Retorts

Fairness in Fellowships?

The May issue carries an advertisement from FRST for the FRST Science and Technology Postdoctoral fellowships. In the ad it is clearly stated that the "average stipend is $50,000" for these postdoctoral fellows.

I am a scientist in a CRI. I got my PhD some 9 years ago, and followed that with 4 years in industry, then 5 years with DSIR/the present CRI. My salary in the CRI is now just under $40,000, and I believe is representative of my colleagues.

Could someone from FRST or MoRST explain how a freshly graduating PhD, or someone with a year or two of postdoctoral experience is worth $10,000 per annum more than me? Or perhaps I should be asking the question of the CRI management -- why am I being paid $10,000 less than a postdoc?

On the other hand, just where are these postdoctoral fellows supposed to find work at the end of their two years of fellowship? After two years on $50,000 are they going to be taken on by a CRI at that salary? Or will they be expected to take a $10,000 pay cut to get a job? I don't know what the starting salary for a university lecturer is, but I've heard its well below the $50,000 mark. It seems to me that the only way these postdoctoral fellows will get to maintain their $50k standard of living is by leaving either NZ or science.

Ironically, I am part of an application for such a postdoctoral fellow, as it is one of the opportunities left to get funding for valuable science which is not "relevant" enough for the PGSF. I hope that the application is successful and the work is carried out, but I have no idea what will happen to the fellow after their two years. Surely the whole point of the S+T scheme is to encourage the top flight of PhD graduates to stay in NZ and start careers in the CRIs or universities. All that the present level of stipend achieves is to alienate the fellows from those around them and show up the present level of salaries in the CRIs and universities.

name withheld by request