President Obama addressed the US National Academy of Sciences this morning (video link here). Students, take note. In addition to boosting funding for basic research and making the R&D tax credit permanent, he's talking about tripling (!) the number of NSF graduate fellowships.
I've always felt increased funding to such fellowships is a great way to increasing retention of grad students early in their studies. I'm sure it's different now than it was 5 years ago (and outside engineering for that matter), but so many domestic students left grad school because the stipends were paltry in comparison to what they could make outside. Just an increase in stipend, or making it easier to get a fellowship, will go a long way to encouraging students to stay for PhDs. And, of course, it takes some of the burden off the professors.
ReplyDeleteWashington will support the Gifted? The last time Washington fostered brilliance rather than allocated for its suppression - the National Defense Education Act of 1958 - we went to the Moon by 1970 while little babies in Africa starved.
ReplyDeleteNow there are 800 million diseased sub-Saharan Africans demanding free eats and NASA cannot click 1.5X in its Apollo CAD software to any meaningful outcome. Jackbooted State compassion works! Don't rock the gravy train.
congrats on Nature paper!
ReplyDeleteRetention of students? Give me a break. Retention isn't a problem until later- postdoc level funding not increased to match? Hellooooo???? This is NOT a cause to celebrate.
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