With inflation soaring, new data on the financial situation of US graduate students have triggered calls for action According to the data collected by the two doctoral students, the salary of doctoral students in the field of Bioscience is far lower than the basic living expenses of almost all institutions and departments in the United States
Of the 178 institutions and departments in the data set, only 2% ensured that the salary of Postgraduates exceeded the cost of living. The researchers used the Living Wage Calculator maintained by the Massachusetts Institute of technology in Cambridge, a widely used benchmark for estimating basic costs in a particular city, such as food, health care, housing and transportation.
Most institutions are far from meeting this standard. For example, at the University of Florida in Gainesville, the 9-month basic allowance for biology doctoral students is about $18650, which is about $16000 lower than the annual living wage of single adults without dependants in the city. In a few institutions, including the University of South Mississippi in Hattiesburg and the University of South Dakota in fermilian, the minimum guaranteed allowance for nine-month appointments is less than $15000.
Costs have risen so fast that some salaries that met the living wage standard in early April have fallen below this standard by the end of the month. The study found that although students in the three universities in the Northeast generally earn living expenses, the situation of students in other regions is much worse. In the south, doctoral students lack an average living wage of $8000. The national average gap is slightly higher than $4500.
The United States is not the only country where graduate subsidies have not kept pace with inflation. For example, according to the largest public research funding institution in the UK, the research and innovation Department of the UK will increase the current minimum doctoral subsidy of £ 15609 by 2.9% in the 2022-23 academic year. This is less than half the UK inflation rate, which is currently 9 per cent.
The basic minimum allowance is basically the guaranteed salary of postgraduates, and is only a source of salary. Some students earn much more through scholarships. However, Geithner pointed out that scholarships in the United States generally include four years of training, but it usually takes at least five years to obtain a doctorate. When scholarships run out, students may be forced to live on the minimum wage, which is not enough.