policy & reform
Adeline Ong started her PhD at Monash University in 2003 and finished it at RMIT in 2007. All up, her PhD in consumer marketing stood her in good stead when she interviewed at Sweeney Research upon her completion in 2007. She was employed and has been with the company ever since, holding down the title of head of education and training.
But while grateful for the fact that she dedicated almost five years of her life to the task of studying a PhD, she has some very candid insights into what needs to change in the program.
“ I don’ t think it matters what university that you study a PhD at, and I am not 100 per cent sure what has changed since I left, but there are a number of areas where the course could improve,” Ong says.
“ They really need to teach project and time management skills. I mean, when I studied you were given a thesis to write by yourself and you only met your supervisor once a year, and you were virtually left on your own.
“ Thesis writing is not comparable to business writing, and that is one area that they should include in the course. Communication skills overall should be taught too.”
Ong says that upon completion of a PhD and entering into the workforce she started to realise other skills she had acquired.“ Obviously, you have excellent research skills, as well as great problem solving analysis, it increases your ability to work independently but that can also be a negative once you join a company. Your diligence and perseverance also increase.”
The validity and relevance of PhDs has come into question with a recent paper, The changing nature of PhDs submitted by the Group of Eight Universities for discussion concludes:“… there needs to be an increase in the time to complete a PhD, enabling the student to build a publishing record and( perhaps) gain teaching experience( and) the provision of training in complementary skills”.
In 2011, Australian universities graduated 6780 PhD students. In the same year in America, 49,010 students graduated with a PhD. India aims to graduate 20,000 PhD students a year by 2020.
The report acknowledges the strength of PhD programs in Australia but admits to ongoing debate around the world for their need, their purpose and effectiveness.
This mainly centres on PhD graduates who are finding it increasingly difficult to find employment and the fact that some employers think that their skillset should be broader. There is also the issue of cost.
The report states,“ Pressures for change are coming from the growth in the number of PhD students, the increasing diversity of the student cohort and the problems of supporting parttime students who are often working off-campus, and in nonacademic environments.
“ An increased diversity in the employment trajectory of PhD graduates is raising issues about the kinds and the breadth of non-research skills that PhD graduates need or can reasonably acquire to make them more competitive in the job market against bachelor qualified people with work experience.
“ Changes in the research environment with greater emphasis on large scale interdisciplinary research managed to achieve outcomes identified in advance, as distinct from research whose major aim is to advance knowledge, are also creating the need for broader and different skill sets.”
One university who has recognised the need for change is The University of Sydney, which has undertaken a thorough analysis of their PhD programs. Sydney University has established a training needs analysis that every student must fill out with their supervisor each year of their PhD.
The university is sourcing – both within and outside the university – workshops, award courses, short courses and seminars that will serve the purposes of individual students and enable them to be more prepared for future employment.
“ We are trying to make the PhD more relevant,” professor Marie Carroll, pro-vice-chancellor( academic affairs) at the University of Sydney, says.
“ For too long the PhD has been about the thesis and not about the student. We have to help develop quantitative skills for the student. We need to focus more on employer attributes because the majority of students are entering a workforce outside of academia.”
The changing nature of PhDs report states that in 2008, just 28 per cent of PhD graduates worked in higher education with the remainder dispersed across a wide range of public and private industry sectors.
A more recent report in the UK, The Scientific Century: securing our future prosperity( 2010), revealed that 53 per cent of science PhDs in the UK take up careers outside science upon graduating, with only 30 per cent taking on early career research positions in universities.
Interestingly, only 3.5 per cent of the graduates eventually achieve the status of permanent research staff at universities and 0.45 per cent become professors. The conclusion here is simple: PhD graduates can achieve higher salaries and more certain careers outside of academia.
“ Firstly, there isn’ t enough academic jobs for PhD graduates, and secondly, people want to use their skillset in private and public positions,” professor Carroll says.
“ We need to have more generic outcomes for our PhD students. We also have onequarter of our PhD students coming from overseas so a career in academia is not really their goal.
“ The reality is that at the moment, studying a PhD is a huge investment in money and time with no certain outcome. We are addressing the needs to make the PhD program more relevant to the community and helping students gain extra and broader skills along the way.”
Some employers, such as global consultancy giant PwC, look actively for PhD graduates, no matter what their field, recognising the value and broad skillset that they will bring to the firm.
“ PwC invests heavily in the development of our people throughout their career and we recruit across all disciplines at all stages of academic development – PhDs are no different,” Debra Eckersley, PwC Australia, managing partner human capital, says.
“ Some of our people are supported to continue their academic pursuit after joining the firm; others come to us with their qualification straight from university or mid-career.
“ We have scientists, physicists( nanophotonics), psychologists, engineers, mathematicians, economists, and medical experts, to name but a few of the disciplines we recruit from to best meet the needs of our clients.”
Completing a PhD is a significant outcome that only one per cent of Australians achieve, but we need to make certain that one per cent are utilising their vast knowledge and skills for the greater good of society. n
The reality is that, at the moment, studying a PhD is a huge investment in money and time, with no certain outcome.
www. campusreview. com. au May 2013 | 21