I think the world economic climate is pretty grim now. US academia seems to have suffered significant budget cuts in the recent past. Perhaps this is due to the condition of the US economy. The current debt of the US is reported to be around 15 to 16 trillion dollars and growing.
Will Indian academia be spared the problems that are currently afflicting US academia? I think a challenging economic climate in India may impact Indian academia too. How should budding academics in India chart out a safe course for themselves in this uncertain world economic climate?
The safe path for budding academics in India seems to be to clear UGC-NET for LS (Lecturer-ship), get appointment as an Assistant Prof. and then pursue a PhD. Time for PhD work can be difficult to make as teaching load may be 3 to 4 courses per semester. But job security is assured (after one becomes permanent) and the PhD can be done slowly, even over, say, a 10 year time period.
The big risk comes when one does PhD without an Assistant Prof. teaching position. Even if one is on a research fellowship I am given to understand that most of such fellowships at this junior level are time-bound (4 or 5 years). One day the fellowship will end and that's when the lack of permanent on-scale teaching position (Assistant Prof.) can hit very, very hard. By which time the young man/woman may be close to 30 years old! Even if he/she does win the PhD degree but does not have a job, they may find themselves in a severe life-crisis. Of course, this path provides far more time for PhD research work and so one can really delve into research fully and do possibly excellent research work.
The brilliant PhD holders will not be having any problems landing a job either in academia or in industry research. It is the less than brilliant that may struggle depending on the PhD job situation.
I think the problem may be quite challenging in the US now even for fields like CS. Starry-eyed youngsters may be under the impression that a US PhD program is the dream to be achieved and presume that there will be gold at the end of the US PhD rainbow in terms of an assured tenure-track faculty position. I am not entirely certain that that is the case now. There seems to be significant risk of even CS PhDs having to work for many years as adjunct (temporary) Professors/temporary researchers in the US which has (relatively) poor salary and perhaps no benefits. Perhaps industry research positions in the US are plentiful for CS PhDs now - I do not know for sure.
I was given to understand by an eminent Indian industry research correspondent that the Indian IT industry and Indian academic demand for CS PhDs is very good as of now. So, it seems that PhD scholars in the CS area in India need not be so worried about job prospects provided they do quality research work during their PhD program.
My intent in posting on this topic is just to ensure that the right job opportunities picture is presented to would-be (and current) PhD scholars. It certainly is not to be a scare-monger. If viewers of this post have input that presents a different picture (more positive hopefully) from what is presented I would be glad to receive it and be corrected.
Will Indian academia be spared the problems that are currently afflicting US academia? I think a challenging economic climate in India may impact Indian academia too. How should budding academics in India chart out a safe course for themselves in this uncertain world economic climate?
The safe path for budding academics in India seems to be to clear UGC-NET for LS (Lecturer-ship), get appointment as an Assistant Prof. and then pursue a PhD. Time for PhD work can be difficult to make as teaching load may be 3 to 4 courses per semester. But job security is assured (after one becomes permanent) and the PhD can be done slowly, even over, say, a 10 year time period.
The big risk comes when one does PhD without an Assistant Prof. teaching position. Even if one is on a research fellowship I am given to understand that most of such fellowships at this junior level are time-bound (4 or 5 years). One day the fellowship will end and that's when the lack of permanent on-scale teaching position (Assistant Prof.) can hit very, very hard. By which time the young man/woman may be close to 30 years old! Even if he/she does win the PhD degree but does not have a job, they may find themselves in a severe life-crisis. Of course, this path provides far more time for PhD research work and so one can really delve into research fully and do possibly excellent research work.
The brilliant PhD holders will not be having any problems landing a job either in academia or in industry research. It is the less than brilliant that may struggle depending on the PhD job situation.
I think the problem may be quite challenging in the US now even for fields like CS. Starry-eyed youngsters may be under the impression that a US PhD program is the dream to be achieved and presume that there will be gold at the end of the US PhD rainbow in terms of an assured tenure-track faculty position. I am not entirely certain that that is the case now. There seems to be significant risk of even CS PhDs having to work for many years as adjunct (temporary) Professors/temporary researchers in the US which has (relatively) poor salary and perhaps no benefits. Perhaps industry research positions in the US are plentiful for CS PhDs now - I do not know for sure.
I was given to understand by an eminent Indian industry research correspondent that the Indian IT industry and Indian academic demand for CS PhDs is very good as of now. So, it seems that PhD scholars in the CS area in India need not be so worried about job prospects provided they do quality research work during their PhD program.
My intent in posting on this topic is just to ensure that the right job opportunities picture is presented to would-be (and current) PhD scholars. It certainly is not to be a scare-monger. If viewers of this post have input that presents a different picture (more positive hopefully) from what is presented I would be glad to receive it and be corrected.
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