 2010), portrayed PhDs as cheap sources of labour who work for a fraction of the salaries earned by equally qualified professionals in industry. Although this seems to be a standard analysis of many people viewing matters from the outside, PhDs interviewed by Delta tended to disagree.
Sayee Prasad, a PhD student in TU Delft’s Process & Energy department: “We work for the same hours as professionals, but we’re still inexperienced in the work we’ve chosen, unlike the professionals of the same cadre. We’re still in the learning phase. But I think after our PhD we will indeed earn more than those other professionals.”
There are several reasons why PhDs choose the academic research path. Working with state-of-the-art equipment and helping build the technologies of the future is one motivating factor. “I spent quite a lot of time in school trying to learn stuff,” says Olivi, a PhD researcher at France’s National Institute for Research in Information and Automation. “I don’t want to waste that knowledge by working in the industry, utilizing less than 5% of what I learned in school.”
In his classic 1998 lecture to new PhD students at Middlesex University, Dr Richard Butterworth famously described the individualistic nature of PhD positions: the only person who can understand your work and emotions related to it would probably be you. This can lead to a feeling of virtual loneliness and at times depression. Such problems can often be avoided by taking jobs in industry, as such jobs are rarely individualistic and require greater team effort.
Johan Rob, a Dutch MSc mechanical engineering student at TU Delft, agrees: “Personally, I’d fear a PhD, because I think it’s mainly a large individual assignment and I’d rather work in a team in a company. I think teamwork would be difficult to achieve as a PhD, but through team work it’s usually possible to complete the tasks.”
Universities need constant research output, and the best way to achieve this is by having a constant flow of PhDs. Consequently, universities want to hire the best PhDs they can, with the result being that PhD employee benefits have continuously improved in recent years. European PhD positions have especially started to gain more leverage compared to positions in the US, which has traditionally been the largest producer of PhDs.
A PhD student at the Stanford University, for example, earns approximately 21,000 euros (gross) per year, according to glassdoor.com, while a Dutch PhD student in the Netherlands makes approximately 24,500 euros per year in the first year, with that figure increasing to approximately 28,000 euros per year by the final year of the PhD.
In the October 2010 edition of the American Society for Cell Biology journal, a column by Tony Hyman, of the Max Planck Institute, explored some of the contrasts between European and U.S. scientific careers. Among a long list of advantages Hyman attributed to European scientific careers were transparency, adequate funding and easy access to facilities, all of which were missing in the US system. Hyman noted that PhD opportunities in Europe always came with adequate funding, unlike in America.
These factors, including bigger pay packages for European PhDs, have attracted more students to Europe in recent years. TU Delft figures corroborate this: the number of PhDs at TU Delft has consistently increased by approximately 10% annually for the past ten years. “Although work style and expectations seem to be the same in both US and Europe, a higher pay package combined with a better, peaceful lifestyle motivates me to pursue a PhD in Europe rather than the US,” says Aswin Chandarr, a TU Delft MSc student in BioRobotics who is presently shortlisting prospective universities to apply for PhD positions. “I don’t care if I do my PhD at TU Delft or elsewhere, as long as it’s in Europe and I like the work I’ll be doing for those four years.”
But it’s not always a rosy path for PhDs. There are always roadblocks. Tatsiana Aneichyk from Bulgaria, who currently works for Amadeus, in France, previously enrolled in a PhD program at Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). She dropped out of her doctoral program a year into her research: “A four-year long project belonging to nobody except you. There’s no such thing as a day off – just days when you can work from home. No matter how hard you work, you still get paid less than the average person with your background. Clearly nobody cares about overtime. And most of the time no one appreciates your work anyway. And after you finish your PhD, you’re overqualified for 95% of positions.”
Finally, although PhD dropout rates are not so different from attrition rates in industry, they are still staggeringly high, with only around 75-80% of enrolled PhD students in Netherlands completing their PhDs, according to a recent report published in Career magazine.
‘Messed up is een zevenkoppige formatie, compleet met blazerssectie en lieftallige zangeres’, meldt de site van deze oude funk, soul ‘en andere leuke muziek’ spelende coverband. ‘Ideaal voor gala’s, feestjes en recepties.’ De setmogelijkheden variëren van opzwepend tot iets meer ingetogen.
Het in mei 2008 uit jazzvereniging Groover voortgekomen combo kende een vrij lange opbouwperiode. “Omdat we nogal kritisch op onze muziekkeuze waren”, zegt basgitarist Nikita Mostovoy. “We willen bijvoorbeeld geen nummers van Guus Meeuwis spelen, hoewel die altijd aanslaan. Het duurde een jaar voordat we repertoire hadden voor een show van anderhalf uur.”
Kwestie van veel radio luisteren en titels noteren, volgens drummer Jorn Duwel. “Youtube is natuurlijk een prachtige bron. Via een handig scoresysteem maken we met zijn zevenen de uiteindelijke keuze.” Als eerste werd ‘Mess Around’, een jaren-vijftighit van Ray Charles, ingestudeerd. Materiaal van bekende en minder bekende artiesten als Maceo Parker, The Young Senators en The Champs volgde. Verdere uitbreiding van het repertoire moet de mogelijkheden vergroten. Duwel: “Wij worden veel gevraagd voor gala’s. Daarbij hoort een opbouw van rustig naar swingend. In de toekomst willen we graag meer op feestjes spelen waar je iedereen anderhalf uur kan laten dansen.”
Podiumuitstraling is een ander aandachtspunt. Duwel: “We begonnen met allemaal dezelfde kleding te dragen. Daar kwam een dansje bij. Elk optreden werd beter en uitbundiger.” Met een knipoog naar George Clinton en zijn P-Funk Allstars zouden ze eigenlijk graag glitterpakken, zonnebrillen en hoedjes willen dragen. Op gala’s wordt echter een bepaalde netheid verwacht.
Het winnen van de bandcontest van studentenvereniging Sint Jansbrug leverde een optreden op het Aangeschoten Wildfestival op, in mei werd het DSC-gala opgeluisterd en in juni staat het IO-festival op de agenda. Duwel: “Het komt allemaal op ons af. Wij genieten alleen maar.”
It’s well past 19:00 on a beautiful Friday evening but Emmanuel Olivi remains buried in his seat, his expressionless face glued to the computer screen. A not uncommon sight around the faculty building, and usually these people hanging around universities at late hours are PhD students. Universities usually recruit the brightest students as their PhDs students, since they know that it takes such extra zeal and commitment to successfully deliver results at the end of a doctoral research project.
Many TU Delft international MSc students now face the very difficult decision of deciding to pursue a PhD after graduation or instead taking jobs in private industry. The question then is how do PhDs fare in comparison to their counterparts who opted for private sector jobs?
In his article titled, ‘So long, and thanks for the PhD!’, Professor Ronald Azuma, research leader at the Nokia Research Center (US), writes: “Being a graduate student is like becoming all of the Seven Dwarves. In the beginning you’re Dopey and Bashful. In the middle, you’re usually sick (Sneezy), tired (Sleepy), and irritable (Grumpy). But at the end, they call you Doc, and then you’re Happy”.
Meanwhile, a recent article in the Economist (December 16, 2010), portrayed PhDs as cheap sources of labour who work for a fraction of the salaries earned by equally qualified professionals in industry. Although this seems to be a standard analysis of many people viewing matters from the outside, PhDs interviewed by Delta tended to disagree.
Sayee Prasad, a PhD student in TU Delft’s Process & Energy department: “We work for the same hours as professionals, but we’re still inexperienced in the work we’ve chosen, unlike the professionals of the same cadre. We’re still in the learning phase. But I think after our PhD we will indeed earn more than those other professionals.”
There are several reasons why PhDs choose the academic research path. Working with state-of-the-art equipment and helping build the technologies of the future is one motivating factor. “I spent quite a lot of time in school trying to learn stuff,” says Olivi, a PhD researcher at France’s National Institute for Research in Information and Automation. “I don’t want to waste that knowledge by working in the industry, utilizing less than 5% of what I learned in school.”
In his classic 1998 lecture to new PhD students at Middlesex University, Dr Richard Butterworth famously described the individualistic nature of PhD positions: the only person who can understand your work and emotions related to it would probably be you. This can lead to a feeling of virtual loneliness and at times depression. Such problems can often be avoided by taking jobs in industry, as such jobs are rarely individualistic and require greater team effort.
Johan Rob, a Dutch MSc mechanical engineering student at TU Delft, agrees: “Personally, I’d fear a PhD, because I think it’s mainly a large individual assignment and I’d rather work in a team in a company. I think teamwork would be difficult to achieve as a PhD, but through team work it’s usually possible to complete the tasks.”
Universities need constant research output, and the best way to achieve this is by having a constant flow of PhDs. Consequently, universities want to hire the best PhDs they can, with the result being that PhD employee benefits have continuously improved in recent years. European PhD positions have especially started to gain more leverage compared to positions in the US, which has traditionally been the largest producer of PhDs.
A PhD student at the Stanford University, for example, earns approximately 21,000 euros (gross) per year, according to glassdoor.com, while a Dutch PhD student in the Netherlands makes approximately 24,500 euros per year in the first year, with that figure increasing to approximately 28,000 euros per year by the final year of the PhD.
In the October 2010 edition of the American Society for Cell Biology journal, a column by Tony Hyman, of the Max Planck Institute, explored some of the contrasts between European and U.S. scientific careers. Among a long list of advantages Hyman attributed to European scientific careers were transparency, adequate funding and easy access to facilities, all of which were missing in the US system. Hyman noted that PhD opportunities in Europe always came with adequate funding, unlike in America.
These factors, including bigger pay packages for European PhDs, have attracted more students to Europe in recent years. TU Delft figures corroborate this: the number of PhDs at TU Delft has consistently increased by approximately 10% annually for the past ten years. “Although work style and expectations seem to be the same in both US and Europe, a higher pay package combined with a better, peaceful lifestyle motivates me to pursue a PhD in Europe rather than the US,” says Aswin Chandarr, a TU Delft MSc student in BioRobotics who is presently shortlisting prospective universities to apply for PhD positions. “I don’t care if I do my PhD at TU Delft or elsewhere, as long as it’s in Europe and I like the work I’ll be doing for those four years.”
But it’s not always a rosy path for PhDs. There are always roadblocks. Tatsiana Aneichyk from Belarus, who is currently a consultant for Amadeus, in France, previously enrolled in a PhD program at Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). She dropped out of her doctoral program a year into her research: “A four-year long project belonging to nobody except you. There’s no such thing as a day off – just days when you can work from home. No matter how hard you work, you still get paid less than the average person with your background. Clearly nobody cares about overtime. And most of the time no one appreciates your work anyway. And after you finish your PhD, you’re overqualified for 95% of positions.”
Finally, although PhD dropout rates are not so different from attrition rates in industry, they are still staggeringly high, with only around 75-80% of enrolled PhD students in Netherlands completing their PhDs, according to a recent report published in Career magazine.
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