Dear colleagues,
I wonder if the following should be raised at COPS? Anyway, I would
be happy to hear your views.
I am concerned about the increasing pressures on young people to stay
in the same university, from undergraduate to postgraduate to postdoc
to lecturer. Some years ago, EPSRC mathematics panel had a definite
preference for giving PhD studentship to 'migrating' students, i.e.
those wishing to do research at a different university from their
undergraduate studies. That has gone, and we all try hard to
persuade our good undergraduates to stay on for PhD at our own
universities.
There always was a tendency for PhD students to be 'found' postdoc
positions at the same university, usually with the same supervisor.
The system of naming RAs for research grants even encouraged that.
And with the strong competition (particularly recently in the runup
to another RAE) for good young researchers to fill lectureships, we
see strenuous efforts being made to retain them again.
This is unhealthy. Actually, I don't think it is bad for someone to
stay at the same university for first degree and PhD. But I do think
it is unhealthy for fresh PhDs to stay with their supervisor as RAs.
These young researchers need to broaden their experience. They
should do postdocs with different people to give their research
a wider perspective. And I think it is valuable for them then to
move again to start their teaching career.
The thing that prompted this email was when for the second time I
thought I had got a postdoc for an EPSRC and industry funded project,
only to find at the last moment that their own university had made a
counter offer to retain them. In this case, I have no doubt
whatsoever that it would have been in the young man's interest to
come to Sheffield. (And I now face losing this grant through not
being able to start within the six months window.) So I am writing
to ask what colleagues feel.
Are we too often selfishly trying to hold on to people when it would
be better for them to move? If you agree, and whilst I have tried to
keep young people's interests in mind I suspect that I too have done
this, how can we change the system to put in incentives for young
researchers to get a breadth of experience?
Tony
----
Professor A O'Hagan Email: [log in to unmask]
Department of Probability and Statistics
University of Sheffield Phone: +44 114 222 3773
Hicks Building
Sheffield S3 7RH, UK Fax: +44 114 222 3759
----------- http://www.shef.ac.uk/~st1ao/ ------------
|