Around this time in Ireland there is usually a lot of discussion of how people are ignoring careers in Science, where our Knowledge Economy will come from, and a lamentation of a lack secondary students doing well in higher Maths.

There was a heart-felt letter in the Irish Times yesterday from a Science PhD in the context of this perennial debate:

Madam, – Prof Garret A FitzGerald seeks to address the depressing depictions of a career in science (Opinion, August 13th) but he presents a rose-tinted view of the life of a researcher that is unrealistic when applied to early-career scientists.

The practical side of being a contract post-doctoral researcher, with years of experience but no short-term prospect of a permanent job, became clear to me recently on learning that getting approval for a mortgage will rely solely on my (non-scientist) partner’s salary. My eight years of third- and fourth-level education plus years of post-doctoral research experience are worth nothing in the real world.

I agree wholeheartedly with many of the positive points Prof FitzGerald makes about a research career, such as the opportunities to travel, to contribute to greater good and to find intellectual fulfilment. However, intellectual fulfilment is not enough to pay the rent, or the mortgage if you can get one. Prof FitzGerald states that as a scientist “every day you can do something different. You can’t imagine what you will be working on in a year’s time”.

Many of us also have to wonder where we will be working in a year’s time, due to the nature of post-doctoral research contract positions. It is an oversimplification to say that to conduct independent research all you have to do is “convince a group of your peers that what you want to do is worthwhile”.

In Ireland, to qualify for most of the research funding schemes that allow this independence you must also have a permanent position at a university. With the current public sector hiring freeze and the constraints on university finances, permanent positions for young researchers are looking ever more scarce.

I love what I do and my research has been successful and is internationally competitive, but when I was a young and optimistic school-leaver I chose a career that interested me and I did not envision that when I would reach my 30s I might not qualify for a mortgage or that I would be uncertain of what I would be doing in a year’s time.

In a week when much is being said about the need to encourage students to follow careers in science, I was prompted to write this letter to stress to students that they should give careful consideration to the practicalities of a career that requires long years of study, hard work and discipline, and will quite likely lead you to emigrate. In addition there is no guarantee of generous financial reward and no job security. If this sounds depressing, it’s just how I see it from where I stand. – Yours, etc,

Dr SARAH HARNEY,

Department of Physiology,

Trinity College Dublin,

Dublin 2.
Irish Times, August 17th http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2009/0817/1224252678097.html

This letter seems to fit with the CAO points required for Computing courses across Irish third level institutions again this year, which is an indication of their relative unpopularity. It is not necessarily an indication of their difficulty however which is a problem for some entrants to these courses. The 480 points required for primary teaching on one particular course is well in excess of those for most IT courses. In one Institute of Technology you can do an IT degree or a degree in IT management for little over 200 points. Some great students may take and eventually graduate IT programmes around the country. Certainly however, a great many will not complete.

How does this square with another big CAO story of recent days - that of teen entrepreneur John Collison who scored eight A1s in his leaving (600 points)? Collison and his brother have made, on paper, millions from IT having founded and then sold their own successful IT company. They must surely be poster-boys for the Knowledge Economy. Not only that but unlike almost all other students who will score 600 points this year, or last year, or next year, John Collison has not chosen to study medicine but rather Science. He has been accepted to study Science in Harvard. Sadly we do not seem yet have Science or Technology courses in Ireland that would attract world class candidates. Something to ponder for the architects of our Knowledge Economy.