Burkhard R. Braun,
Bioinformaticist
UCSF and Incyte, Inc.
Respond to this E-Letter:
Re: Postdoc policy needs sustainability
|
The article "Evolution of postdocs" by Maxine Singer is telling in
many of its
observations, but in the end it is inadequate in its prescriptions. The issue
is
demographic, in that the number of jobs in academia is far outstripped by
the number of students and postdocs funded by the current training system.
The article's graph illustrates that current system of graduate and
postdoc
training funnels a growing excess of people into postdoc positions. It
trades
on the idealism of youth, the excitement of research, and the easy money
of
fellowships to attract workers. These workers participate in a winner-take
-all
system that provides few choices for those not selected. The suggested 5-
year limit on postdocs, turning them then into full employees, is the only
reasonable solution mentioned in the article, since it offers an alternate
long-
term career path. Additionally, the number of students and postdocs
brought
into the training system needs to be reduced to bring long-term stability.
It is
significant that postdocs have begun to organize and threaten
unionization,
as a rather inefficient but desperate method to recover their true worth
in the
marketplace. |
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