You have undoubtedly heard, in recent weeks, of graduate students who denounce the precarious conditions imposed on them in order to pursue their scientific training. Today, the director general of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) and the representatives of the student associations of the only university establishment in Canada dedicated exclusively to scientific training at the graduate level wish to unite their voices with that of the scientists from across Canada to denounce the unfair financial support offered to the student population.
We live in a knowledge society. Should it be repeated? This means that the well-being and quality of life of Quebec citizens depend on the research and innovation that we are able to support. All knowledge societies therefore explicitly depend on their ability to repeatedly train waves of young scientists capable of innovating and advancing knowledge and the quality of life. How will we be able to ensure the prosperity of the Canadian population if we save on a high-calibre and competitive scientific succession by offering aspiring scientists living conditions below the poverty line? ?
At INRS, 10% of graduate students receive merit scholarships from Quebec and Canadian granting agencies. At the federal level, these scholarships are $17,500 for the master’s and $21,000 for the doctorate. These sums have been the same for more than 20 years, despite inflation and the meteoric rise in rents and food prices.
We can rejoice that Quebec increased the value of its scholarships just a few days ago, raising them to $20,000 for the master’s and $25,000 for the doctorate. However, these amounts are still below the poverty line, which is between $25,128 and $34,814 in Quebec. To offer no more than $25,000 a year is to condemn those who aspire to become our scientific leaders to insecurity and make them feel all the anxiety that comes with an income below the poverty line.
The situation is already bad for these 10% who receive scholarships, but what financial support is reserved for the remaining 90%, that is, the bulk of graduate students? For these people, we draw on university operating funds and research grants from professors to offer them financial support that is often below that of excellence scholarship holders. Their situation is obviously more precarious. (Note that we choose here not to describe the financial conditions of people coming from abroad – even more difficult – because their situation would deserve a text in its own right.)
Research is work
You are probably wondering why we should financially support graduate students. In fact, while working part-time to support oneself is possible at the baccalaureate level, the situation is quite different at the graduate level. Part-time work is often not possible or seriously impairs the progress of training. It can even lead to overwork. This is because graduate training is intensive and particularly time-consuming, often requiring student members some 50 hours of training per week.
These people train, yes, but in doing so they produce a significant portion of all the research in laboratories and university research groups. They publish scientific articles, participate in international symposiums… In short, they are the craftsmen and craftsmen of Quebec research. Their job is precisely to do research: this is how this student population is formed.
How could an aquatic ecology student, for example, combine her months spent in Nunavut collecting her samples, seven days a week, the long days spent analyzing that data in the lab, and writing a scientific article with a part-time job in the restaurant business?
How could the doctoral student in molecular biology spend ten hours a day in the laboratory, often seven days a week, performing complex manipulations with state-of-the-art equipment, then reading scientific publications? of his field in the evening to prepare a scientific paper for an international conference and collaborate with his colleagues to prepare scientific articles while working in a call center?
A full commitment
It would be unrealistic. Graduate studies represent work that requires complete commitment on the part of students. It is clearly incompatible with temporary part-time jobs. It is therefore imperative to provide our student population with real financial support commensurate with their contribution to the advancement of our knowledge and to innovation.
At the moment, these apprentice scientists are being asked to make the sacrifice of living below the poverty line for three years for a master’s degree, to which are often added four to five years for a doctorate. Is this a choice you would make, knowing that the job market is constantly looking for labor that is available quickly and offers much more advantageous conditions? No, obviously. In their place, you wouldn’t make that choice. This is perhaps what explains the difficulty in recruiting students from Quebec to graduate studies in science in all of the universities in Quebec.
These miserable living conditions are intolerable, especially when you consider that in Europe or the United States, the financial support is far superior to what is offered in Canada. Many may simply prefer to leave university after a first degree to join a more lucrative job market. Quebec is depriving itself of the scientific succession it deserves for its social, economic and cultural development.
The student associations and the general management of the INRS join forces to denounce this short-sighted situation which jeopardizes the scientific future of Quebec, making it more and more dependent on foreign innovations often ill-suited to its society.
We invite you to join us in calling on the federal government to increase the budget of its granting agencies so that they can guarantee adequate and fair financial support to Canadian graduate students.
It is time to change the conditions in which we immerse the people who contribute to the advancement of our knowledge and aspire to become Canada’s next generation of scientists!