The problem with PhD training in Canada

We hereby publish an article of the magazine University Affairs which clearly explains some problems related to PhD training in Canada. We are certain that this article will help several of our readers in Africa as well as in Europe in their decision. First of all, the article teaches us that Canada is at the position 23 among OCDE countries regarding the number of graduates at PhD level. Compared to the statistical data of 2006 (see the figure below), we can see that Canada’s position has not really changed.

The Economist also provides us with important information:

“The production of PhDs has far outstripped demand for university lecturers. In a recent book, Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, an academic and a journalist, report that America produced more than 100,000 doctoral degrees between 2005 and 2009. In the same period there were just 16,000 new professorships. Using PhD students to do much of the undergraduate teaching cuts the number of full-time jobs. Even in Canada, where the output of PhD graduates has grown relatively modestly, universities conferred 4,800 doctorate degrees in 2007 but hired just 2,616 new full-time professors. Only a few fast-developing countries, such as Brazil and China, now seem short of PhDs”.

Source: The Economist, Print Edition, Dec. 16^th, 2010

With regards to all these information, it is important for African Students willing to embark on a PhD research project in northern hemisphere to notice that it will not be easy to find an academic position in those countries. Therefore, the advisable solution would be MIGRATION BACK HOME after graduation.

 

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The problem with PhD training in Canada

by Léo Charbonneau

For years now, successive federal governments have promoted the “knowledge economy” as the key to our future prosperity. Just recently, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty stated: “Our greatest renewable resource is our grey matter.”

A linchpin of the knowledge economy is the production of PhDs, an area where Canada is seen to be lagging. At a recent symposium on the training of scientists held as part of the Canadian Science Policy Conference in Ottawa, MITACS chief operating officer Olga Stachova noted that despite an increased production of PhDs in the past 20 years or so in Canada, we still fell from 20th to 23th spot among OECD countries in the number of PhD graduates per capita during that time.

But, even more worrisome was the sense articulated by the speakers and attendees at the symposium that something is wrong with PhD and postdoctoral training in Canada. The comments were in the context of the biomedical and natural sciences, but I think they could equally apply to PhD training in the humanities and social sciences.

The issue – and it’s not a new one – is that most PhD students have their eye on a career in academia. Yet, as several panelists at the symposium noted, as it now stands less than one in five PhD graduates will end up with an academic position and their training does not generally prepare them for a career outside academia. I have written a news story on the symposium, “Is Canada producing too many PhDs? Yes, no and maybe,” which you can read here.

Similar sentiments were voiced at the World Innovation Summit for Education held in early November in Qatar. “We still need to give students disciplinary expertise, but they also need the much broader skills of entrepreneurship, flexibility and understanding of the economy. Students need the perspective to think about the links between their creative output and industry,” said Deborah Buszard, a professor at Dalhousie University’s college of sustainability, as quoted inUniversity World News.

(Not incidentally, many reports – including most recently the Jenkins report – have lamented Canada’s poor record in business innovation. I think these two things are related.)

University Affairs treated the subject in depth back in 2010 with this report (“Give us the dirt on jobs: Why universities need to prepare doctoral students for careers outside academe”) and this follow-up, (“Professional development for grad students: Skills training gives PhD students a boost, whether they find work inside or outside academia”). We also have a podcast series called “Escape the Ivory Tower.”

The blame for the inadequate training is being laid on academics themselves. Commented panelist Alan Bernstein, founding president of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research: “People who are going through their PhDs and postdocs should not simply be looking at themselves as clones of their PhD or postdoc mentors. That paradigm is out of date. The academy – your mentors – are to blame for this.”

Dr. Bernstein also chided academics for perpetuating the notion that a career outside of academia is somehow a failure. “We need to get away from a pecking order that says the good students go on to academia and the poor ones go elsewhere,” he said.

Ian Chubb, chief scientist for the Australian government, made a similar comment the night before at the science policy conference: “We need to tell the universities they’ve got to change the way they produce PhD graduates to develop overtly some of the more generic skills they would need to be able to work outside of academe, and at the same time to psychologically prepare them not to see that as second best.”

Things do appear to be changing, but it would seem not quickly enough. Ms. Stachova mentioned the excellent MITACS Accelerate program, which offers opportunities for graduate students to conduct collaborative research with an industrial partner.  We wrote about the program, here.

And, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, in its recent prebudget submission (PDF), is calling for the federal government  to “invest in talent” by committing up to $15 million to develop a program of 500, 12-month paid internships, valued at $30,000 and matched by the host employer, that “integrate master’s and PhD students and graduates into the labour market, especially in small- and medium-sized enterprises.”

Finally, I realize this isn’t their primary role as science bureaucrats, but I couldn’t help but notice that Dr. Bernstein and his colleague, Suzanne Fortier, president of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, seemed to have little advice to offer the anxious PhD grads and postdocs in attendance at the CSPC session. Dr. Bernstein suggested PhD grads may wish to consider becoming high school teachers or seek a career in the vaguely defined field of “science diplomacy.” Dr. Fortier said it will be up to the graduates themselves to create “the jobs of tomorrow,” adding, “we’re rooting for you.”