"Elite" PhD model not reflective of today's doctoral students

Writing for the Globe and Mail, York University doctoral candidate Melonie Fullick notes the PhD model has traditionally been an "elite" one, which she has found to be built on outdated assumptions about the context of graduate education and the type of individual who pursues a PhD. There's the notion of students having available 4 to 6 years during which little or nothing else will be going on in their lives, and will be free from commitments that take time away from academic work. Fullick notes there are plenty of ways a student can get derailed: jobs; the absence of a supervisor; personal events; and financial issues. There's also a conflict between needing to complete the PhD, and needing to bolster one's resumé in order to compete in the academic labour market where positions are scarce compared to the number of PhD graduates seeking work, writes Fullick, adding that establishing a professional profile is crucial for future academics and researchers. "Students need support to prepare for various career paths, not only for faculty work -- but opportunities for this are still very uneven," she writes. "Above all, they need to finish their degrees, which means finding a compromise between exploration and focus, and enough support to make informed decisions and overcome the various obstacles that might arise in the process."
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