PhD Candidates: Students or Slaves?

PhD candidates are referred to by academics as the “powerhouse” of the university.

Words by Anon

We produce a substantial share of the published research output, feeding the university’s world rankings and our supervisor’s promotions. Not only do we contribute to the university, but we contribute to society with knowledge generation, inventions, and cures. Many PhD candidates work on the world’s most wicked problems – from climate change to cancer to civil rights. This all sounds productive… so are PhD candidates students, or workers?

It turns out, not even the university can decide. Our swipe cards get us into staff-only areas, and we are allocated an office… like staff. Yet, our compensation is structured like that of a student: only those who win a competitive scholarship receive a meagre stipend. In 2019, WorkCover Queensland ruled that PhD candidates receiving a stipend were classified as workers. But the Fair Work Commission does not recognise scholarship stipends as wages, so minimum-wage protections do not apply. Perhaps this is justified—we are learning on the job, and we need supervision, support and training. But does our pay situation compare with others in similar roles?

Apprentices, for example, are another group who are learning on the job. They typically attend a full day of tertiary education every week, and they receive round-the-clock supervision from a fully qualified tradesperson. This is a significantly higher amount of supervision and training than afforded to PhD candidates, who might expect an hour per fortnight with their supervisors, and “formal” training in the form of sporadic webinars. Yet, apprentices are protected under Fair Work laws. A first-year adult painting apprentice, for example, cannot be paid any less than $27.06, plus overtime, allowances, annual leave, sick leave, carer’s leave, casual loading, and superannuation. All up this is at least 53k per year.

Meanwhile, a full-time PhD scholarship holder is paid $36,061 per year— equivalent to exactly $18.19 per hour when processed through the university payroll (as though it would hurt them to round to the nearest cent). We get 20 days per year of annual leave, but no formal sick leave, carers leave, or superannuation.

Our scholarship agreement forbids us from working more than 8 hours per week and even caps the amount we can be paid elsewhere. Those without scholarships earn nothing.

Making matters worse, unlike apprentices, PhD candidates do not have any increase in our pay when working additional hours. When signing up to the scholarship, we agree to allocate 30-38 hours per week to our thesis, but many work overtime. A worldwide survey of over 6,000 graduate research ‘students’ found that 76% averaged over 41 hours per week, with around 5% reporting an average workload of more than 80 hours per week. Based on award rates, a first-year apprentice painter would receive $3,289.58 per week minimum for this workload. Meanwhile, PhD candidates still receive the same weekly pay – $691, no matter the hours worked. Further, if a PhD candidate takes too long to complete their degree, they will be both unpaid and charged tuition fees. Paying an apprentice in this manner would be considered wage theft or even modern slavery.

So why are PhD candidates treated so differently from apprentices? One explanation lies in the history of academia. For centuries, universities were accessible only to the wealthy – those who could afford to study without compensation. This legacy still shapes academic culture, with most professional academics coming from higher-income family backgrounds. Meanwhile, trade workers unionised effectively and fought over generations for structured protections and decent wages. Academic labour did not follow the same path, and the result is a system where only those with financial safety nets can comfortably pursue a doctorate.

So how do we move forward? Efforts such as petitions and open letters have raised awareness but have yet to deliver systemic change. A more effective strategy may lie in the history of the Australian labour movement: collective action. Uniting, unionising, striking, and demanding fairer conditions such as proper employment classification, superannuation, enforceable working-hour protections, and living-wage stipends.

In the end, it falls on PhD candidates to reclaim our value. If we are the powerhouses of the university, then we deserve the rights, respect, and protections afforded to workers. Prestige cannot pay bills.

This article was first published in Issue 2 of Empire Times.