News
By Franklin Hoke
The proportion of poorly paid, temporary jobs in academic science is growing, while the share of full-time, tenured positions is declining, according to researchers and observers of university employment practices. The chance that a new Ph.D. will be able to secure the permanent position that he or she may have been working toward for close to a decade is dropping every year, these sources say.
As a result, more young scientists working in universities are finding themselves in professional limbo, spending valuable early-career years waiting and hoping for a more productive research role. The non-tenure-track jobs absorbing many of these young researchers include work as part-time and adjunct instructors, laboratory research associates, or postdoctoral fellows on extended appointments.
"It's like planes waiting to land," says Ora Weisz, citing an analogy commonly used among postdocs. After 11 years at Johns Hopkins University -- including five as ...
