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What to do if Your Research Advisor Leaves the University

When my research advisor decided to leave the university I was attended, it was one of the most challenging things I experienced in grad school. Because my experience was borderline traumatic, I’m writing this to share with other students how they can handle any situation regarding an advisors departure. I would never want another graduate student to go through what I went through.

To provide context, I was a 3rd year PhD student and my advisor chose to leave the R1 university for “better opportunity” at another R1 university. He was not in that late stage of his career, nor was he an early career professor, but he was tenured and had a high reputation in his field.

For me, it was fully expected of me to pack up my life and move to the new university with him. And when I chose not to for personal reasons, my decision was face with criticism from both him and my department. Imagine that? Your department encouraging you to leave their school to go to another!

I ended up in a new research group, with a sympathetic advisor who didn’t expect me to start my PhD over. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20. And there are many things I wish I had done differently in this situation, especially since I came to realize that this whole situation had many unethical and straight up wrong parts to it.

So, if your advisor announces they are leaving the university there are a number of ways it can go and I’m going to outline all of them for you, including the way it went for me. For me, I searched all over the web and it was hard to find advice for my specific situation. A lot of message boards and threads were applicable to people in other countries or people who were not in STEM. It made it hard to know what to do when there was little advice out there. That being said, lets talk about what you should do if your advisor is leaving the university.

Consider how far into your program you are

If you’re early in your program, the transition might be very easy with either going or staying behind. Staying behind, you wouldn’t be losing out on much research with your old advisor. While if you go, the transition to a new school could be easier.

If your at a point where you’re only writing your dissertation, you could easily stay behind and work virtually with your old advisor, the situation is much more simple and only and agreement would need to be made between your advisor, their new school, and your school.

But if you’re in the middle, like how I was, it is a more challenging decision.

Think about what you really want out of your program

Where do you want to graduate from? Will your degree and credits transfer to a new school? What is this new university like? How will this impact me financially? How will this impact me personally?

After considering these things, consider your options.

Your Options if Your Research Advisor Leaves the University

You can go with them.

This is the one that most people in academia would think is the “best option.” Or at least thats how it was for me as a third year engineering student. Academia culture sets up this expectation that grad students should be willing and happy to do whatever their advisors expect. This idea comes from the thoughts that 1. your advisor invested in you and is willing to continue investing in you (so don’t be a wasted investment to them $$) 2. It is easier to stay with your current advisor 3. you should be willing to make any sacrifice to advance your career. 4. going to a new school with a higher rank or more opportunity will look better on paper 5. be grateful your advisor wants to take you

But most people don’t consider the downsides or burden this places on grad students (especially women and POC). Tenured or high profile professors and universities perpetuate the expectations listed above and can fail to understand how burdensome moving to a new school can be. Moving costs which will likely not be covered for students. Family and partners. Social and cultural changes. Change in cost of living. Changes in tuition rates.

If you’re willing to go and you have no objections to moving, by all means go for it! I’m not here to discourage you, but I want to bring to light the realities of moving.

Stay behind

If you choose to stay behind, find an advocate. You decision to stay could be met with resistance. And if you’re staying and there isn’t resistance, you will still need to find a new research group or negotiate a way to continue working on your research with your old advisor. This is where things can get grey and messy.

Either way find an advocate. Your two options for staying behind are:

• Stay behind and find a new advisor: this choice likely means “starting over.” Depending on how much time you have left in your degree this option can be very hard. You will not be able to use your research from your old advisor unless an agreement is made, see below.
• Continue working on your research with your old advisor under the instruction of a new group. In this case, your old advisor could serve as an external co-chair to your dissertation, which allows you to use your research from their group in addition to any research done in your “new group.” This option would not delay your degree but would require cooperation by both universities and advisors. And would likely require that the research is complimentary.

In either case, if you’ve done work under your advisor who is choosing to leave, you deserve credit for the work you did. Whether it’s in your dissertation or not, you deserve credit. This is where my story will begin.

When my advisor decided to leave and I didn’t want to go, I was met with hostility from both him and my department. He was not willing to let me use my research from his group in my dissertation unless I went to the new school and worked for him. No exception. This is where I was hoping my university would step in and advocate for me, but I was wrong. They encouraged me to go because of his reputation and that fact that this school was “higher ranked”. When I tried to come up with a solution, such as finding a new group that was willing to collaborate and allow him to be co-chair, which would allow me to keep and use my old research in my dissertation, he was appalled and unwilling. I had little support or help until I found a new advisor that was sympathetic was willing to let me work in his group without having to invest another 5-6 years.

In retrospect, I should have climbed the chain of command until I got what I wanted, because it was unfair to me to be forced in to something that I didn’t want to do. And quite honestly, it was wrong of both my department and advisor to treat me the way they did. I shouldn’t have been harassed and talked down to in the way that I was. You might be thinking “they might have been really trying to help you and advance your career.” I wish that were the case, the behavior of this former advisor was unprofessional and unethical. He had a long history of abusing grad students. And this was my way out. If anything, this situation showed how toxic he really was. After that way he treated me, I feared that deciding to go would subject me to more abuse. I was only willing to have him as co-advisor simply so I could keep my research in my name. To this day, my work is still sitting as a manuscript draft with not publications in sight. And no help.

Which brings me to this point. I am a woman in engineering. I am unmarried and without children. Had I been a man or a man with a family, my decision could have been viewed differently. My personal reasons weren’t “good enough” in their eyes. My decision to stay was no ones business and I should not have been forced to try and explain myself. In any other workplace outside of academia, a simple no would have sufficed. Academia culture breeds this expectation that grad students should do anything for their advisors, even if it’s a burden or hardship. And this expectation is guised under the idea that these sacrifices are for the sake of “education, passion, and career advancement.” I feel that women and POC in STEM are especially subject to these kinds of expectations. We are exposed to the “you should be grateful.” And many women and POC are not offered support in difficult situations, or we are left in the dark about what our options are. And as I saw in my case, when I tried to stand up for myself, I was viewed as ungrateful and unprofessional. I wish I had stood my ground harder, but it was hard and scary. I hope no graduate student ever has to go through what I went through.

If you’re in a situation where you don’t know what to do, find help, whether it be another professor, a student union or organization, or another mentor.

How Not to Be Reviewer Two: A Grad Students Guide to Being an Awesome Peer Reviewer

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How to Tell Your Advisor That You're Leaving Academia

Jena Pitman-Leung

This post is based on content that has already appeared on the Propel Careers website. It is reproduced here with the author’s kind permission.

Many people enter into a Ph.D. program or postdoctoral fellowship thinking they’ll be in academia forever. But for about 70 percent of trainees, this plan changes along the way. Sometimes it happens over a long period of time, and sometimes it happens quickly. Either way, their advisor is usually the last person to find out. Despite the changing culture, many advisors simply do not want their trainees to leave academia.

One of the questions that I've been frequently asked since joining Propel Careers is, “How do I tell my advisor I'm leaving academia?” For many people, the anticipation of this conversation is worse than any other conversation with your advisor.

I wish I could remember how I told my postdoc advisor, but I was too flustered to remember the details. I do, however, remember the outcome–thankfully, I received understanding and support. I've had a number of years to look back on this experience and talk to others who've gone through it, and I’ve identified a few tactics that made this conversation easier.

Give enough notice When you decide to leave academia, try to give your advisor enough notice to make him or her feel comfortable. Most Ph.D. students begin looking for a postdoc position about a year before graduating, so this would be a good time to tell them you plan to look for a different job.

Have a research plan in place Present your advisor with an exit plan to ease any worries about you leaving the lab with unfinished experiments. Create a list of work left to do, along with a timeline and who you will hand tasks off to, if necessary. Include as much detail as possible!

Have a future plan in place You may not know exactly what you want to do after leaving the lab, but hopefully you have an idea. Once you choose a career path, allow yourself enough time to assess your skillset and build any skills needed to transition into your new role. If this requires some time out of the lab, tell your advisor what your plans are, why they are important to your career development and how you will build the skills you need without interfering with finishing your research.

Don't present your choice as a bad thing You may feel guilty or like you are disappointing your advisor. Even if you get a less-than-supportive response, it is important to stay positive. Present the news as an exciting career transition, NOT as a backup plan. The more self-reflection you do ahead of time and the more confident you are in your decision, the easier this will be. It's okay if it takes a little time to get to this point–just remember, this is your career, and you are in charge.

Make sure they know you value your training Ph.D. and postdoc training is incredibly valuable. Even if it's not the experience you hoped it would be, you can’t get through without learning something. You want your advisor to feel that the training you received will not be wasted. The skills you learned from him or her, technical or otherwise, will be useful in careers outside of academia.

Although research trainee success is still defined by many granting institutions as “success within academia,” this is changing. As you progress in your career, check in periodically with your advisor to update him or her on your successes. This way, you can be included in faculty boasting as the former trainee who “helped discover the cure for cancer while working on a team at X pharma,” or the former trainee who “developed a medical device used to diagnose X disease.” As a bonus for doing this, you may make it easier for your peers to have their own discussions with your mentor!

Jena Pitman-Leung, Ph.D., is a Career Development Consultant at Propel Careers and has been with Propel Careers since August, 2013. During her graduate studies at Northwestern University and postdoctoral studies at the University of Massachusetts Medical School she was the primary mentor of over a dozen undergraduate and graduate students; providing career advice, and training them to be independent scientists. Prior to joining Propel, Jena worked as a consultant at a Boston-area firm specializing in fatigue risk management in 24/7 industries.

Publish Date: 28 August 2014

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‘Derailed’: When Graduate Students’ Mentors Leave Harvard

When Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Ph.D. candidate Martha H. “Holly” Elmore applied to study at Harvard in 2013, she did so with a particular professor in mind.

She chose that faculty member, Anne Pringle, to be her academic advisor, interviewing for a position in Pringle’s lab, where she would work closely with her mentor over the course of her studies.

Seven years later, Elmore has changed advisors twice after two of her mentors left Harvard. Pringle departed in 2014 after being denied tenure, while Elmore’s second mentor decided to take a job at another university.

Now, as she approaches the end of her program, Elmore says that having to change mentors and look for new advisors “derailed everything,” adding undue amounts of stress to her course of study.

“I had to go around the department and to someone and be like, you’re my third choice,” Elmore said. “The whole department feels really bad for me.”

For many Harvard graduate students, faculty advisors are integral to their academic experience. Advisors help guide students through their research and advocate for their mentees to receive grants and scholarships.

Harvard faculty might depart from the University for a variety of reasons, including tenure denial, retirement, and job offers from other institutions. Multiple students said taking a younger, tenure-track professor as an advisor rather than a tenured faculty member increases the risk of departure impacting their studies.

When their advisors leave Harvard, graduate students have to alter their plans. They can choose to find a new mentor at the University, follow their mentor to their new job, or stay at Harvard and work with their mentor remotely.

In response to an email sent over the Graduate Student Council’s mailing list, 20 graduate students told The Crimson that their advisors left or would be leaving in the middle of their studies. Some students wrote they changed mentors up to three times.

“People can easily fall through the cracks,” Elmore said. “A lot of people really wanted to help me, and I want to help myself, and I still feel like I fell through the cracks.”

‘BUILDING A WHOLE NEW RELATIONSHIP’

Of the 20 graduate students who replied to The Crimson, 15 said they remained at the University to finish their studies even after the mentor they had been working with departed Harvard — leaving them responsible for finding a new advisor.

Harvard School of Public Health Ph.D. candidate Ian M. Leavitt said in an interview that his advisor, Andy S. L. Tan, announced he would be leaving at the end of this year to teach at another institution. Leavitt said he will now be tasked with searching for a new advisor halfway through his program.

“It’s still a shifted ideology,” Leavitt said. “I came into the University expecting to be with one person.”

Though Leavitt said he came to Harvard to work with his original advisor, he said he would be open to working with another faculty member at the University.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the end of the world at all,” Leavitt said. “I’m a very flexible person in terms of there were some other people that I identified that I had research interests that kind of aligned with.”

Other graduate students, however, said finding a new mentor can pose challenges.

Government Ph.D. candidate Pablo E. Balan — who said he has lost three advisors during his course of study at Harvard — said working with a new advisor requires “building a whole new relationship.”

“The department doesn’t have any institutional mechanism to take care of students who lose advisors for whatever reason,” Balan said. “It’s up to us to reach out to other professors, which can be costly, since investing in a mentoring relationship is a long term investment.”

When students do eventually find a new Harvard faculty member to assist them, that advisor may not necessarily have the same academic interests as them, according to Elmore.

“My advisor at Harvard I love, I’ve learned a lot from, but he doesn’t work on what I work on at all,” Elmore said. “So actually, it’s a terrible situation. Really bad, like really unacceptable.”

‘ADVENTURES AHEAD’

Other graduate students said they have found that the best course of action is to follow their mentors to another institution. Medical Sciences Ph.D. candidate Michael A. Tartell said he plans to follow his advisor, Sean P.J. Whelan, to Washington University in St. Louis, where Whelan will serve as the Chair of the Department of Molecular Microbiology beginning later this year.

“You can’t do virus lab work from home,” Tartell said. “When you work in biology, a lot of your day-to-day work relies on a back and forth with your advisor about experiments.”

Tartell said he anticipates both benefits and drawbacks to changing universities. He said moving to a new institution could help him form new academic relationships with members of his field, but it would also involve leaving behind his previous life in Boston.

“It’s just kind of holding on to the idea that your friends will still be your friends no matter where you are, even though in the moment that feels very difficult,” Tartell said.

When former Harvard Chemistry professor Alán Aspuru-Guzik moved to the University of Toronto over concerns about the American political climate, most of his advisees followed him to Canada, Aspuru-Guzik said.

Florian Hase — one of Aspuru-Guzik’s advisees — wrote in an email that he moved to the University of Toronto to continue his research alongside his colleagues.

“Of course I was a little bit sad that I would have to leave Cambridge behind, but I was also excited by the adventures ahead of me, with lots of opportunities at the University of Toronto while still being affiliated with Harvard University,” Hase wrote.

‘PHYSICALLY PRESENT’

For students who cannot follow their mentors to another institution, they have the option to continue their existing advising relationships remotely. Aspuru-Guzik said he communicates with his advisees who chose to stay at Harvard through Slack, Skype, and frequent visits to Boston.

“I explained to them that groups move all the time,” Aspuru-Guzik said. “I worked with them on an efficient plan that is individualized.”

Germanic Languages and Literatures Ph.D. candidate Hans M. Pech — whose advisor, Racha Kirakosian, will be leaving at the end of this year after being denied tenure — said he plans to work with Kirakosian remotely, though he fears communicating with an advisor remotely might prove “tedious.”

“It’s always better to have somebody physically present to advocate for you getting a certain scholarship or whatever it may be,” Pech said. “Just meeting on a weekly basis, for example, or regular basis in person to discuss your research is obviously more productive than writing an email.”

Regardless of what course of action graduate students decide to take, many agreed that their advising relationships are crucial to academic success.

Balan said that in addition to providing intellectual advice and funding, mentors can “offer protection.”

“Having a strong supportive advisor lowers the probability that you are professionally harassed, harassed in the context of teaching, employer-employee relations and so on,” he said.

Leavitt agreed that advising relationships can help graduate students, adding that they should not be “put on the back burner.”

“You're just looking for somebody to basically help you navigate the process amongst many other things,” Leavitt said. “If I needed them, they're there for me.”

—Staff writer Callia A. Chuang can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @calliaachuang .

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• CAREER FEATURE
• 25 April 2022

How to handle a supervisor’s sudden departure

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Nikki Forrester is a science journalist based in West Virginia.

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“I don’t want to be here, and I can’t get out,” says a geosciences student who started her PhD programme in 2015 and has no clear end in sight. “I want to find a postdoc and get the mentorship experience I’m not getting currently, but I can’t finish my dissertation.”

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Advice From People Who Switched PhD Advisor

This is Part II of a blog series on switching PhD advisors; check out Part I: Switching PhD Advisor: The “good”, the bad, the ugly.

As I gathered the stories from over 30 individuals who switched advisor, I also collected the advice they would now give their past selves to share with the community. It goes without saying that due to the wide variety of experiences, the advice I gathered is just as diverse. But that’s okay! Take what will serve you best and leave the rest . In fact, here is a great quote from one of the people I talked to:

My favourite piece of advice I've gotten since is "ignore advice if it isn't right for you" […] I think I'd also append "don't beat yourself up if you don't follow advice and you turn out to have made the wrong choice" — Anonymous

To make it easier for you to find what you need, I’ve summarised and divided what I collected into a few sections:

Tips and tricks when you are choosing an advisor or PhD program

Things to consider if things are not going well

Advice for those going through the process of changing advisor

A few words to those considering leaving their PhD programs

Here is to hoping this serves some of you.

1) When choosing advisor

When you apply for your project, make sure you enquire about your prospective advisor . This is not novel or ground breaking but it is good to keep repeating it.

Talk to previous students to learn about their teaching style .

Ask the P.I. to verbalise their expectations .

Ensure that you will be able to receive the support you need : is the P.I. sufficiently familiar with the subject area and methodology? If not do they have a plan to get you the help you need?

Finding the right fit of personality and educational style should be high on your priority list when looking for a PhD project. 

I always tell incoming students that who they choose to work with is ultimately more important than the project you have, since a bad advisor can make even the most exciting project awful. — Anonymous

A great way to gauge your prospective supervisor is to talk to their students - this will give you a great idea of what you’ll be going through:

How much they expect you to be in the lab / Working hours.

If you’ll be on duty out-of-hours.

How do they deliver feedback ? Is it timely? Constructive?

Something to keep in mind, is that red flags may be subtle . As succinctly put by one person I talked to:

When you ask people for feedback about their supervisor, they're usually understating any issues to be diplomatic. — Anonymous

Something very important is to listen to people trying to warn you . It can be tempting, if the funding is good or the project fun, to tell yourself you’ll be the exception, but for your sake, don’t ignore red flags.  

Other things to find out:

When are they going on sabatical or research leave next?

Are they considering changing institution in the next few years?

Has the P.I. supervised students to completion? If not yet (e.g. because too young) has the department got safeguards in place in case something doesn’t go according to plan?

2) You’re in, but things are not going so well.

So maybe you are already enrolled in a PhD program, and you might even have been a PhD student for a while. Frustration can grow if working styles turn out to not be compatible . As we said in Part I, there is only so much you can learn about someone before you start working with them - shit happens. But that doesn’t mean it cannot be resolved and figured out.

Sometimes you might not work well with them, with no fault on either sides. A bit of experimentation to find the right working environment and relationship is normal and okay . — Anonymous

Sometimes, unfortunately, this rupture cannot be mended ; some students try their best, follow the advice of other students and advisors, and the relationship breaks down none-the-less.

I tried so many times to repair my relationship with my supervisor, hoping she would change, but it only got worse. And as a result my health deteriorated and deteriorated .  — Anonymous

If the issue is to do with the level of support that you are getting, try to talk to other members of your group and see if you can leverage their advice. Scientific cultures vary widely (between sciences, sub-fields and institutions) and in some environments senior PhD students and post-docs help train younger members of the group. If done right, this can all be mutually beneficial, so don’t pass on the opportunity to get help from your colleagues . But sometimes that’s not the case, as someone brilliantly put it:

If you look around and no one in your program can relate to your work and there's no room for mentorship and collaboration, maybe this program isn't for you overall . — Anonymous

Regardless of the reason, you may have found yourself in an unfortunate partnership. Because grad school is difficult, you might be telling yourself that this is just the way it is, but be careful not to confuse a burden for a challenge . A PhD is hard - but it shouldn’t impact your health.

[…] it can be hard to differentiate the "normal" negative feelings we may have towards research/grad school from those that mean you should switch supervisors, but try not to gaslight yourself - if you keep dwelling on switching it's probably a real issue. — Anonymous If you're constantly anxious and unhealthy as a result of trying to meet "PhD demands" that doesn't have to be the "normal". Plenty of people do PhDs in a balanced and healthy way. There's a difference between “this is difficult” and “this is destroying me as a person”.   — Anonymous

Now, for some of you, things may be looking rather more clear cut. Maybe they’re even looking really bleak. As we saw in the first piece, some students unfortunately find themselves in programs that promote unhealthy working style; some may be faced with abusive advisors who knowingly or unknowingly bully them. 

Maybe you’re thinking it’s too late, because you’re a few years in already. Maybe you’ve been gaslighted into thinking this is fine and it’s easier to suck it up and finish, but consider this advice from two people who have been through it:

Just because you've put a lot of time and energy into working with one PI, doesn't mean it's worth another few years of your personal health to see it through . — Anonymous I would have told my past self to listen to the advice of people who care about me. And to go with my gut feeling on the situation and not what seems like the easy option at the time, which was to stay. — Anonymous

3) When you are switching

Switching supervisor is not always easy . In some cases where the decision was mutually understood, the previous advisor did help the student find and alternative. Unfortunately that is a rare occurrence.

To do this, you will need help and support. Some departments will provide it, some will not . That’s not right, but that is the reality for a lot of students and you have to surround yourself with a support network that can help you if that is unfortunately the case. Start building that network ASAP, even if you don’t think you’ll need to change supervisor.

Don't be afraid to try and make new connections outside your primary supervisory relationship and project .— Anonymous

A supportive environment is obviously not limited to the office. Friends and family may be crucial to help you navigate muddy waters and bad days. Surround yourself with people who love you.

Now, the process of switching advisor can be a big administrative task and, more than most admin tasks, it will r equire patience and tenacity . As a former PhD representative I know how hard it can be to find the right information and policy on university websites, but you should really familiarise yourself with your institute’s procedures.

Realise this is YOUR phd , take ownership of your science and your degree. You are the person who cares the most about it, even if it doesn’t feel like it on bad days. If you find yourself without appropriate supervision, you will have to pressure the management team of your department to provide new supervisory arrangements.

I needed to be the one who cared about my project because I was the only one who was going to get the work done. — Anonymous

Whatever the situation you have found yourself in:

Keep a written record

Don’t hesitate to ask for updates

Don’t be scared to give people timescales and bug them again if nothing has happened.

And don’t hesitate to ask for help , whether it be about the science or to navigate a, sometimes complex, political landscape!

And don’t be afraid to ask other academics for help. They won't all help but that's fine, even the few who do will be very helpful . — Anonymous

This is where your internal network can come to the rescue. And this is not limited to academics! Talk to the post-docs and more senior PhD students. Chances are there are people who can share skill and knowledge with you to help you through this.

[…] if your supervisors are not helpful in terms of training and support you need for your career then look at who will support you and make those networks. Don't let them isolate you. — Anonymous

Another important step is to investigate all the ways in which you can get support if your department fails to do so : Student’s Unions, private funders, mental health services, etc… Don’t be afraid to reach out to any organisation or individuals that can help you if you won’t be getting that help internally.

So, I would tell my past self to reach out beyond the institute as soon as I started having issues, and not to be worried about calling out behaviour that is affecting my mental and physical health- to find out early about support available from funders and the disability service (which I didn't know could offer me support until the late stages!) — Anonymous

4) You’re thinking about leaving your PhD

And you wouldn’t be the first. Depending on how much your situation is affecting your health and how much support you are given, this may be the healthiest solution.

Your well being comes first - it is your decision.

It's okay to leave. Make allies outwith the programme and market yourself in a discipline you want to work in five years down the line. — Anonymous

If you’ve come here because you are in a difficult or even toxic position with your supervisor I want you to know this: Whatever happens, this is not the end.

You will get past this and grow strong. All the people I talked to, even those with the worst of stories have found themselves in a better place, and I know that you can too.

Thanks again to all the people who contributed these stories. Thanks for breaking the silence.

May this only be the beginning..

Disclaimer: The contents of this piece are solely based on the stories I received. This will not reflect the experience of all PhD students who change advisor.

Did Scientists Find A 70 Solar Mass Black Hole?

Switching phd advisor: the “good”, the bad and the ugly.

How to Know When It's Time to Quit Your Ph.D. Program

Here are some pointers on when to stay in a Ph.D. program and when to drop out.

When to Quit Your Ph.D. Program

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Alumni of Ph.D. programs say one valid reason to exit a Ph.D. program is if having a Ph.D. is not necessary for you to achieve your professional aspirations.

Earning a doctorate of any sort is difficult. After years of study, candidates must pass a qualification exam, write a lengthy dissertation or complete a capstone project, and defend their research and conclusions in front of a panel.

And unlike most other degree programs, research doctorates - commonly known as Doctor of Philosophy, or Ph.D., degrees - frequently do not have precise parameters on how long they take to finish.

Uncertainty surrounding when graduation day will arrive is one of the challenging aspects of these programs, and Ph.D. students often struggle to plan for the future when they don't have an end date in mind, says Adam Ruben, who has a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.

"It's so indeterminate, how long it will last," says Ruben, who wrote a satirical book called "Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School."

"People ask you how long it will be until you graduate, and most of the time you tell them you have no idea," he adds. "It's not really until that last six-month stretch or so, when you have a thesis defense date scheduled, and you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, that you know how long it is going to be."

Students who have started to regret their decision to enter a Ph.D. program should carefully evaluate whether it makes sense to stay in graduate school, experts say.

"Sometimes, openly considering quitting as a real option can help you to reconnect with why you started the PhD in the first place, and why you would like to stay," Katherine Firth, an academic adviser at the University of Melbourne in Australia, who has a Ph.D. and supervises Ph.D. students, wrote in an email.

Noncompletion and Academic Delays

Many people who enroll in Ph.D. programs leave those programs without Ph.D. degrees or take longer than eight years to finish their studies.

Ph.D. completion statistics from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences reveal that only 42% of humanities Ph.D. students in the U.S. who began pursuing their degrees sometime between 1996 and 2006 had doctorates eight years later.

Research on Ph.D. program attrition indicates that conflict between Ph.D. students and their academic advisers increases the odds that students will leave grad school. Frustration that arises while coming up with ideas for a dissertation or capstone, completing that project and defending it can be a major source of stress for Ph.D. students, many of whom leave their programs after completing doctoral coursework but before finalizing and successfully defending their work, research shows.

Additionally, Ph.D. students often express a need for additional funding, mental health services and professional mentoring.

Ph.D. program alumni often say they were mistreated by faculty during graduate school. A global survey of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at academic science institutions, published in May 2021, revealed that 84% of current and former science Ph.D. students and postdocs felt that an academic supervisor had treated them abusively.

"Cases where people are facing harassment, bullying or exclusion for example, might mean a person decides the only safe option is to quit, but a better academic culture would let them stay and complete," says Firth.

Reasons to Leave a Ph.D. Program

When a ph.d. won't help you get where you want to go.

Lt. Col. Robert Solano, a U.S. Army aviator and commander for the federal Defense Contract Management Agency, exited a distance learning, predominantly online Ph.D. program in aviation science several years ago. He realized he could advance in the military and thrive as an entrepreneur and investor without a doctorate.

"You don't need Ph.D. behind your name to show the world your self-worth and the value that you bring," he adds. "I wish I'd understood that sooner in the process."

Solano, who was a part-time Ph.D. student with a full-time military career and military scholarships, had acquired around $15,000 of debt to finance his Ph.D. studies, he says.

"One of my biggest deciding factors was that I felt like the dissertation process didn't allow me to be creative and pursue research that was going to be really meaningful and impactful in my career and my life," Solano says, adding that he submitted three dissertation research proposals that were rejected. "I could not imagine doing that for the next two to four years of my life, struggling with a dissertation board, and I think that was really the biggest factor for me."

When Your Well-Being Is at Risk

Experts say it's worth considering pausing or ending your studies if they are significantly interfering with other important aspects of your life, such as your family, health and relationships.

For Solano, the volume of Ph.D. reading and writing assignments he had to complete often felt overwhelming when combined with his professional duties. "I was declining in happiness and declining in health," he says.

Solano also worried that time spent on doctoral studies would take away from time with the woman who later became his wife, he says.

"If I could have done one thing differently, it would have been paying closer attention to that and not sacrificing those two things - my happiness and health," he says.

When You Find Another Way

Sometimes Ph.D. students receive job offers for their dream positions during their Ph.D. studies. In those cases, "they might choose to leave because they have already achieved their goals," Firth says.

Another valid reason to leave a Ph.D. program, she says, is if a student discovers that the actual experience of obtaining a Ph.D. "is not what they signed up for, and it doesn’t suit them after all."

What to Do if You're Considering Quitting

Ask for advice from someone other than your thesis adviser.

Certain problems with Ph.D. programs, such as disagreements and misunderstandings with advisers, may be addressed by seeking help from various faculty members or administrators at your grad school and outside experts who aren't on your thesis committee, experts say.

"There are other folks that (students) can go to for help and perspective, on and off campus," says Jennifer Polk, a Ph.D. recipient who provides career consulting to Ph.D. students and alumni via her consulting firm, "From Ph.D. to Life."

Ph.D. students often feel disempowered and isolated, Polk says, but "if the decision is whether to quit or not, that actually gives you power."

"If you're willing to walk away, you have power, so you can go and talk to other professors," she adds. "You can go and talk to the chair of the department. ... You can escalate to the graduate dean. There might be other offices you can go to before you burn it all down."

Firth notes that sometimes changes to a Ph.D. program – such as a switch from one adviser to another or a change to a thesis committee – can address a Ph.D. student's concerns and negate the desire to quit. Transitioning to part-time study or taking a leave of absence could make sense, and so could shifting between locations if a university has multiple campuses, she adds.

"Sometimes people think they have to quit, but they could seek out other adjustments," Firth wrote. It's also important for Ph.D. students in distress to evaluate whether their "current problems might go away with time or are here to stay," she says.

Consider Whether You Are Being Too Self-Critical

It is common for Ph.D. students to have a crisis of confidence in the middle of their studies, but Ruben cautions that doubts about personal competence may simply be impostor syndrome in disguise.

Though skepticism is frequently beneficial when conducting academic research, it can become destructive if it compromises someone's faith in themselves, he says.

"The problem is if you apply that skepticism to your own abilities and you apply it too harshly and say, 'I'm no good. I'm the worst person here. I don't deserve to be here,'" Ruben says. "You're going to feel terrible and you may also make some decisions that you wouldn't necessarily have made if you had a better sense of your own abilities and interests."

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When your advisor leaves

A stock photo of moving boxes. Trust me, packing up a lab is one of the most fucking depressing things you can do as a grad student. Photo: Unsplash.

It’s coming up on the season where prospective grad students are interviewing with labs, visiting campuses, and deciding where they want to go next in their career. It’s an exciting but scary time- how do you choose? What’s the most important factor to weigh?

One of the most shared pieces of advice is that it really comes down to the lab and the advisor. I’m not here to necessarily argue against that- indeed, having an advisor you work well with is absolutely essential to a positive and productive grad school experience. But I sometimes see it held up as the factor that should be the single point of decision, and it makes me shudder. Because while a good relationship with your advisor is a huge part of grad school, pinning everything on a single person, on a single lab? That can backfire, and it’s an uncomfortable fact that we try to pretend doesn’t exist.

The fact is, advisors often leave, and departments are often ill-equipped to help the students this leaves behind.

The departure of an advisor can range from relatively amicable- maybe they landed their dream job!- to incredibly hostile and nasty. A faculty member may not get tenure. They may be dismissed for disciplinary reasons. Hell, they may just find they don’t get along with other departmental members, and things fall apart spectacularly for all involved. This spectrum of outcomes, whether anyone wants to admit it, is a key part of how the students left behind may fare. Will your department rally behind you? Or will they see you as damaged goods, to be shuffled out in one way or another as quickly as possible? The story of my advisor leaving my PhD institution is not mine to tell, but the circumstances placed it firmly in the “bad blood on all sides” part of that continuum, and the ramifications of that have irrevocably shaped my path going forward in ways I’m still reckoning with.

No matter the circumstances, your options when your advisor announces their departure break down into three main families of choices. First, you can stay in your current department, likely tapping a committee member to be your new advisor. Second, you might follow them to their new position, if they have one lined up, and help set up the lab anew elsewhere. Finally, you can leave both your department and your advisor, and start over in a new program- the nuclear option, but one worth significant consideration in some situations.

You may have strong feelings about which option you prefer, and have a clear path more or less laid out for continuing. Or you may be completely adrift, with little to no guidance. How do you decide? There’s several factors to balance.

First is the department climate, as discussed above. Are there other faculty members willing and able to take you on as a student? Does your department offer any guidance to support students in your situation? I wish I could give more rosy advice here, but frankly? Most departments don’t like to think about how frequently this happens, and will often resist efforts to put protocols in place to help orphaned grad students (ask me how I know). If you get the sense that your department isn’t behind you, take that feeling seriously. You’re already in a vulnerable position with your most invested advocate likely gone, and any hint that your department isn’t going to give you the resources and support you need to finish is an absolutely eye-searingly bright red flag.

Secondly, where are you at in your degree? If you’ve just started and have no data, that’s a very different situation than being a post-comps PhD student with only writing left to finish. Be honest with yourself- how far are you? How quickly could you finish if you had to? Do you have data where you could pick everything up and start someplace with only a hard-drive, or do you have complicated experimental set-ups that will be difficult and costly to re-establish?

Okay, so with those in mind, let’s break down your potential courses of action- the whys and hows, the pros and cons, all of it:

Staying in your current department : this is logistically probably the easiest- you don’t need to pick up and move your life elsewhere, your committee can likely remain unchanged with just some reshuffling of titles, you may be able to keep all of your timeline intact.

WHY DO IT: This is a better choice if you’re close to completion, either as a masters or PhD student. You may decide to finish earlier, but it’s the path with the highest probability of stability. It’s also a good choice if you have several other faculty mentors doing similar research to your own, where you can relatively seamlessly switch labs, and if your department has good support structures in place.

WHY NOT TO DO IT: Was your advisor the only person in your department studying what you’re interested in? Is there any hint of hostility towards the lab or its members? When you seek support, are you met with replies like “well you just need to figure it out” or “why would this change any of your plans?” Get the hell out of there, especially if you’re early in your program and don’t have your research at a point where you’re pretty independent.

Following your advisor: sure, moving sucks, but if your advisor just landed a sweet gig and has all sorts of new startup, it’s often a good call to follow along. Of course, this is only a viable choice if your advisor has another job lined up in an academic setting where you can continue your degree- if you’re a PhD student and they move to a masters-only program, you’re kinda out of luck, as is the case if they switch to industry, government, or nonprofit positions.

WHY DO IT: If you have a solid working relationship with your advisor and the move will open up new opportunities, this is worth considering. You have continuity of your research, but potentially with a fresh infusion of support (depending on their startup package) and a new department that, if things haven’t been going well in your current one, might be a much-needed change of scenery.

WHY NOT TO DO IT: It’s still moving. You may need to take your comps or a significant coursework load over again, and sometimes the new institution may not want your advisor to bring their students (ahem, elitism). Visas may be an issue, either if you’re an international student or if they move internationally. You may not want or, in some cases, be safely able to move to where they go (such as if they get a position in a country where being gay is illegal, and you’re queer). Also, it can exacerbate any existing problems you have with your advisor, so if you’re already spending a lot of time butting heads with them already, think long and hard about whether you want to move someplace where they are potentially the only other human you know.

Maybe it’s time to join a new crew? Stock photo from Unsplash.

Starting over elsewhere: the scariest option, for sure. But if your advisor goes someplace you can’t follow, and your department has turned hostile, this may be the most prudent choice, even if it hurts to even think about.

WHY DO IT: This is not a choice to be made lightly, but if when you ask yourself “do I think I can continue with this program and/or advisor?”, you’re not sure, it’s time to think hard about it. Sometimes, if the situation has become toxic enough, this is the option that will in the long run be best for your health, career, and state of mind.

WHY NOT DO IT: I mean, again, moving sucks, but also this time you will almost certainly be starting over from the beginning. You may or may not be able to take your current work with you, so there’s a high probability that you may need to start from scratch- a painful prospect especially for those further in their program, whose data may have been hard-won to begin with. It’s not easy, and I was encouraged heavily against going this route by almost everyone I talked to. But the fact is that it may be the best way to go depending on your situation, and you shouldn’t discount it without seriously considering it.

Yeah, it’s not really a clear path, sorry. Stock photo by Unsplash.

So, what did I do, and how did it go? Well, some of that’s still playing out, but I ultimately chose to stay. Some of this was forced by external circumstance- right when I was ready to call it and switch programs, a little thing called “the COVID19 global pandemic” hit, which kinda threw a wrench in all of that. I had one of my other committee members take over as chair, but, again, with everyone locked down, I never really got a chance to become a part of my new lab in a meaningful way. From the time we got the news, I had planned to finish early, and with my integration into that lab halted, I focused on applying for postdocs and getting out. I defended my dissertation just over four years after I arrived in Oklahoma- earlier than I wanted, and, some would argue, before I was ready (although obviously having landed a postdoc in a well-regarded lab at Berkeley, I’d dispute that to some level). Revisions have dragged on, and the whole experience has made me bitter and anxious, perpetually afraid that once again everything will fall apart as soon as I get comfortable. It’s changed me as both a scientist- destroying my confidence in my own work and delaying the publication of papers I once was excited about- and as a person- making me cynical and untrusting in a way that I find uncomfortable.

Would I make the same decision again, if I knew what I did now? Honestly, I don’t know. The signs that it was going to be an uphill fight were there well before COVID, so maybe I would have been best served if I threw in the towel as soon as I found out my advisor would be leaving, freshly passed comps or not. Then again, COVID was just around the corner regardless, and perhaps the same forces that stymied my chances at meshing with my new lab at OU would have just played out the same way, but with the added obstacles of a new city where I had fewer connections and presumably a new project that I was much less further along with.

From where I sit now, in the office I share with wonderful supportive labmates, surrounded by notes for a project I keep pinching myself that I get to work on and with the San Francisco Bay just visible past trees buzzing with hummingbirds, it’s tempting to say it all worked out. If I had switched, I wouldn’t be here right now, after all. But litigating the maybes and coulds and shoulds is an impossible task, now that all the possible alternative choices are in the inaccessible past. My mental health has suffered immensely, and the long term career consequences still are to be seen. I made the choices I did, and despite my seeming inability to let that regret of not taking a different path go, this is the reality I now have to work with.

I do think there are two major takeaways from my experience. First, it’s more common than we like to admit, and departments frankly usually do a piss-poor job of planning for it. I pushed for the development of protocols to help students left behind as a member both of our department grad student association and our inter-departmental STEM inclusion organization, only to be told by departmental administration that they didn’t see such a thing as necessary due to its rarity. Since that time, two more faculty members have departed, leaving behind grad students who have had to figure things out for themselves. The last I heard, the faculty members with the ability to implement any sort of policies to help grad students in this situation were still maintaining that it was too rare to need planning for.

That’s a systemic change, and of not much help if you’re a student reading this trying to figure out where the hell to go from here. I hope I’ve laid out options in a helpful way. I want to stress a few things though- while there’s no simple answer for everyone, I do think leaving and starting a new program is an under-discussed option. Maybe it's a certain level of the-grass-is-always-greener thinking on my part, but few people even raised it to me as an option to seriously consider. If you do go that route, please remember that it’s not because you’re giving up or failing- you’re making a rational choice that you’ve decided is the best one for you, and anyone who questions your ability as a researcher because of it can go take a hike in some particularly mountain-lion-rich hills.

Ultimately, academia’s refusal to reckon with the realities of the grad students left behind feels rooted in the same soil as so many of the other problems that make it such hostile terrain. The inability to conceive of students as individuals hurt by structural decisions, the “I suffered so you must” mentality, the lack of scope to understand the diverse experiences of others, that certain blasé attitude that grad students can’t possibly know what’s best for themselves- these are all blossoms of the same toxic vine.

One final note: if you’re a grad student going through this and would find talking to someone else who’s been through it helpful, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. My contact info is here.

The Graduate School

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Graduate students have access to many different resources from all areas of campus. What services are available to University of Utah Graduate Students? Come to the Graduate Student Resource Fair to find out! Meet campus partners, ask questions, enjoy refreshments, and more!

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BU Graduate Students Are Set to Strike over Benefits and Pay

University officials say their offers balance the needs of students with what’s reasonable compared to peer institutions; students prioritize, “a living wage, workload protections, and stronger health care, child care, and family leave benefits.”.

Photo by Above Summit

University officials say their offers balance the needs of students with what’s reasonable compared to peer institutions; students prioritize “a living wage, workload protections, and stronger health care, child care, and family leave benefits.”

The Boston University Graduate Workers Union (BUGWU), a collection of more than 3,000 master’s, professional, and PhD graduate students, could strike as soon as next week as negotiations with BU officials, mostly over pay and benefits, have failed to reach an agreement on a new contract. The union voted on March 13 to authorize a strike by March 25 if an agreement is not reached by then.

BU officials say they have negotiated in good faith with the BUGWU bargaining unit, meeting with representatives on 15 occasions, including on Monday, but that they have anticipated a strike remains possible and are finalizing plans to ensure continuity of University operations and academic teaching and learning. Daniel Kleinman , BU’s associate provost for graduate affairs, says his team is working closely with BU’s schools and colleges on contingency plans.

Kenneth Lutchen, BU provost ad interim, sent out letters to the BU community as well as to parents and guardians of students on Tuesday updating them on the strike possibility, and says he has reinforced to the faculty that the graduate students are a critical part of the BU community. And, he says, the University is committed to their success at BU and their impact on the broader society. “We need to treat them with empathy and care while ensuring a contract that is competitive and aligned with peer institutions,” Lutchen says. 

We have a responsibility to continue the education of all of our students, and a disruption to students’ lectures, seminars, discussions sections, and labs is not acceptable. Provost Kenneth Lutchen

Kleinman adds that the University, in its negotiations, must strike a balance between those two competing interests: supporting the needs, concerns, and quality of life for BU graduate students, and at the same time recognizing what the University can reasonably afford and what is reasonable in relation to peer institutions who have entered into similar agreements. 

The students in the BU bargaining unit, which includes teaching assistants and teaching fellows, are paid for up to 20 hours of work per week. As students who are also fulfilling course requirements and doing dissertation research, they spend additional time. All PhD students receive free tuition and health benefits for at least five years on the Charles River Campus, while master’s and professional graduate students pay at least some tuition.

Among the offers that BU officials have put on the table, according to Kleinman, are:

• An increase in the 12-month PhD student stipends to $42,159 next year and an overall increase representing 13 percent over three years. BU has also offered a commitment to raising the minimum hourly rate for students paid hourly (from $15 to $18).
• Moving PhD students currently on eight-month stipends to nine-month stipends, which would mean an increase in year one of the contract to $31,619.
• Covering 33 percent of the cost of MBTA passes for 12 months for all BU PhD students and other graduate students in the union.
• Creating a dental insurance plan for all graduate students, for which they would pay the full premium ($452/year), with PhD students receiving a $100 subsidy.
• For full-time PhD students within the five-year funding guarantee, covering the annual cost of dependents that are added to the University’s student health insurance plan for children six years old and under.
• Adding a Graduate Worker Help Fund of $50,000 to help provide needs-based support during times of unforeseen crisis and emergencies and a no-interest loan to help with other financial exigencies for graduate workers who do not qualify for the fund.

The union is part of SEIU 509, the Massachusetts Union for Human Service Workers and Educators. In a letter SEIU sent to its members, it identified “key issues” in the BU bargaining talks: “A living wage, workload protections, and stronger health care, child care, and family leave benefits.” In the letter, SEIU 509 President David Foley said, “Graduate workers play a vital role in contributing to BU’s success and in shaping the experience of students across campus. Their work as teachers, mentors, and researchers is an invaluable part of what keeps the university running. They are sending a clear message to BU: we are prepared to take action to secure a fair agreement that reflects the value of our work and addresses our needs.”

The union and some graduate students have taken to using social media, most notably Instagram, to voice their frustrations over the negotiations. In her post, Meiya Sparks Lin, a graduate student in the English department, wrote, “They still refuse to pay graduate workers enough to live in the city where we work. It’s clear we’ll have to fight for our demands—but I know that when we fight, we win.” In the letter sent to members of the union, Lin was also quoted: “This isn’t just about fair pay; it’s about ensuring that the workers who keep the university running can lead dignified lives without the constant worry of financial instability.”

Members are not required to participate in a strike, and it is unclear how many will actually take part. The union includes students involved in research, instructional, and teaching work, but it’s believed the strike will initially involve those with teaching responsibilities. (Graduate students who perform other types of paid service work for BU and undergraduate students are not included in the unit.) 

How long a strike could last is unclear. Recent similar strikes at Tufts, Harvard, and the University of California lasted various lengths, from a few days to several weeks. In some cases, graduate students returned to work while negotiations were allowed to continue, but in others, the graduate students waited for a resolution before returning to their positions.

The two sides met most recently on Monday, but still appear far apart on the issue of pay. BU’s latest offer (the figures represent part-time jobs at 20 hours a week) amounted to a 13 percent increase over three years, starting at $42,159 in year one. The Union has declined to make a counteroffer to that proposal, according to BU officials, and has continued its demand for a 20 hours per week stipend starting at $62,440, which is roughly 50 percent more than current BU stipend levels. BU has requested another bargaining session this week, as well, but it’s unclear if the union will agree.

In a letter Tuesday to BU faculty, Lutchen wrote that the University supports the rights of eligible employees to strike. In that event, he said, “We have a responsibility to continue the education of all of our students, and a disruption to students’ lectures, seminars, discussions sections, and labs is not acceptable.” He said his office has offered to help schools and colleges put in place plans to “mitigate any disruption that a strike could cause, and we depend on you to help us ensure the ongoing education of our students, especially our undergraduates.”

Lutchen said BU’s proposals to the union have addressed “the issues that are most important to them—benefits and compensation, and all in the context of what other institutions have settled on.

“We hope that all of this moves us closer to resolution with BUGWU. Once we reach agreement, we can ensure that the implementation process gets underway quickly for the benefit of our graduate workers and the broader University community.”

Unlike the recent public school teachers strike in Newton, which was an illegal strike, Boston University does not have a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in place with BUGWU, meaning there is no limitation on the graduate students’ right to strike. CBAs that are in effect with BU’s other unions (including its salaried lecturers) contain no strike/no lockout provisions, barring those members from striking.

Because BUGWU members are both workers and students, they are considered students first, and therefore are encouraged to continue their academic responsibilities even while participating in the strike. However, the University can withhold their compensation if they strike, and whether any work can be made up after the strike ends will depend on the length of the strike.

How the impact of the strike will be felt inside classrooms is being worked out, according to BU officials. And some of that planning will require solutions for both a short strike and a longer one. For example, if graduate students are not available, faculty will need to create a plan to continue to teach lab or discussion sections or hold office hours.

This Frequently Asked Questions link includes more detailed information on the strike, its impact, and next steps for the University.

Among the offers that BU officials have put on the table, according to Kleinman, are: -An increase in the 12-month PhD student stipends to $42,159 next year and an overall increase representing 13 percent over three years. BU has also offered a commitment to raising the minimum hourly rate for students paid hourly (from $15 to $18). -Moving PhD students currently on eight-month stipends to nine-month stipends, which would mean an increase in year one of the contract to $31,619. -Covering 33 percent of the cost of MBTA passes for 12 months for all BU PhD students and other graduate students in the union. -Creating a dental insurance plan for all graduate students, for which they would pay the full premium ($452/year), with PhD students receiving a $100 subsidy.  -For full-time PhD students within the five-year funding guarantee, covering the annual cost of dependents that are added to the University’s student health insurance plan for children six years old and under. -Adding a Graduate Worker Help Fund of $50,000 to help provide needs-based support during times of unforeseen crisis and emergencies and a no-interest loan to help with other financial exigencies for graduate workers who do not qualify for the fund.

The University has provided schools and colleges with contingency planning documents so they can determine how best to continue their operations and maintain their teaching and research missions. Each department and program will have the flexibility of developing the operational plans that work best for them and their students, but the University is requiring that all classes, teaching, and research continue uninterrupted.

As for international graduate students, nothing prohibits them from participating in a strike, even if they are on F-1 or J-1 visas, according to guidelines from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Their visas are dependent on their enrollment as a student, which is not affected by a strike. “F-1 nonimmigrant status does not require visa holders to cross the picket line,” ICE says. (BU students who are concerned about their visa status should check in with the International Students & Scholars Office.)

Judi Burgess, BU’s executive director of employee and labor relations, says that despite the differences between the two sides, she remains hopeful that “through collaboration and partnership, we can find mutual agreement and understanding.” BU has bargained in good faith throughout the process, she says, and the union could have initiated talks sooner, since its election was held six months earlier.

“There have been numerous sessions over these past several months and the ball has been mostly in the union’s court,” Burgess says. “The University has offered several management proposals and will be offering economic counterproposals during our next bargaining session. This is a massively large union with divergent interests and populations, so the bargaining is complex.”

Adding to the complexity, Burgess says, is that this is the first such contract for this union. “First contracts typically take anywhere from a year or longer to bargain,” she says.

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Doug Most is a lifelong journalist and author whose career has spanned newspapers and magazines up and down the East Coast, with stops in Washington, D.C., South Carolina, New Jersey, and Boston. He was named Journalist of the Year while at The Record in Bergen County, N.J., for his coverage of a tragic story about two teens charged with killing their newborn. After a stint at Boston Magazine , he worked for more than a decade at the Boston Globe in various roles, including magazine editor and deputy managing editor/special projects. His 2014 nonfiction book, The Race Underground , tells the story of the birth of subways in America and was made into a PBS/American Experience documentary. He has a BA in political communication from George Washington University. Profile

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There are 50 comments on BU Graduate Students Are Set to Strike over Benefits and Pay

This article is incredibly dishonest and presents the situation without any context. I would urge everyone to hear the other side of the story by looking at the union’s website and social media accounts: bugwu.org

The University Management refused to provide even a single substantial proposal until they caught wind that grad workers were moving towards a strike. BUGWU requested to bargain in April 2023 and only received the first compensation offer in February 2024. Moreover, their counter-proposals all but ignored all of what BUGWU originally proposed, instead opting to restate the current BU policy in article formatting. I guess you can call that bargaining in good faith if we are defining it as fulfilling the strict legal requirement of not refusing to meet with the union’s bargaining representatives.

The Management’s compensation offer is nothing but to enforce the status quo. Even after the raise salaried grads at BU are the lowest-paid grad workers in Boston at 31k on a 9-month appointment. Not to mention that most grads on 12-month appointments already make more than 41k per year which is effectively a wage freeze. The management has already announced a 4% cost-of-living adjustment separate from the negotiation process. Effectively they are offering a consistent 3% raise each year over the next 4 years, which is largely outpaced by inflation and rent increases and in effect a pay cut for most grads.

Moreover, the management’s current proposal is especially outrageous if we consider the situation of grad workers on hourly appointments, who often make more than $18/hr already but still struggle to make ends meet due to the limited appointment hours and the lack of categorical tuition remission for these workers. Many of these workers are forced to spend the entirety of their paycheck on tuition and frequently have to take out loans just to avoid homelessness.

The union’s proposal of $62,440 is both the average amount needed to not be rent burdened in BU housing and approximately the current living wage in Boston according to the MIT living wage calculator. It should not be controversial that grad workers should be able to afford to live in the city where we work.

BU’s mission statement claims that “higher education should be accessible to all ” and endeavors to “understand the needs of others and commit to…relieve suffering.” But not making an effort to end rent burden, the management is forcing the University into a position of utter hypocrisy, because international grads, grads with dependents, and grads from low-income backgrounds bear the brunt of this struggle, and this is simply unacceptable. Instead of putting your effort into propaganda pieces as such you should actually try to take the demands of over 3000 grad workers seriously and finally start to bargain in good faith.

For our community allies, I would urge you to communicate your support to grads you know either directly or by donating to our hardship fund here: https://givebutter.com/bugwufund

“The union’s proposal of $62,440…should not be controversial.”

Agreed. But shouldn’t being paid a full-time wage (on top of tuition and benefits) for part-time work be controversial? No wonder the University administration balks.

This is a misleading excerpt from the original comment. The point of what is or is not controversial is whether graduate workers should be able to afford to live in Boston. If this is not something the university can align itself with, then their graduate education is only accessible to those with prior wealth.

Sure that’s controversial, if you know nothing about graduate workers, and you accept without question the University’s lie that we only work 20 hours a week.

Full time lecturers with PhDs at BU earn 65K a year base salary. At some colleges at BU this is the bulk of their teaching faculty. So, grad students are asking to earn the same amt as FT teaching faculty?

Support staff earn around 62K.

Do students know that many of their profs make less than 1 tuition + R&B?

I am a full time staff member who earns $46,500 pre-tax

62k for student workers is absurd

Hi anonymous, I bet your labor is worth more than $46.5K! Sounds like you could benefit from a union as well. This doesn’t have to be a zero-sum game of grads vs staff. :)

My takeaway from this comment is not that grad workers shouldn’t get $62K but rather that you should be getting paid more as well. Everyone deserves a living wage. Pay your employees, BU!

I think the “absurdity” needs to be re-framed here. I think anyone making $46k working full-time in a city like Boston is absurd.

Grad workers are asking for a reasonable wage based on the living costs that BU sets, plus benefits that many of them desperately need but the university is unwilling to offer.

Hi anonymous, most of the grad workers perform the same type of work as faculty and we are not allowed to take up outside employment during our degree program. The stipend is all we have to survive on during 5 – 7 years in Boston and there is no quitting for better employment opportunities because then you lose your degree progress.

In my opinion, what is absurd here is that almost nobody at BU makes a living wage that could allow them to live in a city where they work and that is a deliberate choice on the management’s part. So I would encourage you to talk to your coworkers to see what you all are willing do to improve your working conditions and us grads will be there with you all the way,

You deserve a living wage also! If you’re also unionized, a sizable salary win for graduate workers will give your union more leverage to raise wages for you too. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Graduate students are often serving as more than just student workers, and the “20 hours” can be a bit misleading. When I worked as an instructor of record this summer, I had to put in far more than 20 hours. I ended up being paid the same amount as my teaching fellow, despite doing twice the amount of work. The University also bars us from working in any outside positions. This is our only paycheck, and we need to be able to afford to live on it.

Would you like to unionize? It is sad to see that you are being paid less than the living wage. It is unfair for you to expect grad workers who are overworked and underpaid to settle for less because you are underpaid.

So BU grad workers should remain underpaid because you are? Maybe the problem isn’t grad workers asking for living wages. Maybe the problem is that your employer underpaying you. A full-time staff member who only earns $46K pre-tax, living in Boston? now THATS absurd. You deserve more and so do we!

I mean, this sounds like BU should be paying their teaching faculty more, not that grad students should get less. It also looks like $65k is the starting ask, I’m guessing they expect BU to negotiate them down from that (better to start high and end up with a better number than ask for the bare minimum and get negotiated down from that, no?)

Maybe BU just simply underpays most of its employees? The issue is that BU also pays too little for its postdoc, research scientists, support staffs, and faculty, not that the PhD ask too much.

Does teaching faculty and support staff have unions that can help them negotiate a better deal? As far as I know (and please correct me if I am wrong), there is no union for postdoc and research scientist, so at the end they could unfortunately be the one left behind.

Wow, that adds perspective. Cost-of-living is going up across the board, so I can understand that many other groups must be feeling the squeeze as well. Do you feel like faculty and staff deserve to be paid more than they currently earn for their work? If so, maybe it would be worth having conversations with colleagues about how to collectively ask for a raise.

As the graduate worker quoted in this article, I think it’s important for readers to know that this is inaccurate and biased reporting. The BU today did not reach out to me for comments as they did for the administration and includes only two short quotes from Union sources. Speaking only for myself as a member of the BUGWU bargaining team, I hope the editors will consider reaching out to graduate workers directly for comments and representing the graduate workers’ side equally in the future—many of us would be happy to provide more accurate information.

I encourage readers to read information for themselves and make informed decisions at bugwu.org—we began bargaining so late *only because* the university delayed for months, and we have voted to strike only after exhausting all other options. If the graduate union accepted BU’s current wage offer, I would be taking an 8% pay cut—as I have been every year I’ve worked at BU.

BU has $5.6 billion dollars in net assets. Paying 3000 grad students a few thousand dollars more per year won’t hurt them…

You’d think a lifelong journalist would know that unbiased journalism requires engaging with both sides. Or maybe he only interviewed BU administrators on purpose.

Zoe, thanks for your comment. In fact, I did reach out to the union twice, and several students, and got no replies. I understand that’s their right, certainly. The union president said he would call me back and did not. So instead I quoted from the letter that he sent. But attempts were made. — Doug Most

last year, one of the STEM professors gave a lecture about “do grad students deserve to get paid”? There is a a food bank for grad students in that department because so many of them cant afford food. What a slap in the face

This article has framed the negotiations very differently than they have actually occurred. Many grad students are only paid on 9 month stipends, despite needing to pay rent & eat all 12 months of the year. Let alone the fact that those of us on 12 month stipends are barely paid enough to cover rent (my rent increased by 12% this year- my stipend increased by 3%).

Our contracts specifically prohibit us from accepting outside work or other employment. How do you expect us to survive?

It shouldn’t be controversial for us to earn enough money to live, let alone to contribute to retirement savings while we perform crucial labor for the university in an increasingly precarious job market. The fact that our current proposal is “50% more than current BU stipends” says more about BU’s current stipends than it does about our proposal.

BU has a $3 billion dollar endowment fund. I know 4 grad student colleagues who rely on food banks every week to feed themselves.

Harvard is paying their graduate students 50K, MIT is paying theirs a minimum of 47K, and UChicago just raised their minimum stipends to at least 45K (in a city with a much lower cost of living).

If BU wants to market themselves as a prestigious research institution, they should pay their graduate students accordingly. Nearly all of the research and teaching that happens at BU could not be done without the work of graduate students, it’s time to treat them with the respect and pay they deserve.

“Members are not required to participate in a strike, and it is unclear how many will actually take part.”

Well, they voted by a 90% margin to authorize a strike, so I’d guess a fair number of them will actually take part.

Saying that “the [stipend] figures represent part-time jobs at 20 hours a week” is so disingenuous. This implies that grad workers could reasonably expect to get another part-time job outside of BU to supplement their stipend income, but that is simply not the case. Not only is grad school a full-time commitment, but also many of us are strongly discouraged, or even explicitly forbidden, from taking outside jobs. To quote directly from my offer letter:

“The purpose of fully supporting our graduate students is to allow them to engage wholly in their scholarly work and to devote the attention necessary to complete their studies in a timely fashion. . . . We also expect that you will not be employed outside of Boston University.”

Based on this, I’m not supposed to take any outside jobs, but I shouldn’t need to because my stipend will “fully support” me while I work full-time towards my degree. So I’m supposed to be financially supported full-time but they’re only paying me a part-time stipend? The math isn’t mathing on that one.

I am fortunate enough to have financial support from my family while I pursue my degree, but what happens for people who don’t have any outside support? They’re faced with a choice between trying to survive on a part-time stipend in one of the most expensive cities in the US or going against their contract to get an outside job (on top of their full-time grad school workload). And some grad workers don’t even get to make that choice (e.g., international grads with visa restrictions).

The way this article presents our compensation proposal is trying to spin it to make us look greedy, but we’re not trying to get rich by asking for a living wage; we’re just trying to survive. Do better, BU!

Def support folks looking to better their situation, I’d be interested in what this would look like for the recently announced post-doc minimum of 65k (at 40 hours/wk) or the high number of administrative staff working full time who also make much less than 62k. The rising tide doesn’t lift all boats, so someone is going to be disappointed in the end. Perhaps the L2324 folks should consider driving a harder bargain?

Everybody is looking to better their situation, including all of us who pay tuition to BU. It doesn’t mean that unreasonable pay and benefits are deserved or earned.

I just Googled Which university pays most for PhD? Stanford University Stipends can help easy the journey of many PhD students, and here are the highest paying PhD stipends in the USA: Stanford: At Stanford University, PhD students are at the top, with a whopping $45,850 stipend, the highest PhD stipend, making it a dream for many.Jan 30, 2024.

The article sounds fair to me and like BU is in line with its peers. I agree it is unfortunate how expensive everything is for everyone.

Hi Staffer— Most grad workers are not making anything close to 45k at BU. Many grad workers make 26k/year or 31k/ year. While BU’s offer raises the 12-month minimum to 42k, those of us on 8 or 9 month funding cycles would still be making only ~1-2k more per year (so, 28k for those on 8-month funding). This is less than half of the living wage in Boston! Even if BU was in line with peer institutions, you’re right to point to how expensive everything is—all workers at BU should be paid more. BU rakes in a 150mil+ surplus every year, they can certainly afford it!

Assuming I’m looking at the same article you are, that was the stipend for the 2020/2021 academic year. On Stanford’s website it says the current doctoral pay (salary + any assistantships) is $51,600. Considering that other schools in the Boston area (Harvard and MIT) pay in the ballpark of $50k, BU’s current offer doesn’t even put them in line with others in the area.

I wonder why google missed this: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/12/20/phd-gsas-stipend-increase/#:~:text=December%2020%2C%202023-,Ph .,announced%20in%20an%20email%20Monday. Seems Harvard is at at least 50k and they are in the same COL

This must be out of date information. I am the mentor of a recent BU undergraduate who just got accepted to Brown, and their stipend is 53k.

Hi staffer! This is inaccurate information as MIT and Harvard both have higher base wages. Also, a quick search into Stanfords website shows that their base stipend is higher than your reported number as well!

MIT pays 47k-49k for PhD stipends and up to 55k for some.

https://oge.mit.edu/graduate-admissions/costs-funding/stipend-rates/

This is about 50% more than BU. Is this in line with peers?

First of all, pay your grad workers. Second, this article is riddled with basic inaccuracies about local labor. For example, it appears to reference a Tufts grad strike that literally never happened (source: I was on that bargaining committee, we did not go on strike), misunderstands why the Newton teacher’s strike was illegal (because it’s illegal for public employees to strike in MA, not because they were under a no strike clause), and incorrectly states that BU’s other unions are under a no strike clause (the Part Time Lecturers are operating under an expired contract and not bound by a no strike clause).

Some friendly advice from across the river: stop putting your energy into sloppy PR releases that would get a B- at best from every TA I work with, and start putting your energy towards actually reaching a fair deal with your employees.

This is saddening to read. It makes it sound like a part-time job asking for exorbitant pay. But, as another person posted above, when we entered the program we were promised that our stipend would fully support us so that we could focus solely on our academic work. WE ARE ALSO EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED FROM HOLDING ANY OTHER EMPLOYMENT. BU fully expects us to live off of a stipend that is demonstrably lower than the cost of living in Boston.

Many of us live in the same neighborhoods, buildings, and even individual apartments with grad workers from Harvard or MIT who make a lot more than we do. IF BU WANTS TO CLAIM IT IS A PEER OF HARVARD AND MIT THEN IT NEEDS TO SUPPORT ITS PHD STUDENTS IN COMPARABLE WAYS.

And don’t even think about if you have other circumstances come up… a few years ago I needed extensive dental work that cost over 50% of my stipend. I was lucky and family helped. But as a person in my mid-30s, my family cannot and will not always help me. I’m so glad that a dental insurance plan is part of the bargaining. But that won’t completely cover students who need more than a cleaning a year.

I really wish this article had told the whole story about our situations and quoted some of us, other than one insta post.

Come on man I just want dental insurance and to be able to live near where I work, you’d think BU could afford that.

This whole strike concept is nonsensical. They’re lucky to be making anything while receiving a high quality education. Unfortunately the university is pandering to outrageous demands. More importantly, what is being done to ensure undergraduates continue receiving the education they paid for? Why are the contingency plans, other than telling professors that they’ll need to make plans? The university seems woefully unprepared to be held up by these TAs.

As a staff union member, it has been heartening to see the grad students unionize and stand firm for what they deserve. I know the other BU unions are behind you all the way. Go BUGWU!

Mr. Lutchen’s letter to parents about the looming strike we found cynical and demeaning toward a just cause and it prompted us to donate substantially to the graduate workers union. We had hoped to view indentured servitude as a thing of the past. Doesn’t it trouble the BU admin that it appears to consider past as prologue?

I think this article could benefit from providing more context of the cost of living in Boston, expenses that the average PhD student could be expected to have (rent, groceries, gas, textbooks, parking, family expenses, MBTA pass, etc.). Once you provide that context, you realize that it is absolutely unreasonable to expect graduate students to survive off of these stipends. Those negotiating from the BU administrative side have no idea what it is to live off such low pay in Boston in 2024.

Let’s get another article going examining the “day-in-the-life” of the graduate students who are going to strike, how much time they spend being the backbone of the university, how much money they spend, how much money they are paid, how much care they give to their students, how many late night hours they spend getting all this work done for BU. THEN let’s do the math. Would love a graphic showing a mock budget, salary, taxes, etc.

Awful. Absolutely ridiculous that these students are allowed to strike.

My initial comment from 3/19/2024 for this article was not posted. It is unclear why as I said nothing offensive and demonstrated support for the graduate students. I did criticize the article for being lopsided in its reporting (many other commenters have pointed out the same). I brought up the fact the university presidents and the like are paid six figures, so a pay cut in order for students to be able to afford basic necessities should not be out of the question. I did question whether a strike by faculty and staff in solidarity with striking grad students might be worthwhile. I spoke about MLK’s involvement in the Memphis Sanitation Workers strike. I don’t believe I did anything wrong. As a longtime BU Today reader, I am disappointed that moderators decided to not allow my post to be published, despite being a frequent poster that attempts to keep things cordial.

My primary message remains: An injury to grad students is an injury to the entire university! Raise their pay!

I am one of the many BU professors/faculty who support the graduate student workers and the present efforts of their union. I’d like to address one theme of the university administration’s rhetoric as reported by BU Today above. The administration says that “…if graduate students are not available, faculty will need to create a plan to continue to teach lab or discussion sections…” The administration has also told us that grading of essays and assignment will need to be done by faculty or non-BU workers. BU departments have already been told that the administration would like us to draw up contingency plans and return such plans to the administration, and a number of departments (the number is unknown to me, but I am in one of them) have decided not to comply with this request. I hope the undergraduate students recognize that this is in no way demonstrates a failure on our part to value their continuing education. Undergraduate students and their families actually have a lot of power in this situation to influence the university administration. If faculty were to undermine a strike by BU graduate student workers by making sure that the presence of BU graduate student workers was not required for teaching purposes, this would be effectively undermining the strike (and any non-BU workers employed for this purpose would be crossing a picket line). Of course, every BU faculty member needs to make up their own mind whether to stand with the graduate student workers, or stand against them, but no one should fool themselves: *finding alternative ways to get grading done or have discussion classes taught, etc. necessarily involves pitting oneself against the graduate student union.*

As a supporter of the striking students represented by the Boston University Graduate Workers Union (BUGWU), it’s crucial to address the concerns and demands raised by the union. The issues of pay, benefits, workload protections, and overall well-being are fundamental aspects of fair and equitable working conditions, especially for graduate students who play a vital role in the university’s functioning.

Firstly, the argument that students should feel lucky to receive compensation while pursuing a high-quality education overlooks the fact that fair compensation is essential for graduate students to focus on their academic and research responsibilities effectively. The demands for a living wage, workload protections, and stronger healthcare, childcare, and family leave benefits are not only reasonable but necessary for ensuring the dignity and stability of graduate workers.

The offers presented by BU officials, while they may represent some progress, do not fully address the core concerns of the union members. The increase in stipends and other benefits is a step in the right direction, but it falls short of meeting the demands for fair compensation and comprehensive support in an area that, to quote from Apartments.com, “As of March 2024, the average rent in Boston, MA is $3,327 per month. This is 122% higher than the national average rent price of $1,498/month, making Boston one of the most expensive cities in the US. “.

Moreover, the assertion that a disruption to students’ lectures, seminars, discussions, and labs is unacceptable overlooks the fact that such disruptions are often necessary to draw attention to crucial issues and bring about meaningful change. It’s essential to recognize the agency and rights of graduate workers to advocate for their rights and working conditions without facing undue pressure or restrictions.

Supporting the striking students means acknowledging and addressing their legitimate concerns, advocating for fair and equitable treatment, and fostering a collaborative approach to finding mutually beneficial solutions that uphold the values of dignity, respect, and fairness for all members of the university community.

In response to the article about the potential strike of Boston University Graduate Workers Union (BUGWU), it’s crucial to recognize the inherent power dynamics and structural inequalities at play. The BUGWU, representing over 3,000 graduate students, is rightfully advocating for fair pay, workload protections, and improved benefits. This is not merely about individual compensation but about addressing systemic issues that impact the well-being and dignity of workers who contribute significantly to the university’s functioning.

The offers presented by BU officials, while seemingly addressing some concerns, fall short of meeting the fundamental needs of graduate workers. The proposals must be evaluated not just in isolation but in comparison to industry standards and the rising cost of living, especially in cities like Boston. The demands for a living wage, workload protections, and stronger benefits are not unreasonable; they are essential for ensuring that workers can lead dignified lives without financial instability.

The solidarity expressed by the union and graduate students through social media platforms like Instagram reflects a collective understanding of the broader socioeconomic context. It’s not just about financial compensation but about creating an environment where workers can thrive both academically and personally. The willingness to take action through a strike demonstrates a commitment to advocating for justice and fairness in labor relations, principles that resonate deeply with social justice movements that I have long championed.

Ultimately, the negotiations should prioritize addressing the core concerns raised by BUGWU in a meaningful and substantive way. This includes acknowledging the value of graduate workers’ contributions, ensuring fair compensation and benefits, and fostering an environment of mutual respect and collaboration. It’s not merely about reaching an agreement but about building a more equitable and inclusive university community where all members can flourish.

In the dialectical dance of power and resistance, the recent developments at Boston University reveal the inherent contradictions of our socio-economic order. The Boston University Graduate Workers Union (BUGWU), embodying the aspirations and struggles of over 3,000 graduate students, stands at the crossroads of exploitation and emancipation. The specter of a strike looms large, reflecting the tension between labor and capital, between the demands for dignity and the pressures of profit.

The rhetoric of university officials, with its appeals to empathy and care, masks the underlying power dynamics at play. The discourse of “good faith negotiations” and “reasonable offers” belies the structural inequalities that pervade academia. The commodification of education, where students are simultaneously workers and learners, lays bare the contradictions of a system that values productivity over well-being, profit over solidarity.

The union’s demands for a living wage, workload protections, and enhanced benefits resonate with the broader struggles for social justice and human dignity. Their use of social media as a platform for dissent and solidarity underscores the power of collective action in challenging entrenched hierarchies, and so on. As Meiya Sparks Lin eloquently puts it, “This isn’t just about fair pay; it’s about ensuring that the workers who keep the university running can lead dignified lives without the constant worry of financial instability.”

In this moment of confrontation, we are confronted with fundamental questions about the nature of education, labor, and power. The resolution of this conflict will not only shape the future of graduate workers at Boston University but also reverberate across the landscape of higher education, challenging us to rethink the values and priorities that govern our institutions.

The tone and misrepresentation of facts in this article regarding the ongoing graduate student union negotiations is very disheartening to see. BU admin has done everything in their power to stall any meaningful negotiations over the past several months and have only started to propose counter offers, although still insufficient, since hearing about the plan to strike. As an individual student I have brought in $160k in funding from the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health, $36K of which I never see and goes directly to BU as an institution. I know dozens of graduate students within my department, and hundred across BU, that have these same awards, totaling to MILLIONS of dollars. As a institution with a multi-BILLION dollar net worth, it is unbelievable that BU leadership is not willing to adequately compensate the labor of graduate students conducting cutting edge research that they profit off of. I would sincerely request that the author of this article include perspective of graduate students in a followup article because this current article is very one sided and entirely biased towards the goals of BU admin.

In full support of a union for grad workers, as everyone should be paid a living wage. Also, if part time grad workers will be paid a living wage, then full time staff need to be as well. Insane to think about the amount of time most staff put into their jobs here at BU, how we often go above and beyond and work outside our 40 hours and many of us are not being paid a livable salary. For example, many full time staff (both hourly union and salaried non-union), including myself, make less than the $62k livable salary. Many of my peers commute well over an hour to work because many cannot afford to live in Boston or the surrounding area. And those of us, like myself, who choose to live in the Greater Boston area struggle through just like our grad students. If part time work will be compensated at a higher rate than full time work, the University should seriously consider their pay grades.

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2023 graduate student survey results now available

The biennial gradSERU survey examines graduate students’ experiences across the entire spectrum of their graduate career and found students largely pleased—but identified some areas for improvement.

The results from the 2023 gradSERU (Student Experiences in the Research University) survey are now available.

The survey found that while students reported feeling a strong sense of belonging here at CU Boulder and are satisfied with the advising, education and research opportunities that they are receiving, there were still areas for improvement. These include compensation and general campus climate for students of color or those with disabilities.

Administered between March 13 and May 5, 2023, this biennial survey was designed to examine students’ experiences across the entire spectrum of their graduate career. It was sent to almost all non-professional graduate students enrolled in the spring 2023 semester, totaling 3,848 students. Overall, 1,395 students responded, for a response rate of 36%—up from 28% in 2021.

"Thank you to everyone who responded to the gradSERU survey last spring. Your feedback is critical in allowing us to better understand the graduate student experience at CU Boulder,” said E. Scott Adler, the dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate affairs.

“We continuously work on the services and support that the university provides our graduate students, so it is imperative that we know more about who they are and their career goals. Findings such as these help to shape our priorities and initiatives in the Graduate School and the wider university."

Findings such as these help to shape our priorities and initiatives in the Graduate School and the wider university.

Since receiving the 2021 gradSERU results , the Graduate School has implemented several changes, including:

• Student concerns regarding cost of living and compensation have resulted in continued stipend increases, expanded benefits and the remission of mandatory fees.
• Physical and mental well-being concerns of our graduate students led to embedded counselors in all schools and colleges, including the Graduate School. With the demand for ongoing counseling services increasing, the insurance co-pay for community providers was eliminated in this year’s insurance plan.
• Aware of the importance of the advising relationship to graduate student well-being, the Graduate School’s new advising and mentoring initiative consists of a working group of cross-campus collaborators tasked with identifying and promoting best practices in mentoring. The Graduate School was also recently named a Sloan Center for Systemic Change , which will provide funding to further develop its mentoring program for both faculty and students.
• The Graduate School hired a diversity, equity and inclusion faculty director to coordinate, promote and assist those efforts both within the college and in the departmental programs. The Graduate School also welcomed the Colorado Diversity Initiative , formerly in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement (ODECE), which strives to recruit and retain a dynamic community of students from diverse backgrounds.

The gradSERU survey is administered every two years, with the first being in 2021 and the next in 2025. These surveys provide CU Boulder with the opportunity to track changes in graduate programs and compare student experiences over time.

Below are some of the important findings of the 2023 survey.

• Sixty-eight percent of graduate students receiving funding were satisfied or very satisfied with the financial support from all sources.
• Only about one-third of graduate students receiving financial support said their stipend sufficiently covered the cost of living in the Boulder area.
• More than half of respondents (54%) reported feeling worried they would not have enough money to cover the cost of housing, and more than one-quarter (28%) reported that they were worried that food would run out before they had money to buy more.

Academics and advising

• Overall, 89% of respondents indicated that their advisor was able to effectively help them. Eighty-six percent said they would choose their advisor again, and 84% said they would choose CU Boulder again.
• Most respondents were satisfied with their opportunities for research (90%), the quality of their graduate or professional program (85%), and access to quality advising (84%).
• Most graduate students still reported that they were treated fairly by faculty members in their program (91%).

Teaching and research experience

• Graduate students involved in research reported high ratings for feeling competent conducting research within their fields. More than 85% of respondents said they felt competent following best practices of integrity and reproducibility in scientific research, critically evaluating existing literature and data, and applying research methods.
• Many respondents reported that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their ability to conduct their own research independently (77%). Students also reported feeling satisfied with assisting faculty in research (63%) and collaborating with other researchers or students (63%).
• Almost 75% of students reported having had some sort of teaching duty. While only 42% of students reported having training for their teaching duties, 75% of those that did were satisfied with that training.
• The vast majority said teaching enhanced their academic experience and was helpful with respect to their professional development.

Health and well-being

• When asked about obstacles toward degree progress, the most frequently chosen response from graduate students (38%) was “course load,” which differs from 2021 where “emotional health problems” were the greatest obstacle. “Mental health problems” was the second most frequent factor (35%).
• Many students have a strong sense of belonging in their graduate or professional program. In 2023, 84% of respondents said they agreed or strongly agreed that they belonged in their program, and 85% said their program created a collegial and supportive environment.
• When asked about their awareness of mental health and wellness services, many students (93%) responded that they were aware of Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) . Of the respondents who said they were aware and used CAPS, 63% said that the availability of appointments was sufficient to meet their needs.

Career plans

• Graduate students’ interest in non-academic careers has continued to grow. Respondents indicated that the careers they were most interested in were industry or for-profit sectors (74%), higher education institutions (63%) and government, non-educational institutions (55%).
• Seventy-seven percent of respondents said their primary advisor was helpful in providing guidance in academic career options and 61% said they were helpful in nonacademic career options.
• While only 38% felt that their program communicated post completion non-academic career options, 72% felt that their department was supportive of them exploring non-academic careers.

Equity and diversity 

In this area of the survey, students were asked comparative questions regarding whether the climate for various identity groups is "at least as good as" the climate for other identity groups.

• Seventy-six percent of respondents indicated the climate for females was at least as good as for males, while 96% of respondents indicated the climate for males was at least as good as it was for females.
• Seventy-six percent of LGBTQIA+ respondents rated that they were experiencing the same climate as that of heterosexual students. On the other hand, 85% of all graduate students indicated that the climate for LGBTQIA+ students was as good as it was for heterosexual students.
• Fifty-eight percent of respondents who identify as having a disability indicated that the climate was the same as students without disabilities, while 69% of respondents without disabilities indicated it was at least as good.
• Fifty-four percent of students of color felt that the climate was the same for them as other groups. Alternatively, 66% of all graduate students agreed the climate in their programs for students in historically marginalized race and ethnicity groups was at least as good as it was for other students.

The Graduate School sees the various sources of information about students and programs as critical to its ongoing planning and decision making and is committed to keeping the graduate student community informed of its progress as it works on crucial issues identified in the data. More information is available on the gradSERU web page .

• Spring 2024
• gradSERU survey

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Rethinking graduate education

Administrators, faculty, staff and students at the University of South Carolina gathered at the start of the semester at the Graduate Education Summit with a common goal: to explore the future of graduate education at the university and determine concrete steps on the path forward.

Wholesale graduate education reform is a tall order.

Boasting more nationally ranked graduate degree programs than the combined total of all other South Carolina colleges and universities, the Graduate School forms an elaborate web of disciplines and career outcomes. With an ambitious agenda of change covering advising, program design, student integration into the academic community and curricular reform, the prospect of rethinking graduate programs is challenging – but dedicated faculty and staff are already enthusiastically embracing opportunities to explore the best avenues for improvement.

Luckily, they have models to look to for inspiration. The College of Engineering and Computing and the College of Social Work, both presenters at the Graduate Summit, offer two examples of successfully revising their graduate programs to better meet the needs of students.

Civil and Mechanical Engineering

For engineers, a bachelor’s degree is often the final stop of university education, and with good reason. In the industry, four years of post-degree training under the supervision of a professional engineer is the norm, culminating in rigorous licensing examinations. Further education isn’t strictly necessary for advancement.

But, according to Juan Caicedo, chair of the department of civil and environmental engineering, it certainly helps. “One of the advantages, when you look at polls of income over their lifetime, a person who has a master’s degree has significantly more income than a person who has only a bachelor's degree,” he says. “Not everyone is expected to have a master’s degree, but if they are able to finish it very quickly and have the resources and the time, it’s a great investment.”

That’s why the department of civil and environmental engineering developed an accelerated master’s degree program that allows students to transition directly from their undergraduate pathway into a one-year master’s degree program, boosting earning potential and fast-forwarding career advancement. Recent revisions to the program have streamlined course requirements and incorporated a wider range of cross disciplinary options within the department and related fields to smooth the transition between the undergraduate and graduate degree.

Curriculum is a living document.

“We recognized that, as time, technology and the needs of graduates started changing, we needed to provide more flexibility for students, courses in other areas that still counted toward their graduate degrees,” says Caicedo. “Someone who does geotechnical engineering and structural engineering needs to be able to talk to someone who does artificial intelligence. Now they can go out to computer science and take some classes there.”

Streamlining the program was no easy task. Within the department, students were able to choose between specializing in structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, water resources, transportation engineering, or environmental engineering, and the railway program was recently added to create additional opportunities for engineering students. The updated curriculum needed to strike a balance between providing students with the basics of their broader discipline but also specialized knowledge in their subfield.

But thanks to the work of a dedicated committee of faculty members within the department, led by departmental graduate director Sarah Gassman, the first cohort of students reaped the benefits of the accelerated pathway’s revisions in fall 2023, and this spring promises a crop of program graduates from several subdisciplines of civil and environmental engineering.

As the department celebrates its success in implementing a new iteration of the accelerated master’s program, faculty continue to monitor its development for future opportunities to improve. “Right now, we’re in the cycle of evaluating,” says Caicedo. “Curriculum is a living document.”

Social Work

When Maryah Fram joined the College of Social Work in 2003, she entered her faculty role in a time of flux. The college had embraced a shift toward a more research-intensive program and launched a community-engaged transdisciplinary approach.

The goal was greater research engagement in a variety of fields. But the required emphasis on community-engaged research could make it harder for students to gain a depth of knowledge about other methodologies. Two and a half years of coursework also meant a longer path to a PhD degree. 

So when Fram stepped into the role of Ph.D. program director, she knew it was time for the program to look at the possibility of some major changes. 

“I take the responsibility of that role fully, and to me, that meant not just keeping everything moving along, but really stepping back,” says Fram. “The courses and electives our students were taking weren’t fully accomplishing what we wanted for them in terms of their intellectual growth and advancing the social work knowledge base.”

The work evolved into a systematic overhaul of the PhD program, starting with a reflection on what the program wanted students to know and be able to do when they graduate. For many years, the program began with traditional courses in history, statistics and quantitative methods, but students weren’t prepared to actively engage with the knowledge and skills they were being taught.

Fram and the PhD Program Committee devoted a year to rethinking and revising the curriculum. They considered not just what foundational content students needed to succeed across their program of study, but also to engage, innovate and challenge assumptions as they became the next generation of knowledge-producers.

Give yourself permission to really say, we might have completely missed something. Do reinvent the wheel, because it could turn out to be infinitely better.

The revised PhD program rolled out this academic year, with incoming doctoral students enrolled in a new, deeply immersive roster of classes: epistemology and ontology, key tensions in social work in historical context, and social science theories. Hitting the ground running with meaningful discipline-specific courses prior to introducing statistics and quantitative methods was a big shift, but it’s one that’s been impactful for students.

In a field like social work, where career paths are incredibly varied, settling on program revisions was particularly challenging. “It’s really hard to have a curriculum—there’s no ‘10 things every social worker needs to know’ that we all study,” says Fram. “We study things as diverse as racial disparities in health care access for pregnant women to the aging process for Holocaust survivors to improving school-based mental health services through mindfulness interventions.”

But with a thoughtful revision of course requirements, enhanced emphasis on mentorship, and greater freedom for students to explore and take the lead on the research questions and methodologies that drive their passions, the outcome has been remarkable.

“That process of not saying, here are the seven classes that everyone offers, but trying to push that aside—that’s the thing I most strongly recommend,” says Fram. “Give yourself permission to really say, we might have completely missed something. Do reinvent the wheel, because it could turn out to be infinitely better.”

Learn more about the Graduate School at the University of South Carolina.

Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.

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Consulting Club offers insight into non-academic career

• Written by UNMC Graduate Studies
• Published Mar 18, 2024

The UNMC Consulting Club is using its training on a project for UNMC Graduate Studies.

Students have established a handful of new clubs at UNMC in the past year or so of interest to graduate students. These include the Bangladeshi Student Association, Bioinformatics Club, Harm Reduction Advocates, Muslim Student Association and UNMC Consulting Club. Please reach out if you have interest in any of these organizations.

Today, let’s learn more about the UNMC Consulting Club.

Consulting is potentially a rich career field for PhDs looking to specialize outside of academia. PhDs are prized for their ability to solve problems and, in consulting, to apply their scientific expertise to business challenges. A consulting club allows graduate students another opportunity to explore using their training in another way, and perhaps in a career field they had not previously considered.

Aaron Jensen, the club’s vice president of internal development and training, said other institutions have had similar consulting clubs for decades. These clubs have served as pipelines between PhD programs and industry.

Liz Bierlein, club vice president of communications and outreach, has already secured a consulting position at a life sciences company thanks to her UNMC training — and, in part, to her hands-on experience through the Consulting Club.

Jensen credits club president Suyash Deodhar, PhD, now a scientist at Bristol Myers Squibb, with coming up with the idea for the club. Keshore Bidasee, PhD, professor of pharmacology and experimental neuroscience, signed on as faculty advisor. The concept was unfamiliar at first, Jensen said, but when explained, a UNMC Consulting Club made a lot of sense.

While they appreciated career development programs and presentations, students and faculty realized there was an unfilled need within graduate studies for more emphasis on consultation as a potential career track.

UNMC Graduate Studies agreed, giving the club and its members consulting work. The club does work on “mock” or sample problems. But UNMC Graduate Studies has engaged the club in a real consulting project on how graduate studies can better engage students in peer mentoring, said Karen Gould, PhD, assistant dean for graduate student success.

The club invites projects from other UNMC entities on a pro bono basis, Bierlein said.

The club has about 50 members with about 10 “regulars,” Jensen said. Interested students are welcome to take part as their time or interest allows. They need not be interested in consulting as a career – or they can use the club as an opportunity to see if they are interested or not.

Whatever your career path, the club offers opportunities for project experience, which may prove beneficial, leaders said.

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Sunderland teachers finally 'graduate' with degree decades after leaving classroom

• Sunderland University
• Monday 18 March 2024 at 6:09pm

Helen Ford was in Sunderland for a graduation ceremony recognising the hard work and lifetime achievements of 120 teachers

A group of North East teachers who left the classroom decades ago have finally been recognised for their studies - and their years of service.

Sunderland University has presented honorary Batchelor of Education degrees to 120 former students of the city's teaching college.

At the time they studied, they were awarded a Certificate of Education but the university felt it was high time for an upgrade.

Professor Lynne McKenna from Sunderland University, said: "Those teachers have given such a lot back to our region and yet they have not been afforded the opportunity to study for a degree and as other universities were doing this retrospectively we thought it would be a really nice thing to do, to celebrate those staff who have given so much to the region."

The former students all studied at Sunderland College of Education Teacher Training College, based at Langham Tower.

After a series of changes over the decades, the college eventually became part of the university.

Among those receiving a retrospective degree was Graham Fraser who studied at the college between 1966 and 1969.

Like many others, he stayed in the city to teach - becoming head of three schools.

"Everybody has appreciated what the university has done today because it's been a long time coming," he told ITV Tyne Tees.

Studying at the same time as Mr Fraser was Bridget Andrews, who also collected her honorary degree.

The pair were instrumental in contacting other former students to spread the word about Monday's (18 March) ceremony.

"We all finished our careers long ago and it was just such a nice surprise and indeed an honour so yes, we were all thrilled," she said.

"A lot of us have stayed in contact for a long long time so it was lovely to see everybody that we still knew and remembered together."

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