Science -education

[tarak]

The time generally spent by students for PhD as I understand is 4-5 years.This is after spending 16 years of under graduate education and may be 1-2 years of graduate school depending on specific conditions.So by the time our scholar enters PhD, he is tried , tested,beaten and weathered.Simplistically, if we can assume that more the academic *** research experience more are the chances to a lucrative career(by all means). Academics and researchers should be the highest paid guys and not the MBAs or earthy enterpreneurs, who take home hefty pay packets ,then Edison or Einstein had had been the richest fellow on earth.

[Queso]

i believe they were some of the richest men that ever lived :]

[tarak]

i believe they were some of the richest men that ever lived :]

Yheh thats true,my examples may be wrong,but on a general note,I feel that poor post docs and profs in our universities are stuck in a maze of mediocrity of life.Some where something is wrong with the sytem of R&d in the world in general.

[Fishteacher73]

The quest for gold and the quest for knowledge are not synonomous. Sometimes they coincide and by no means are mutually exclusive, but they are not depndant upon each other in any way aside from each makes the other easier to reach.

[Fluffy]

The quest for gold and the quest for knowledge are not synonomous. Sometimes they coincide and by no means are mutually exclusive, but they are not depndant upon each other in any way aside from each makes the other easier to reach.

I concur. I enjoy my education more than I enjoy the monetary gains from my menial jobs. After paying for housing, food, and the such, my money is usually spent on books, of which I have a great wealth ;)

[tarak]

The quest for gold and the quest for knowledge are not synonomous. Sometimes they coincide and by no means are mutually exclusive, but they are not depndant upon each other in any way aside from each makes the other easier to reach.

Agreed... Freelance enterpreneurial scientist can't exist in today's times.........

but on a general note I feel there are three things:the process of technology/idea generation,idea/manifestation implementation/ production and finally mangement of the technology/product,and all those down stream marketing/ /sales/ etc kind of processes.It is in the same context that we see that the entrepreneurs who drive the above processes reap their deserved benefits .

(Ofcourse it is also taken that not all science is productive and the scientific research environments differ across the regions and finally there are patents and IPRs to protect it.)

[bumab]

The quest for gold and the quest for knowledge are not synonomous. Sometimes they coincide and by no means are mutually exclusive, but they are not depndant upon each other in any way aside from each makes the other easier to reach.

 

Yeah, although I think that's the justification for why teachers and prof's are paid so little for so much work... as I'm sure you know ;)

 

"It's OK, they're called to do it... they don't need money, it's job satisfaction!" ;)

[Biochemist]

Yeah, although I think that's the justification for why teachers and prof's are paid so little for so much work...

I really hate to mix the discussion of teacher pay with professor pay. They are at nearly opposite ends of the education spectrum. Undergraduate teaching is a relatively simple degree, and we should expect that these folks would be paid similarly to other lightly-competitive degrees (english majors, psychology majors, art history, etc). Please do not defend the "smart" teachers out there. There are many. Unfortunately, there are many others that are neither competent nor hard working, and they are able to retain their position and seniority in most school systems.

 

PhDs are a different animal. As Tarak said, it is typically at least 5 years of work post grad. Unlike entrepreneurs, the path is known at the outset. Most folks who are accepted to a PhD program will finish if they stay with it (that is, few are actually removed from programs).

 

Entrepreneurs, in contrast, are paid for accepting risk. They also tend to work long hours. Even though we hear about the big winners, the VAST majority of entrepreneurs are guys/gals that work hard for a LONG time and get almost nothing.

 

I am currently launching my Nth start-up. I have lost track of the number of business I have started. My original degree was/is a Doctor of Pharmacy, and I got an MBA about 10 years later. I have been a Chief Technology Officer of a start up, a CEO of start-up that got venture funding (and folded) and head of some number of other boot-strap start-ups that have made various amounts of money, mostly small amounts.

 

I did a lot (probably 30 undergraduate semester units) of basic science research in my undergraduate days. Most of it was in tissue culture work, but some was in medicinal chemistry. The majority of this work was working side-by-side with post docs in basement labs. These are good, hard working, smart folks. They are not particularly productive, even though they work long hours. If they like to work under a productivity paradigm, they move to industry, where the pay is usually better, but there is no tenure. They tend to like the nature of the work and the academic environment, not the compensation.

 

Everyone would like more money, but an academic PhD career is a low risk path compared to others that one could choose. I think these PhDs are paid about right, on average.