{"id":1375,"date":"2011-12-06T00:51:47","date_gmt":"2011-12-06T00:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africa-and-science.com\/?p=1375"},"modified":"2012-01-14T16:28:43","modified_gmt":"2012-01-14T16:28:43","slug":"the-problem-with-phd-training-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africa-and-science.com\/?p=1375","title":{"rendered":"The problem with PhD training in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
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We hereby publish an article of the magazine University Affairs<\/span> 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\u2019s position has not really changed.<\/p>\n

The Economist<\/span> also provides us with important information:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

Source: The Economist, Print Edition, Dec. 16th<\/sup>, 2010<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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The problem with PhD training in Canada<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
by L\u00e9o Charbonneau<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
For years now, successive federal governments have promoted the \u201cknowledge economy\u201d as the key to our future prosperity. Just recently, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty\u00a0stated<\/a>: \u201cOur greatest renewable resource is our grey matter.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0Canadian Science Policy Conference<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The issue \u2013 and it\u2019s not a new one \u2013 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, \u201cIs Canada producing too many PhDs? Yes, no and maybe,\u201d which you can read\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Similar sentiments were voiced at the\u00a0World Innovation Summit for Education<\/a> held in early November in Qatar. \u201cWe 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,\u201d said Deborah Buszard, a professor at Dalhousie University\u2019s college of sustainability,\u00a0as quoted<\/a> inUniversity World News<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(Not incidentally, many reports \u2013 including most recently the\u00a0Jenkins report<\/a> \u2013 have lamented Canada\u2019s poor record in business innovation. I think these two things are related.)<\/p>\n

University Affairs<\/em> treated the subject in depth back in 2010 with\u00a0this report<\/a> (\u201cGive us the dirt on jobs: Why universities need to prepare doctoral students for careers outside academe\u201d) and this\u00a0follow-up<\/a>, (\u201cProfessional development for grad students: Skills training gives PhD students a boost, whether they \ufb01nd work inside or outside academia\u201d). We also have a\u00a0podcast series<\/a> called \u201cEscape the Ivory Tower.\u201d<\/p>\n

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: \u201cPeople 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 \u2013 your mentors \u2013 are to blame for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Bernstein also chided academics for perpetuating the notion that a career outside of academia is somehow a failure. \u201cWe need to get away from a pecking order that says the good students go on to academia and the poor ones go elsewhere,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ian Chubb,\u00a0chief scientist<\/a> for the Australian government, made a similar comment the night before at the science policy conference: \u201cWe need to tell the universities they\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things do appear to be changing, but it would seem not quickly enough. Ms. Stachova mentioned the excellent MITACS\u00a0Accelerate<\/a> program, which offers opportunities for graduate students to conduct collaborative research with an industrial partner.\u00a0 We wrote about the program,\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, in its recent\u00a0prebudget submission<\/a> (PDF), is calling for the federal government\u00a0 to \u201cinvest in talent\u201d 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 \u201cintegrate master\u2019s and PhD students and graduates into the labour market, especially in small- and medium-sized enterprises.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, I realize this isn\u2019t their primary role as science bureaucrats, but I couldn\u2019t 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 \u201cscience diplomacy.\u201d Dr. Fortier said it will be up to the graduates themselves to create \u201cthe jobs of tomorrow,\u201d adding, \u201cwe\u2019re rooting for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Author:<\/strong> L\u00e9o Charbonneau, <\/strong><\/span>University Affairs<\/span><\/strong>, available at:<\/div>\n
http:\/\/www.universityaffairs.ca\/margin-notes\/the-problem-with-phd-training-in-canada<\/span>,\u00a030 November 2011<\/div>\n
NB: We are very thankful to the magazine University Affairs<\/span> for\u00a0authorizing\u00a0the publication of this article.<\/div>\n
Source of the figure:\u00a0Science and engineering degrees at doctoral level, 2006 in: OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2009)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-regional-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africa-and-science.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africa-and-science.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africa-and-science.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africa-and-science.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africa-and-science.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1375"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/africa-and-science.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1921,"href":"https:\/\/africa-and-science.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1375\/revisions\/1921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africa-and-science.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africa-and-science.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africa-and-science.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}