- Joined
- Mar 14, 2023
It depends on the research group and possibly country.The PhD student is usually focused on the higher level hypotheses, working on their thesis, and developing more advanced experiments in tandem with the professor they work under; a lot of that work can be delegated to anyone willing to learn and follow instructions (probably the most difficult part of lab staffing, some kids are just born dumb as fuck and many are too dumb to realize pre-med/STEM is not for them). The pipetting, measuring, cleaning, machine maintenance, mixing, sonicating, washing, timing, recording, testing, reporting, etc can be done by an army of eager undergrads desperate for that sweet sweet on campus extracurricular.
I can only speak to England, my PhD was in physics. For the foundation, first, and second year labs, there was one member of official staff and the rest was done entirely by PhD students. I wasn't experimental but a friend who was literally spent his entire PhD chopping shit up into different shapes and sizes and measuring its properties. He wasn't even basing his shapes and sizes on any theory, it was ridiculous. Another quit cos he was expected to sit in a dark room all day counting specs of light.
I've since moved to something biology-adjacent and have even seen proper faculty members doing insane amounts of grunt work. The only people immune to it are the professors. The PhD students are generally running experiments for studies designed by post docs or higher. If they are lucky they might get to add some of their own ideas towards the end. Their funding is generally tied to a particular grant that has been planned well in advance of them starting
Over here PhD students are treated as cheap labour. There are research assistants that only need an undergrad degree, I don't know their positions are paid for but they are technically employed by the university so probably cost a lot more and have better rights.
We sometimes get undergrads on summer placement but that's about it.
I've since moved to something biology-adjacent and have even seen proper faculty members doing insane amounts of grunt work. The only people immune to it are the professors. The PhD students are generally running experiments for studies designed by post docs or higher. If they are lucky they might get to add some of their own ideas towards the end. Their funding is generally tied to a particular grant that has been planned well in advance of them starting
Over here PhD students are treated as cheap labour. There are research assistants that only need an undergrad degree, I don't know their positions are paid for but they are technically employed by the university so probably cost a lot more and have better rights.
We sometimes get undergrads on summer placement but that's about it.
Victoria clearly has no idea what being a professor actually entails. It is not flexible. Grant application deadlines don't give a shit if you're in hospital refusing to poo. You can't be late for lectures when you're delivering them. You're expected to cultivate international collaborations, schmooze with the uni high brass, while maintaining the all important REF and TEF scores. Every professor (in the English sense of leader of a research group) I've known works pretty much constantly. Two lost their marriages cos of it.