Petition to increase stipends and freeze HECS for PhD, master’s students

A petition has been lodged by a research student advocacy group calling on the education minister to meet recommendations made in the Universities Accord to improve research students' working conditions.

Australian HDR Students is asking the federal government to increase and tie Australian Research Training Program (RTP) stipends to the national minimum wage.

RTP support is for those undergoing a Higher Degree by Research (HDR), more typically known as a Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Philosophy or other professional doctorates.

Postgraduate master's and PhD students will be afforded a minimum of $32,192 this year during their study, $11,771 below the minimum wage, through a stipend provided by the federal government to assist with living costs.

The allowance amount changes every year, with the amount of time taken to complete postgraduate study usually three to four years. A maximum stipend a postgraduate can be awarded was introduced in 2017.

Although the stipend has increased since its introduction in 1959, the minimum stipend amount has not risen in line with minimum wage or average full-time earnings in Australia.

Postgraduate students can also receive financial support from their university for tuition fees, or from the government for ancillary costs, such as the costs associated with relocating to complete their study.

Australian HDR Students also said HECS-HELP loans for master's and PhD should be frozen and free from indexation for the duration of their studies.

The group says if the government is serious about increasing national research investment to three per cent of GDP, it should be supporting Australia's emerging academics.

The petition organisers asked these changes be made without reducing the number of available RTP scholarships.

"The current RTP stipend is unviable for many students, limiting their autonomy and pushing them to seek other career paths," the petition statement reads.

"Consistent with the Accord’s recommendations, we are not requesting the stipend be considered a wage.

"However, we believe the minimum wage is a viable living standard for HDR students. Furthermore, more can be done to address the HECS-HELP burden on HDR students.

"HDR students are at the frontline of Australia’s research and development now and into the future. If we are to make this future in Australia, we need to be properly supported now."

The Universities Accord recognised how important postgraduate students are to Australia's knowledge economy, stating the current stipend for HDR students is an "economic disincentive," and that the allowance should be raised, and part-time scholarships (study) should be made tax-free.

A similar petition advocating to increase the stipend amount was launched in 2023, which Education Minister Jason Clare responded to, implying the Universities Accord review would look into the issue.

"In 2023, the full-time base RTP stipend is $29,863 and the maximum is $46,653," the minister's response said.

"This range acknowledges universities are best placed to determine the stipend rates that will enable them to achieve their research training priorities and meet the needs of students ... several universities have exercised their discretion to raise the minimum rates in recent years to above the full-time base rate.

"It may also interest you to know that the government is committed to delivering an Australian Universities Accord ... which is considering a range of issues including research and research training policy settings. "

University of Adelaide PhD student and petition spokesperson Max Buckley said although many universities do offer a few thousand dollars above the minimum stipend, the allowance is still too low to support many postgraduate students who move away from home or, as in his case interstate, for their studies.

"Because the stipend is so low, people are 28, 29 years old, living at home with their parents," he said.

"They don't have an opportunity to even consider living outside of home until they've finished their degree."

The leukaemia researcher said he is concerned more prospective postgraduate students will commence research at a private company instead of at a university.

"At a private company you're getting paid super, a reasonable wage and you can actually make contributions to your HECS," he said.

"[That means] we lose people that could potentially contribute really great things, and it means that we actually prioritise people who have the circumstances to be able to do a PhD.

"So these might be people who are from wealthier backgrounds or people who live in capital cities.

"There's a variety of experiences and knowledge in the regions of Australia that is untapped, because it's unviable for those people to do a PhD."

The Accord final report also says that governments, industry bodies and employers should establish targets to increase the number of doctoral candidates employed in industry undertaking a PhD relevant to their company to boost university-industry alignment.

James Pilbrow, who is commencing a PhD in Geography at the University of Melbourne in July, told Campus Review it's unreasonable to expect researchers to live on $32,000 a year.

"I'm going to be working on top of my stipend and will probably be in a better position than some PhD students will be, but I've spent a lot of time weighing up the pros and cons, and there a lot of cons and most of them are financial ones.

"As much as Jason Clare and others may say a 'scholarship' and a 'wage' are different things, functionally speaking, for a PhD student they are one and the same. You work 40 hours a week and X amount of dollars shows up in your bank account every fortnight.

"While a PhD student is a junior researcher and is still in training, they also already have a lot of training and are probably contributing research to part of larger project."

The Accord also called for the development of a National Research Workforce Development Strategy by the end of 2026, which would be established by the Australian Tertiary Education Commission with advice from the Australian Research Council.

The strategy would "capture research career pathways, including HDR graduate employment pathways," and "support national research workforce planning and facilitate pathways for HDR students into and out of universities."

The comments of the students in this story do not directly refer to, or reflect the opinions of, the universities they study at.

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