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▲ GordonAShumway 2 days ago

Yep! Ask any PhD candidate in America how they love those poverty level wages!

▲PrismCrystal 2 days ago | parent [-]

Academia can be criticized as unsustainable as the OP does because the number of graduate students exceeds the number of secure employment positions available after one defends one’s dissertation or does a postdoc. However, the American model of PhD students being impoverished while studying isn’t the only one. In several European countries, the norm is for PhD students to be university employees under contract that receive a pretty standard middle-class salary. In various other countries, decent middle-class funding may have to come from outside the university, but it’s a semi-automatic process for anyone whose research plan was solid enough to get accepted as a PhD student in the first place.

▲mustafa_pasi 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

Dude, I went through the European PhD system and it's not as glamorous as you depict it. First of all, you forgot to mention that the norm is to give contracts of 50% to 75% FTE. Secondly the hours worked and the vacation time is a complete forgery that you are basically forced to sign. Although the contract is nice on paper, in practice the norms and expectations are different. Thirdly, unlike in the US, in Europe you often don't have a graduate school (although it is a thing) so you are in a very vulnerable situation where you invest 3 to 5 years of the best years of your life and during those years your graduation is completely at the mercy of that supervisor.

▲PrismCrystal 2 days ago | parent [-]

There is no “European PhD system” in terms of funding, or the duties expected of a PhD student other than the production of the dissertation. Different countries around the world do it differently, and that is true even within Europe.

▲chiefalchemist 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> the American model of PhD students being impoverished while studying

This might be true in some cases, but I suspect that ultimately it's only the wealthy who can pursue these higher degrees. Yes, the pay might be low but that doesn't mean they are overall impoverished.

Put another way, the cost of education is one thing, but being able to afford the process might be a higher bar, for some, or more.

▲MrMcCall 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Shouldn't they be paid a decent wage for the teaching, itself?