Academic issues warning over PhD researchers’ stipends

A leading academic has warned that the critical role PhD candidates play at the heart of Irish research risks being undermined by unacceptably low stipend payments, writes Kevin O’Sullivan for The Irish Times.

Payments to thousands of PhD researchers were cut after the financial crash as an austerity measure but should be restored urgently, said Professor Orla Feely, vice-president for research, innovation and impact at University College Dublin.

The PhDs’ Collective Action Union has been campaigning for a better stipend, and its president Jeffrey Sardina said inflation and cost-of-living issues have “created a crisis for current PhD students that could bring down the Irish research economy and threaten the sustainability of the undergraduate education system”. He said, “even pre-inflation pay for PhD researchers was below the minimum wage”.
Full report on The Irish Times site