Ep.3: The Great Exodus from Academia

Welcome back to the #iProgress Podcast

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In this episode, your hosts - Dr. Dean Fido and Dr. Craig Harper - talk about the onging trend of 'leaving academia', and give some reflections on this process. They discuss possible causes of the academic exodus, and why people might wish to remain in higher education.

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Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction

01:21 - Academia vs. 'Industry'

09:42 - Why Are People Leaving Academia?

29:30 - Social Media Discussions and the Effect on ECRs

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Topic 1 - What is Industry?

-Allows academics to bring about impact through taking ideas to market (though commericalisation is increasing).

-Increase applications for real life and provides opportunities and support for those with great ideas.

Topic 2 - Reasons for Leaving

-Mental Health

-Leads on from Ep 002 discussion of academics feeling burnt out by the vast scope of their current duties with seemingly little support to help them understand their remit.

-Where the remit is there, the culture promotes unhealthy working hours, working during annual leave, and returning from leave to all the work missed whilst away (just shifting workload instead of having time off).

-Expression

-Is academia the best place for everybody to do their best work?

-Competing roles, growing focus on student numbers

-Pay

-Academia is likely to pay less than many industry roles, especially after enduring years of low pay as a PhD student.

Topic 3 - Impact on ECRs and aspiring academics

-Dampens motivation for those part-way through their PhD programme

-Could cultivate toxicity in Universities

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Music by AlphaGaming | HarrisHeller