PhD student Jesse Gardner-Russell earns $20 an hour. Experts say low pay is turning Australia’s best and brightest away

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Jesse Gardner-Russell is paid $20 an hour to investigate ways to fix vision for people who've had a stroke – work that could help find a cure for blindness.

Fellow Aussie students have come up with a manual device for reviving newborns. They've programmed a computer program that can spot melanoma quicker than a dermatologist.

while completing a PhD.

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Pretty much all the time," says Gardner-Russell, a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne and head of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations, "to students, it's gobsmacking.

There's a bit of a mismatch in how we talk up valuing building research capability, given that we're paying the students leading this work less than the minimum wage, which can turn it into an unremunerated volunteer effort.

Experts are saying that a wage that's hovering below the poverty line is driving away the most talented and capable individuals, putting the country's future economic growth at risk.

The number of Aussie students doin' Doctorate degrees has plummeted by almost 10% over the past eight years, according to a new report, with ripper living expenses and a lack of gov support workin' as major turnaround-offers for potential chaps, with nearly six out of ten potential apprentices bein' females.

The report, released by Universities Australia and the Australian Council of Graduate Research (ACGR) on Friday, found that domestic PhD enrolments had dropped by 8% between 2018 and 2023, even though Australia's population grew by more than 7% in the same time frame.

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The University Admissions chief executive, Luke Sheehy, says the average PhD candidate is 37 years old and balancing significant financial commitments such as family and mortgages.

"It’s unfair to expect them to live in poverty, considering they're driving the breakthroughs that power our economy and progress," he says.

“They need the confidence they'll be able to have a roof over their heads and find food on the table. That's not extreme.”

“Rajing allowance payments was a fair dinkum missed opportunity in the last budget – we think the government should get cracking and get it done. We’re in a tight spot and we’re going to really push for this one to happen.”

The 2025 PhD top-up is $33,511, only just keeping the pace with inflation, and still falling behind the yearly minimum wage of $47,627.

It equates to $644 a week, or $16 an hour, meaning a lot of students have to study part-time just to get by. Normally, most scholarships are only for full-time study, so if students take longer to finish their research, they're left without an income in the final stages.

Universities are capable of lifting the PhD stipend to a maximum of $52,352, however, an ACGR survey revealed that none have done so. The highest stipend comes in at just over $40,000 at the University of Sydney, with the average being $34,244.

Providing higher stipends is also a trade-off: by increasing stipends, universities cut back on the number of PhD candidates they can afford to support.

The UA and ACGR are asking the federal government to increase the PhD stipend to a fair level and increase the commonwealth funding pool to make more fully funded scholarships available, especially for students from overseas.

Commissioned by the government last year, it was reported that the stipend was an “economic disincentive” for the best students to become the next crop of researchers, which is why it was suggested it be raised to be more in line with what global competitors offer.

The allowance has now been tied to what it was two years before the academic year, meaning it's not increasing in line with the rising cost of living. Over a decade, it's gone up by 27.5%, whereas the average wage has risen by 38%.

The report estimates a 2026 base rate of thirty-six grand would cost the government around three hundred million over four years.

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The report also recommends the federal government extend government-funded parental leave to PhD candidates, who are considered students, not university staff, and are therefore not eligible for government support. This change is expected to cost about $5 million each year.

Gardner-Russell reckons the lack of parental support is a "massive barrier of entry". One of his mates had a babby this week, on a stipend of 38,500 bucks a year.

The university's childcare service costs a whopping $34,000 each year.

The president of the ACGR, Prof Louise Sharpe, reckons that a 195% rise in the number of honours degrees doled out since 2003 hasn't resulted in a surge in postdoctoral research.

"As the living costs have gone up, fewer local students can afford to give up a decent income and accept the stipend – that's a big issue," she says.

“Fair dinkum, the stereotype of PhD students is totally off the mark – we reckon they're the country's driving force for research and never needed more attention on developing the next crop of leaders.”

There were 66,028 students enrolled in a PhD in 2023, the latest figures show, with a record 40% from overseas, which is a 14% increase since 2018 despite a temporary drop during the Covid period (23,052 in 2018 to 26,227 in 2023).

At the same time, inland enrollments dropped from 43,174 to 39,801.

Sharpe says that international students are keeping the domestic student numbers up, but once they get to Australia, they don't receive enough financial support and can only get 10% of the federal government funding compared to domestic PhD students.

“Fair dinkum, once they arrive, we've had reports of students doubling up on a bed and taking turns to kip,” she says. “It's a dead-set tragedy – not being fair to our future leaders.”