They’re among Australia’s smartest, so why are they earning below minimum wage?
Exclusive: Inside a South Australian lab, Maxim Buckley spends up to 50 hours a week researching new ways to fight acute lymphoblastic leukaemia - a devastating blood cancer that predominantly strikes children.
He holds two university degrees, works late into the night, and is conducting critical research that could save young lives.
PhD student Maxim Buckley earns around $18 per hour for his research into cancer. Maxim Buckley
Yet for this vital work, Buckley earns roughly $18 an hour.
“The reality for research students... is that it is a nine-to-five job, and quite often longer than nine-to-five,” Buckley said.
“For the last two months, I’ve probably averaged about 45 to 50 hours a week.”
To cover his rent and basic groceries, the PhD candidate has to juggle odd jobs around his research, tutoring during office hours, doing admin work for an electrical company on weekends, and working events.
“All of this impacts on the time you have to spend doing the PhD, which is your primary focus,” he said.
Do you have a story? Contact reporter Emily McPherson at emcpherson@nine.com.au
Last month, Buckley started a parliamentary petition calling on the Albanese Labor government to raise the minimum Research Training Program (RTP) stipend to $50,000 per year.
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Currently, the baseline national stipend sits at just $34,315 per year, which is below the Henderson Poverty Line benchmark.
Some universities, like Adelaide University where Buckley is enrolled, have started to top up the allowance slightly.
Buckley receives $36,500, which, despite being higher, is still below the minimum wage.
“If I was receiving the minimum wage, I would still be receiving more after tax than I am right now,” Buckley said.
“We’re not even asking for much, just minimum wage.”
Helping to cure blindness
The situation is echoed across the country at the University of Melbourne, where Jesse Gardner-Russell is finishing a PhD in ophthalmology, researching how to help stroke victims recover their vision.
“I get to go to bed every night and know that my work is contributing to helping people get their sight back,” Gardner-Russell said, adding that, while rewarding, the hours were long at around 50 a week.
Gardner-Russell, who is also the president of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA), said stipends were only awarded to the academic cream of the crop, yet often led to the nation’s “thinkers of the future” enduring financial hardship.
“To even get a stipend, you have to be a top student,” Gardner-Russell said, adding most needed a weighted average mark (WAM) of 90 or above to be awarded the scholarship.
With university tutoring opportunities cut back in recent years, many candidates were forced into delivery driving or fast-food shifts late at night just to get by, he said.
“If we’re having to go and spend half our time doing another job, then that means we’re actually spending less time on our research,” he said.
“That means the public is getting less value because it takes us longer, we’re more burnt out, and our ability to get quality research done is impacted.”
The squeeze comes despite major government-commissioned reports urging reform.
Both the Australian Universities Accord and the Strategic Examination of Research and Development (SERD) recommended significant increases to postgraduate support, with the SERD review specifically recommending a $50,000 baseline.
Modelling released by CAPA indicates that lifting the stipend to match the minimum wage would deliver a 15 per cent boost in national research productivity year-on-year over four years - the largest surge in Australian history.
Costings by the Parliamentary Budget Office put the required investment at roughly $300 million annually.
Buckley said it was a tiny price to pay to help secure the future of Australian research.
“Australia came up with the technology that led to Wi-Fi,” he said.
“We’re a country of 25 million-ish people that hits way above its weight class.
“If we want to continue doing that, then we need to support the people who will be doing that research in the future.”
Now finishing his thesis after three and a half years of study, Buckley remains committed to science, but warns the system is breaking.
“I’d be so much better off financially if I hadn’t done this,” he said.
“I want to stay in research, but we need a system Australia can be proud of, and that won’t happen without real change.”
Federal education minister Jason Claire said: “PhD students do invaluable work which supports Australian research and innovation.
“Since coming to government, the base stipend rate has increased by around $5500.
“It is up to universities to determine how much individual students receive.
“This can vary, although several universities choose to pay above the minimum rate.”
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