Thank you very much. Good afternoon.
I apologize for arriving late. My flight was delayed.
It's my pleasure to address this distinguished committee and provide my personal insights on the issue of graduate student scholarship and post-doctoral fellow funding.
I obtained my Ph.D. in a non-standard route, where the bulk of my work was complete. I spent a year in Japan towards the end and another year at Ontario Hydro. Before moving to McMaster, I worked in a series of utilities in the nuclear industry.
I've been a professor in engineering for 17 years, specializing in nuclear energy and safety. During this period I've graduated or supervised a total of 23 Ph.D. students, 32 master's students and nine post-doctoral fellows. It's not the number of which I am proud; it's the large impact these students have in industry, in research and beyond. It's the joy of my career.
I strive to ensure that my current students have the same access to mobility funding and advanced training that I had years ago. I would like to discuss some of those specific challenges today.
Firstly, a typical engineering graduate student receives funding that is a mix of university or provincial funding, teaching assistant income and scholarships provided by the supervising faculty. Supplemental student-specific funding may be awarded from federal agencies, such as NSERC, or the private sector. In my experience, some students have had access to funds in excess of $55,000 per year at the Ph.D. level, or as little as $20,000 to $25,000. This low-end salary corresponds to an excellent student living below the poverty line, and this is true in many jurisdictions.
While some diversity of funding is expected, and exceptional talent should be rewarded, this level of discrepancy needs further examination. A system that had the flexibility to expand the number of students accessing funding in this lower-income category would do a lot towards maintaining graduate scholarship in Canada.
Second, there's also a need to address the diversity of students at this level. Not all have the privileges and opportunities I encountered in my studies. There is a need to ensure proper support for those with partners, children, dependents or cohabiting family members, and also to ensure funding for those who have challenges related to their mobility or learning. Additional funding supplements for students in these categories should be considered.
Finally, in building upon these previous topics, in many scientific and engineering disciplines we are experiencing an issue in attracting top talent to stay for these advanced degrees. While I receive many applications per week, not all are qualified, and most are not from Canadian universities. Total stipends and an attractive labour market limit the applications we get from Canadian students to very few.
Certainly a more sustainable and equitable scholarship program that is accessible by a larger cohort would have some impact there. However, one unique aspect I'd like to address is perhaps consideration of an international exchange program beyond what is currently available. For example, my program receives many more international research exchange students at the graduate level from France than we send there. This is simply because there's established and easily accessible federal and local funding in France for students in advanced degrees to have mobility elsewhere in the world. Such a system would attract students with global research interests and would provide additional incentive for them to attend graduate studies.
In conclusion, our goal should be to build an accessible and flexible funding system that can accommodate the diversity in student backgrounds, the increased value of international mobility and the increased economic pressures from tuition and cost of living.
Thank you very much for the invitation to speak. Again, I apologize for my lateness today.