University Professor Dawn Bazely, is a biologist and ecologist whose work on plants in the Arctic has shaped political discourse on climate change. In addition to this she is a powerful advocate of women in STEM. Dr. Bazely gave this piece of advice on the Podcast or Perish series which is a podcast about academic research and why it matters (episode 005; time stamp 47:35-48:28; Nov 4, 2019). Given the demographic in this day and age Dr. Bazely said that she now finds herself often discouraging students from doing PhDs with her over the last few years. This decision has been influenced by the Harper government which has been cutting the jobs of her former students who were working a variety of different science positions for the Canadian government. I think it’s an important piece of advice and a hard pill to swallow for a lot of student wishing to pursue academia, myself included.
I have found that a lot of professors and upper year students seem to really promote and push for the accomplishment of completing a PhD. For someone who wants to achieve a PhD with the end goal in mind of receive a well-paying job while still living in Ontario for example, they need to take in account how likely it is that jobs will be available by the time they have completed their doctorate. If the Canadian government is just going to keep cutting jobs in your field does it really make more sense spending time trying to achieve a higher tittle?
There are close to 15 million people in Ontario, that’s a lot of competition, especially for students that are studying in the ecological field. This field is often times, over looked by the Canadian government. It is difficult to say whether or not I agree or disagree with not completing a PhD since I live by the idea that in this world one thing that can never be taken from you is your education! If you are just going to end up with the same job and the same pay once you get your PhD as you would have gotten with your bachelor’s degree then maybe it is not worth it in the long run.
Link to the full podcast with Dr. Dawn Bazely. https://www.podcastorperish.ca/episodes/episode-005-dawn-bazely
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 