There is just one reason why many people don't want to pursue a PhD at IIIT or any other Indian university - Money.
American Universities pay PhD students anywhere between $1500 and $2500 per month. You get paid something like Rs.9000 in India. There is just no comparison. For those wondering why money is that important: A PhD would start at-least at the age of 23 and would take almost 5 years. By the age of 28-29 you would come up against at-least one of these issues if not more.
1. Repayment of Loans
2. Family Obligations
3. Marriage
If you have any of these things to deal with you can't afford to earn the paltry 9K per month that a PhD gives you. You could however, possibly do all of the above while doing a PhD abroad. Just think of it like this. As a PhD student abroad, it would cost you a quarter of your monthly pay to buy a laptop. In India it would take you 5 months pay to buy a laptop. In India, we have the universities, we have the faculty and we have the level of work. What we don't have is a realistic stipend structure. Somehow academics in India think that there is some novelty in Poverty. There is *no* novelty in poverty.
IIIT is a place where things can happen. It just needs some will. Still paying TA's and RA's peanuts and not paying MS students like myself and many others anything, doesn't help. If any faculty member is reading : Fix this !
PS: The "Novelty in Poverty" phrase was originally put forward to me by Jimmy.
10 comments:
It's not about money my friend. It's about passion and motivation. If you are not motivated even 25K per month won't help.
PS: You haven't received your MS yet. How dare you write such a post? :P
You have missed the entire point of the post. This is about where you will do your PhD once you decide to do it. This is not a debate about whether you should do your PhD or not. This has nothing to do with passion or motivation.
"1. Repayment of Loans
2. Family Obligations
3. Marriage"
On a light hearted wave, is this the most likely order od preference too :)) for the PhD chaps ;)
Any B.Tech/MS student from IIIT, who successfully completes PhD at IIIT, will have their student loan paid by the institute.
The money is not just 9,000/month but actually, 20,000/month if you include the tuition amount that is paid by the research center for the student.
Just like 'gaming' doing 'research' is lot of fun - so there will be many students joining and successfully completing their PhD at the institute.
I think it is unfair to compare USD 2500 to INR 9000. It is definitely *not* (2500*43.65) INR. I know quite a few people in good universities (UWash, NYU) who are really hard-pressed, and save quite a deal off their stipend for rainy days.
Life as a grad student means utter poverty - in India or the US of A.
@The anon above:
Firstly a bank expects you to start repaying your loan within a year of completing the degree for which the loan is issued. No bank is charitable enough to wait for the student to take his/her merry time to complete the PhD course and repay their loan afterwards. However if this is indeed the stance taken by IIIT, it is a truly wonderful gesture.
Secondly a PhD should not force an individual into a financially disadvantaged position. This is the case with PhD students in India. This is rather shameful. Can a married individual contemplate raising a family on a PhD stipend in India? I know you can do it abroad!
Finally: Yes research is fun, especially at a place like IIIT-H. And yes many students will join IIIT and complete their PhD's, but not the 50 students per year. That target is outrageous.
no comments
;)
1. IIIT already has 55+ PhD Students.
2. No university pays 2500-4K, ask people who are there, the number ranges from 1600-2400 I think !! At least when I was planning to app
3. Don't compare it with 9K ( definitely its an insult to keep an indian student who has the obligations as u mentioned and pay only that much at the prime of his age :D ) BUT BUT BUT, its not like someone wants to do a PhD and he gets it, hence people who couldnt hold a place in US + who like to stay back mite come for a PhD. I got drifted on this one ....
4. I totally agree with Sultan on "
Life as a grad student means utter poverty - in India or the US of A."
5. Baahhh No Comments !!
No university in the US pays the kind of money you are talking about (its about 22-24k pa - biology,medicine,pharmacy... get a bit more). What you get in hand is about 1400-1600 per month after deductions.
http://www.wendychao.com/science/stipends/
Moreover, the students pay about 25-30% in taxes. Indian fellowships are tax exempt. And in the US, typically students pay about 40% of their take home salary for just for accomodation.
So whatever you wrote is not only absurd but also misleads prospective researchers.
phd stipends in the US? They suck pretty bad. Whether you learn anything else or not during your PhD here in the US, you'll definitely learn how to get by on a VERY small amount of money, feeling terribly poor all the time.
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