FAO PhD folk

Ricochet J

Ricochet J

Ricochet J

Soldato
Joined
29 Jun 2004
Posts
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I've always read that a PhD is the equivalent as working in the industry. Saying that, could you negotiate your salary before you start the PhD?

Or is every PhD person doomed to have as minimum stipend as possible?

Ta :)
 
Oh God, could we please not have the standard DP versus everyone else argument regarding PhD's? Just once? Please?

I can't add anything OP but there are many who can :)
 
My brother's PhD pay was set before he started, but the pay wasn't too bad considering he doesn't get taxed or pay council tax.
 
I transitioned onto mine whilst working was an Research Associate and managed to retain my salary. Typically there is a tax free stip end. If you're doing a phd for the money, you're doing it wrong!

I wouldn't say it's equivalent to working in the industry either though :confused:
 
I'm not looking into a PhD for the money. However there is harm to try and get as much as you can.

As for the work/industry thing that you're confused about - most people I know who do PhD's pretty much treat it as a full time job with perks (flexible working hours/locations/conferences etc). :)
 
Ricochet J said:
I've always read that a PhD is the equivalent as working in the industry. Saying that, could you negotiate your salary before you start the PhD?

Or is every PhD person doomed to have as minimum stipend as possible?

Ta :)
Click to expand...

What exactly do you mean, I personally don't think this is the case in a fair few industries.
 
My PhD is in addition to my position so I am not sure how it relates, but I negotiated my Salary and part of that is made up of the stipend. But as others have said, you don't do a PhD for the money.
 
Normally if the position is set up with out you (i.e. not as part of your current job) then the funding body will only give a set amount of funding for the tax free stipend. You could argue with the funding body if you wanted more but I doubt you'd get very far!
 
[FnG]magnolia;22508080 said:
Oh God, could we please not have the standard DP versus everyone else argument regarding PhD's? Just once? Please?

I can't add anything OP but there are many who can :)
Click to expand...

:D

He should be along shortly.....:p Luckily a certain you-know-who is only a masters candidate.....:p
 
Ricochet J said:
I've always read that a PhD is the equivalent as working in the industry. Saying that, could you negotiate your salary before you start the PhD?

Or is every PhD person doomed to have as minimum stipend as possible?
Click to expand...

The latter. No negotiations anyway - if you tried they'd tell you to go away and give your place to somebody else (unless your skills are very rare).
 
Ricochet J said:
I'm not looking into a PhD for the money. However there is harm to try and get as much as you can.

As for the work/industry thing that you're confused about - most people I know who do PhD's pretty much treat it as a full time job with perks (flexible working hours/locations/conferences etc). :)
Click to expand...

I think the stipends are pretty hard to negotiate.

To be honest you are extremely lucky in the science disciplines with your research degrees - if you were in the arts/humanities/social sciences, even securing PhD funding at all is about a 1:100 ratio.
 
Castiel said:
:D

He should be along shortly.....:p Luckily a certain you-know-who is only a masters candidate.....:p
Click to expand...

I don't know why a grown man keeps feeling the need to be so pathetic.

"Only a masters candidate" --> accepted by Oxford tutor and told college for DPhil study. "Only" a masters candidate? For one thing I'm not even interested in talking about myself in this thread - though you evidently are - and for another thing... well, why are you telling me what I am? To sound rather jejune about it, I think I'd know.

Why the aggro towards me whenever there's an academic topic? Because one time I idly and absentmindedly forgot what level you were at in your own studies? You had mentioned it to me once and I didn't file that factoid as a particularly high-priority one, sorry. I apologised to you back then and made it clear that I meant no offence or belittlement in mistaking your personal circumstances wrong... I thought you were still studying for a PhD, based on a screenshot taken of you doing some translation work. It was an idle assumption. I don't know why you've got to be so *****rdly about it.

The only other reason I can think of is because I'm pretty harsh on low-ranking polytechnics and their students / general place in higher-ed. Which is not an opinion I'm going to change, frankly, nor one I am alone in possessing.
 
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Ooooooh another PhD thread, this should be fun! *grabs popcorn* :D


Ricochet J said:
I've always read that a PhD is the equivalent as working in the industry. Saying that, could you negotiate your salary before you start the PhD?

Or is every PhD person doomed to have as minimum stipend as possible?

Ta :)
Click to expand...

In my experience (this year) you'll be offered (for full time) a PhD position by the university and if there is to be funding then that'll come separately. You'll be offered some form of studentship, either by the university internally or funded by some other sponsoring body (EPSRC etc.), then it'll be your choice whether to accept or turn it down. There's no negotiation process. If you tried, you'd probably be laughed out of the office. :p May work differently depending on circumstances though (cf castiel's post)

That being said the stipends can be very reasonable, especially since they're tax free. A friend of mine is going to be living very comfortably this year after his pay rise in his PhD. *grumble gruble*
 
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I got a 14k tax-free stipend and then did some tutoring (50-100 pounds per hour for 4-6 hours each week in term time) so whilst I wasn't rolling in cash it paid pretty well (significantly better than my starting salary after tax at my first proper job!)

Disclaimer: I left my PhD after a year as I couldn't face another 2 years of it (plus the months rewriting a thesis that Oxford seem to insist on). This was partly my own fault as I was working 70 hour weeks for about the first 8 months due to my own stubbornness at wanting to get results as quick as possible.
 
You wont be able to negotiate (unless it is linked to a staff position), but if you are after more money engineering subjects tend to have a few places that offer a bit more money due to industrial support.
 
Ricochet J said:
I've always read that a PhD is the equivalent as working in the industry. Saying that, could you negotiate your salary before you start the PhD?

Or is every PhD person doomed to have as minimum stipend as possible?
Click to expand...

You will have very little room to negotiate your salary / stipend. Whether there is any room at all depends on who is providing the funding: If the funding comes from an industrial source then you may be able to negotiate a few extra k, however if the funding comes from a non-industrial funding body (e.g. EPSRC / EU etc) then there is unlikely to be any chance for negotiation.

Remember that your stipend will be untaxed, and you will be exempt from expenses like council tax, national insurance or student loan repayments. The typical ~14k PA for a PhD stipend seems very low at first glance, but once you take into account all the benefits it looks a lot more like a £25k PA salary.



... As an aside, there is generally *very little* room to negotiate salaries in academia full stop - unless you're a professor. Salary scales are generally pretty rigid, and you will progress at a fairly constant and steady rate. You will get a modest bump with every 'major' promotion (i.e. post-doc to lecturer, or within the three grades of lecturer), but aside from that there is very little that can be done.

This can cause no end of staffing problems... In industry there is always the option to increase the salary to attract better talent, but post-doctoral research positions have a salary set by the University pay-scale, with no room for maneuver. Without the means to adjust the salary, things can move very slowly. Finding staff for post-doc positions, particularly 6 or 12-month positions, can be very difficult. If we could bump up the salary a little then I'm sure it would be easier to attract talent, but we just don't have that option - even when there's ample money left in the budget for salaries.
 
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