OPINION – Young researchers are less and less interested in a career in academics. This is leading to a crisis that does not get enough attention, write Rosanne Anholt and Meaghan Polack of the PhD students Network in the Netherlands (PNN). ‘Only maintaining young talent will result in future-proof academics.’

Last week, the new academic year started. Public debate mostly revolves around how sensible it is to fully open universities for large amounts of students. There is not enough attention for the huge workload on universities, the alarm days organized by WOinActie, and the PwC rapport that shows that universities are, structurally, 1.5 million euros short. There’s one other crisis within academics that gets even less attention; in large numbers, young researches are saying thanks for an academic career.

In the Netherlands, around 20,000 to 25,000 young researchers are doing doctoral research. The doctoral programme is a test of competence which enables the PhD student to show that they can independently carry out academic research. Being good at research is not enough to get the coveted position of postdoc researcher or university professor. That’s why many PhD students choose to do (often unpaid) extra work next to their doctoral research. This work usually takes the form of teaching, translating research results into advice for organisations, help out in participation councils, and take part in public debate.

Risking depression and anxiety disorders

The doctoral programme is therefore a very difficult trajectory. PNN’s research shows that more than 40% of all PhD students sometimes think of quitting the doctoral programme. More than 38% of candidates show severe symptoms of burn-out and 47% has an increased risk on developing a psychiatric disorder, such as a depression or anxiety disorder. International PhD students with a scholarship have even more risk; they can barely make ends meet with the payments that are sometimes only 50% to 75% of the minimum wage. PhD students like those are sometimes actively recruited by some universities.

Around a fifth of PhD students in the Netherlands also have to deal with inappropriate behaviour in the workplace. This ranges from downplaying workload to discrimination, violations of academic integrity (for example by the promotor), and sexual intimidation. Because PhD students are dependent on their promotor(s) and supervisor(s), it can be difficult to set boundaries. Rianne Letschert, rector of the Maastricht University, talks about this in her interview with de Volkskrant on the 3^rd of September.

Victims have to stay quiet

Especially ‘star researchers’, scientists who often get large research grants and usually have many PhD students because of this, can make or break an early academic career. On the other hand, universities, that are structurally underfunded according to a recent study by PwC, do not want to lose the scientists that are making money. They are too often covered for while victims have to stay quiet.

At the same time, there are a lot of PhD students who have a good relationship with their promotors and supervisors, and who finish their doctoral programme without issues. However, they too increasingly opt for the government or the business sector after their doctoral research. Recent study shows that 80% of the PhD students do not continue within academics – not only because there is simply not enough space for everyone but also because of what awaits them if they would continue in academics.

‘Many PhD graduates go to work as ‘disposable teacher’’

Aside from the large workload and the (sometimes vicious) internal competition, young researchers have to face structural job insecurity. Many PhD graduates go to work as ‘disposable teacher’; a teaching position of 0,7fte for a year or two, while everybody in the educational field knows that it will practically result in a fulltime job. But if one wants to continue within academics, they have to keep up with their research as well; they would have to do that within their own time. After the longest possible temporary position, the advice is usually given to leave for six months, and then come back (for a new temporary contract), because teachers are always needed. This is why action groups are rising against the increasing flexibility of academic work, such as the groups 0.7 and Casual Leiden.

Disillusioned

Talented but disillusioned PhD students see the current state of Dutch academics and would rather refuse an academical career. The question is no longer ‘how do we get more talent’ but ‘how do we keep talent?’ That will take more than an email from the executive board on how she acknowledges and appreciates her staff; acknowledging and appreciating should be turned into concrete action. That means that institutions need to give researchers more time to complete their tasks, take their research seriously instead of reducing it to forced free time project or unpaid work, and offer them perspective.

The reserve of talent shall ask for a cultural change. Many young researchers do not want to work in the current survival of the fittest culture that turns the academics into exploitation rather than ‘top-level sport’, like Marcel Levi, the new chair of the most important Dutch research funder NWO, described the academics. Acknowledging and appreciating asks for a culture in which we take care of each other instead of exploit each other, in which we take responsibility instead of silence each other, and in which we help each other improve instead of keep each other down. Only maintaining young talent will result in future-proof academics.

This opinion piece by Rosanne Anholt and Meaghan Polack was first published on ScienceGuide.nl. Anholt is teacher at the Radboud University at the centre for international conflict CICAM, and chair of the PhD student network in the Netherlands (PNN). Polack is vice-chair of the PNN and works at the University Medical Centre in Leiden.