Hello everyone, I replied directly to Alisha this morning, but I want to throw my hat into the discussion too!
These are just my feelings, mind, but I feel like there are/should be studies our there on the "value" (direct and indirect) that graduate students bring to an institution...perhaps through economics or education departments...or academic administration programs? If we teach courses (I too am a graduate student), then the university is paying a lower salary to a MS or PhD student than to an educator/scientist who already has a MS or PhD. That's a cost savings right there, and that's just for one graduate student teaching one lab. Here are some other cost-benefit analyses I'm thinking of: Research value: direct (paying a technician or post-doc instead of a grad student) Research value: indirect (ideas, project development, contribution to other projects) Sources of funding: grants, fellowships, etc from outside the institution lowers the bottom line for the institution! Graduate tuition and fees: fewer graduate students, I know, but more expensive tuition And then there are the inherent value or value-added components that are less easy to compare but important regardless, and graduate students definitely contribute to these areas. Research: value of federal grant awards and accomplishment; completion of research Publication value to major professors, researchers, PI's Publication value to the institution: name recognition, promotion, publicity Value of research to the institution: promotion, name recognition, greater good If universities are not valuing graduate students, then I don't think they're considering the bottom line, especially once you start considering the direct, indirect, and inherent value aspects that graduate students bring to an institution. If there aren't papers on this topic, maybe we should be writing them! Cheers, Lyndell On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 1:34 AM, Alisha Dahlstrom < alisha.dahlst...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi all, > > I am currently a phd student in my second year. Currently, within my > department, grad students share a small building with several rooms, 5-7 in > a room. There is a proposal to uproot all the students (and combine them > with grad students in a similar department) to a renovated basement that is > currently not being used because it is moldy, has poor ventilation and no > natural lighting. Apart from a few short partitions, this would be a large > shared space that "packed as many students in as possible" (about 40; you > can imagine the potential noise and disruptions). As the grad student rep, > when I explained this to the proponent of this new plan and asked for his > justification, it was that "grad students aren't worth much to a university > (monetarily speaking, at least, undergrads earn a school more) and it would > be nice for visitors to see all the students in one space." > > As this plan seems to be moving forward rapidly, I would really like to > pull > together some documentation that supports my belief that 1) grad students > will have a higher completion rate and better output in a better (e.g., > quieter and well-lit) work environment and 2) grad students are actually > valuable to a university. In my cursory, search, I haven't had much luck - > does anyone have any suggestions or input? Feel free to email me directly. > > Cheers, > Alisha >
