Thank you for your question. It's nice to meet you.
That's a fantastic question. I don't have numbers from a global sense. What I do have experience is chatting with friends and colleagues who have gone elsewhere or have come from elsewhere, so I speak much more on a student voice level.
I think Canada is one of the best countries when it comes to our NSERC funding model. I do think there are definitely some strengths to the U.S. system. I ultimately think that the way NSERC funds these studentships in terms of the numbers and the amounts is quite good, but they are kind of falling behind.
In terms of being a Canadian citizen and looking at going elsewhere, unfortunately there are those barriers of paying international fees at other institutions. I was offered a Ph.D. position in Australia some years ago. I did turn it down because, ultimately, it is more affordable to be a domestic student and pay domestic tuition. That's one of the options I was given, as well just staying in the country I was born in.
In the U.S. there may be higher dollar amounts and the ability to hire post-docs as researchers if you're a principal investigator on a project. For instance, you can write up a grant and very easily hire a post-doc on board. However, the NSF funding model is a lot more competitive, whereas NSERC is a little more egalitarian, in my view. However, again, it is stagnant and staying behind.
In terms of the post-doc awards, I believe that in Canada, there are about 7,000 Ph.D.s awarded every year. Obviously, not all of them fall under NSERC models, but there are only 180 post-doctoral fellowships offered by NSERC. They're highly competitive. To speak to Ms. Gladu's point earlier, only 35% of those 180 awards go to women.
There could be investment in not only the number of those awards, but in increasing their value to be at a market level. Once you hit the post-doc stage, it is quite alluring to go someplace else, where there is a bit more money put into post-docs and some flexibility on that front.
I think, again, we do a fantastic job within Canada. It has just stayed so stagnant over the years. Like you said, we're coming up on about 20 years with the CGSM and the PGSD. The PDF awards were adjusted in 2015, I believe, to $45,000. That would be close to $57,000 in today's money. By the time you finish three degrees, including a Ph.D., making only $57,000 a year, even if we adjusted it, is still quite low.
Globally, I think—