While many recent science graduates have found employment, according to 2012 CMNS Career Center survey, job prospects are grimmer for those graduating with Ph.D.s.
Deborah Hemingway’s parents knew they had a scientist on their hands long before politicians began pushing STEM education as the nation’s future. At a young age, she begged her parents for math workbooks while her friends were still coloring outside the lines.
Now, a doctoral student at this university pursuing a career in biophysics, Hemingway absorbs reports that say science graduates may outnumber the opportunities available to them. But she and professors in the computer, mathematical and natural sciences school said they are unconcerned and still see value in a doctorate from this university, whose programs helped the state secure a first place national ranking in innovation and entrepreneurship, according to the Daily Record.
“There may be a glut of people with the label of Ph.D. [in the country], but there’s not so much a glut of graduating Ph.D. students who are really strong,” said Paul Smith, the CMNS interim associate dean for faculty affairs and graduate education.
At this university, 45 percent of CMNS respondents to a University Career Center survey had accepted full-time employment between one month prior to and one month following graduation in May.
CMNS’ employment rate ranks higher than those for graduates of the journalism (32 percent), arts and humanities (34 percent) and agriculture and natural resources (34 percent) colleges this year. Fifty-nine percent of engineering graduates who responded are employed, according to the survey.
Erin Brault, the Career Center assistant to the director, said it was a good sign that more CMNS graduates were finding work than last May – and 75 percent of respondents said they secured their first choice of post-graduate activity.
“All signs seem to indicate that it’s going to get better,” she said.
Though some sources, such a July 7 Washington Post article, find the number of scientists entering their fields outnumbers open job positions in academia and research, university officials and professors said the situation is no different than in past years.
CMNS Associate Dean Robert Infantino said job shortages coincide with the health of the economy and that the government must increase its investments in research and technology.
“The federal budgets are flat and going down, and so people who might have been able to come into a research institute, for example, on soft money from the government are not able to do so,” Infantino said. “Even research assistants, when their grants run out, are not going to be able to find renewals, and that’s probably going to get worse before it gets better.”
University President Wallace Loh said the government should invest more money into STEM fields to help graduates compete with their peers from other countries that are rapidly building up science programs.
“The issue is that other nations are catching up very fast in science and technology,” Loh said. “They’re luring back their own graduates from the U.S., they’re building up huge labs, they’re investing huge amounts of money and they’re catching up – and this is a huge risk to the future of our country.”
However, this campus may be well-situated for competition, with its close proximity to public- and private-sector research centers and the growing M Square Research Park – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Center for Weather and Climate Prediction is set to open there in the fall.
Smith said the university’s work is supported by its connections to outside groups. A week ago, the Maryland Cybersecurity Center announced a partnership with cybersecurity company Sourcefire, its 14th such collaboration.
“We have the ability to get outside support for the work that’s being done here,” Smith said. “That rebounds to the benefit of the graduate students who are able to work with faculty members who are themselves active and recognized in the research community.”
The doctoral program helped Hemingway make connections with the area’s potential employers, and she said she has already received two job offers.
“Opportunities are there if you cast your net wide,” she said. “You can’t be willing to do just one thing.”
Sophomore neurobiology and physiology major Susan Lubejko has heard finding a job will be difficult, but she said it helps to make personal connections and get a foot in the door early by learning technical skills.
“Many of the labs are very receptive to undergrads with little or no experience and are willing to teach the skills they are looking for,” said Lubejko, a neurobiology research assistant on the campus this summer.
Joelle Presson, CMNS assistant dean for undergraduate academic programs, said even in slow economic conditions job prospects do not dictate the value of a student’s education.
“They believe their degree is training them for a particular job, but that could not be further from the truth,” Presson said. “[A doctorate] teaches you to think, and it opens you up for lifelong learning.”
The university’s programs are also working to take a more interdisciplinary approach to research, Infantino said, citing the master’s degree in sustainable development and conservation biology, which he said broadens students’ understanding of how science can address issues facing communities.
Infantino said he hopes the government will continue to encourage science education and invest in giving graduates a greater chance of using their skills.
“The world’s problems that relate to biology and chemistry are getting bigger, not smaller,” Infantino said. “They’re not going away.”
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