经济学人下载:读博是浪费时间?

These armies of low-paid PhD researchers and postdocs boost universities’, and therefore countries’, research capacity. Yet that is not always a good thing. Brilliant, well-trained minds can go to waste when fashions change. The post-Sputnik era drove the rapid growth in PhD physicists that came to an abrupt halt as the Vietnam war drained the science budget. Brian Schwartz, a professor of physics at the City University of New York, says that in the 1970s as many as 5,000 physicists had to find jobs in other areas.
大量的低薪博士研究院和博士后们的确提高了大学的因此也提高了一个国家的研究能力。但凡事有利就有弊。当主流价值观发生改变，聪明的、受过良好训练的高层次人才就会被白白浪费掉。比如美国在得知苏联发射第一课人造卫星后，加快了培养物理学博士的步伐，但越南战争的爆发又榨干了用于自然科学的预算。纽约城市大学的一位物理学教授BS说，20世纪70年代，多达5000名物理学家不得不放弃物理学研究转向其他工作。

In America the rise of PhD teachers’ unions reflects the breakdown of an implicit contract between universities and PhD students: crummy pay now for a good academic job later. Student teachers in public universities such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison formed unions as early as the 1960s, but the pace of unionisation has increased recently. Unions are now spreading to private universities; though Yale and Cornell, where university administrators and some faculty argue that PhD students who teach are not workers but apprentices, have resisted union drives. In 2002 New York University was the first private university to recognise a PhD teachers’ union, but stopped negotiating with it three years later.
在美国，博士生实习教师联盟的出现结束了之前大学与博士生群体之间不清晰的责任关系，自那以后工资就丰厚多了。早在20世纪的60年代，实习教师在像威斯康兴州曼迪逊大学这样的公立院校已经成立了自己的联盟，只是最近才开始行动起来。目前，工会广泛存在于各个私立大学；尽管耶鲁和康奈尔两所大学反对工会势力，因为他们认为博士实习教师还不算是正式教员而仅仅是见习生罢了。2002年，纽约大学作为私立大学第一个认可博士实习教师工会的合法地位，但3年后就取消了。

In some countries, such as Britain and America, poor pay and job prospects are reflected in the number of foreign-born PhD students. Dr Freeman estimates that in 1966 only 23% of science and engineering PhDs in America were awarded to students born outside the country. By 2006 that proportion had increased to 48%. Foreign students tend to tolerate poorer working conditions, and the supply of cheap, brilliant, foreign labour also keeps wages down.
而在有些国家，只有那些在国外出生的博士生们的工资和前景比较差，比如英国和美国。DF估计1966年，只有23%的自然科学和工程方面的博士学位授予境外学生。直到2006年，这个比例才上升到48%。境外学生通常可以忍受更差的工作条件，这些便宜又聪明的境外“劳动力”压低了博士生作为一个群体的工资水平。

A PhD may offer no financial benefit over a master’s degree. It can even reduce earnings
关于赚钱，读博士或许还不如读个小硕

Proponents of the PhD argue that it is worthwhile even if it does not lead to permanent academic employment. Not every student embarks on a PhD wanting a university career and many move successfully into private-sector jobs in, for instance, industrial research. That is true; but drop-out rates suggest that many students become dispirited. In America only 57% of doctoral students will have a PhD ten years after their first date of enrolment. In the humanities, where most students pay for their own PhDs, the figure is 49%. Worse still, whereas in other subject areas students tend to jump ship in the early years, in the humanities they cling like limpets before eventually falling off. And these students started out as the academic cream of the nation. Research at one American university found that those who finish are no cleverer than those who do not. Poor supervision, bad job prospects or lack of money cause them to run out of steam.
支持读博的人们认为，即便不能当大学老师也是值得的。并不是每个读博的人都想在大学任教，许多人只是想到私企工作，比如工业研发。这不假，但退学率表明很多学生对读博持悲观态度。在美国，只有57%的博士生可以在入大学10年后成功获得博士学位。而在多数学生选择自费读博的人文学科方面，这个数字是49%。然而更糟的是，在有些专业，学生们选择早点退学，人文学科方面的还好些，大家只要能撑下去还是会硬着头皮读完博士。那些中途“弃船而逃”的学生最终成了这个国家的“学术面霜”。一个美国大学的研究发现，那些死撑下去的学生并不比中途退学的聪明到哪。学校糟糕的管理、不容乐观的就业前景、缺钱，三者加到一起最终让这些人不堪重负，“弃船而逃”。

Even graduates who find work outside universities may not fare all that well. PhD courses are so specialised that university careers offices struggle to assist graduates looking for jobs, and supervisors tend to have little interest in students who are leaving academia. One OECD study shows that five years after receiving their degrees, more than 60% of PhDs in Slovakia and more than 45% in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Germany and Spain were still on temporary contracts. Many were postdocs. About one-third of Austria’s PhD graduates take jobs unrelated to their degrees. In Germany 13% of all PhD graduates end up in lowly occupations. In the Netherlands the proportion is 21%.
甚至是当初没有选择到大学当老师的那些博士生们混的也不怎么好。博士的课程都太专业了，以至于各大学的就业指导中心拼命帮毕业生找工作，而博导们通常对打算参加工作的学生不感冒。经合组织的一项研究显示，取得博士学位5年后，斯洛伐克超过60%，比利时、捷克、德国和西班牙超过45%的博士们签的仍是短期合同。这当中许多人还是博士后。而澳大利亚约1/3的博士毕业生从事着与专业无关的工作。德国13%博士生从事着薪水不高的各种工作，荷兰的这个比例还要高些，21%。