Sir, – This year we heard the many valid arguments put forward as to why the levels of stipends for PhD and research masters students in Ireland are wholly inadequate. These students, registered across all disciplines of academic endeavour, are paid a variety of amounts ranging from nothing at all, to the small single thousands, to those at the top-end of €18,500 per annum if funded on research grants from the major funding agencies. Even at the top level, research students receive a stipend level that is lower than the minimum wage. Many find themselves unable to live with dignity, further exacerbated by the current cost of living and housing crisis. This is despite the importance of the work of these students, their value to our society and economy, to our national reputation, and the narrative that Ireland values research and innovation.
Last summer a programme called “Innovate for Ireland” was announced by the then-taoiseach Micheál Martin and the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris. This programme featured a PhD student stipend of €28,000 which was “benchmarked against similar scholarship programmes internationally”. There is still no detail available about this programme. However, the stipend of €28,000 was the correct ambition and one which is, I believe, widely supported across the third-level system as a level of stipend that should be available to every research student in Ireland. The question, of course, is how could this be funded? I believe there is, at least, one very simple answer to this question.
According to the Higher Education Authority website there are circa 10,000 PhD students in Ireland at the moment, along with an additional 1,740 research masters students, across all disciplines. The total bill to fund these students at €28,000 is a rather huge €330 million per annum. But, I argue, that we already have this “gas in our tank”.
The National Training Fund (NTF), to which Irish industry contribute, and which has been transformational across a range of education and training needs in Ireland, has been running large annual surpluses in the region of €300 million for several years. Taken in conjunction with existing budget lines allocated to the main Irish research funding agencies for supporting research students, which is already significantly above €40 million per annum, the funds to deliver a proper stipend to all research students are already available in the system. This is without a change to the industry levy that funds the NTF which could also be reconsidered if additional headroom was required, but it is not necessary.
For the benefit of Ireland, and as a commitment to the integrity of our narrative that research, scholarship, and innovation are national priorities, the Government needs to put its money where its mouth is, and solve this issue.
One solution to how the problem can be solved has already been outlined above. – Yours, etc,
Prof BARRY
O’SULLIVAN, MRIA
School of Computer
Science and IT,
University College Cork.