The gift that keeps on giving

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You know I write often about the fact that our government has been attriting its support for R&D. Maybe if we could demonstrate to the politicians in terms they could understand (ok, in complete sentences- we can only hope some understand that) we could reverse this terrible trend. After all, without R&D, a nation’s economic prowess simply withers. As they say around MIT, the biggest day for technology transfer is graduation day.

MIT Sweatshirt from the 70s
It’s catchy. Sing the letters to the tune of Mickey Mouse

Well, Dr. Julia Lane, and a multidisciplinary team (N.Zolas, N. Goldschlag, R. Jarmin, [all from the Census Bureau, as is Lane], P. Stephan, B.A. Weinberg [both of the National Bureau of Economic Research], J. Owen- Smith [Michigan], R.F. Rosen [NYU], and B. Allen [Committee on Institutional Cooperation]) may have come up with a better idea. Instead of monitoring academic papers or patents, they are suggesting we monitor their career progress post-graduate school. Part of the reason to change what we monitor is that we’ve never really developed firm data on the subject by examining the number of papers published. So, this group examined a slew of doctoral graduates from midwestern US  public universities (2009-2011). All of the grad students received funding for their graduate education (either from private foundations or from the US government.)

Recent PhD graduate salaries

Interestingly, almost 40% of the graduates found jobs in private industry, with the rest pretty much populating our academic institutions. (Back when I went to grad school, the academic pursuit was about 20% more prevalent, coming in at 80+%.) Given that economists consider payroll per worker to be a valid productivity marker, the fact that these newly minted doctorates averaged $ 90K salaries (the average median salary is $ 33K) means the funding agencies are garnering bang for their bucks.

One interesting fact is that 13% of the graduates didn’t stray far (<50 miles) from the institutions from which they graduated- and 1/5 (22%) remained within the same state . (The study examined the graduates’ work careers for 2 years post graduation- from 2010-2012)

But, as I considered this research, if the graduates were following a normal academic pattern, newly minted PhD’s often continue on with post-doc’s immediately upon graduation. And, I’m virtually certain the prime candidates of choice by the graduates  would be their current institutions. both because their research could be directly continued and because the institutions knew them best (making it an easy hire).  So, this lack of mobility for first jobs is hardly surprising.

Another interesting fact was the salary data, which matched previous surveys.   The biologists in the study’s census were among the lowest paid in technology, the highest paid folks were the computer specialists and mathematicians. Ok, the absolutely lowest paid doctoral graduates were in the arts and humanities.  So, this portion of the research provided no additional knowledge.

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