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