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Poor mental health is an issue for many of our readers. That fact is underscored by the response to a tweet sent by @NatureNews earlier this week, which highlighted that rates of depression and anxiety reported by postgraduate students are six times higher than in the general population (T. M. Evans et al. Nature Biotechnol. 36, 282–284; 2018), and asked what should be done to help. The figures are a shock, but it was the reaction that blew us away: more than 1,200 retweets and around 170 replies.
“This is not one dimensional problem. Financial burden, hostile academia, red tape, tough job market, no proper career guidance. Take your pick,” read one. “Maybe being told day in, day out that the work you spend 10+ hrs a day, 6–7 days a week on isn’t good enough,” said another.
The feedback emphasizes something that Nature has highlighted often in recent years: there is a problem among young scientists. Too many have mental-health difficulties, and too many say that the demands of the role are partly to blame. Neither issue gets the attention it deserves. “I’d love to see some of the comments under this thread published,” wrote one responder. “There needs to be real conversation about this, not just observation.”
We agree — which is why we are publishing some of the responses. (You can read the full thread here.)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by VLM on Monday April 02 2018, @01:44PM (3 children)
Its actually worse, the kid who didn't go to college instead taking on an electricians apprenticeship, by phd time, is making $100K/yr and has a hot spouse and about two kids and a nice house and no debt, getting close to that master electrician cert and opening his own small business, despite endless indoctrination that higher ed is the only path to success and not going to college means living under a freeway overpass for all eternity.
Cultural ideas die hard. Generations ago, higher ed made sense. It hasn't for at least a generation for at least half the attendees. Now its merely a cash extraction scam, but its going to be generations before culture catches up to reality.
Higher ed has always been a great way to get an education. For awhile last century, it was a vocational meal ticket, but its back to purely being educational and if anything anti-correlates with individual success.
Or rephrased something like higher ed always took rich kids and made them better although slightly poorer (probably still very rich), then last century it took average kids and made them wealthy, now it takes all kids and makes them poor for a lifetime but slightly (only slightly) more educated. Harvard started out as a seminary, most people going to seminary don't go there to get rich, generations ago Harvard grads temporarily got rich, now we're back to "normal" and its just a seminary for the progressive religion outputting unemployable fundamentalists once again.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday April 02 2018, @03:57PM
This is getting more and more true: the investment in Uni just doesn't pay off. Maybe with an M.D. you hit ROI after 3-5 years of practice and then can really start enjoying the benefits of the education, but in most fields it's just wasted time and wasted money that doesn't put you on any faster track to success.
Now, that electrician (plumber, etc.) should have a plan that gets him out of field work by the time he's 40-50, or he will regret it.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bobthecimmerian on Monday April 02 2018, @04:46PM
There is nothing wrong with becoming a carpenter, plumber, auto mechanic, or electrician. That said, even that can be a hard field to do well with. A lot of people are shifting that way because they have no other option. When someone calls about getting a sink replaced instead of competing against two other people when all three of you charge $75 an hour for labor (because of taxes, insurance, and fuel for your van) you're up against ten competitors and some are so desperate to bring in an income that they charge $35 an hour. You can't blame the buyer for picking the cheap competitor, it's not the buyer's job to verify that the competitor carries insurance or any certifications.
My uncle is a retired electrician and he said the blue collar trade to look into now would be robotics repair and maintenance. That's guaranteed to be a fast-growing field.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 03 2018, @12:55AM
It's higher schooling, not higher education. And no, it hasn't, or at least not when it comes to the vast majority of schools. Most people who graduate have little idea what they are doing, as most colleges and universities simply rely on rote memorization much like K-12 schools. This continues to be true. Anyone who believes that are school system is anything but a disaster simply doesn't know what a quality education looks like, because they've probably never witnessed one, or at the very least are heavily indoctrinated by our anti-intellectual culture.