Does following a PhD cost money or earn money?

Question

According to academicpositions.be, which quotes the New York Times, PhD students earn 15000 and 30000 dollars per year. But according to Educationdata:

In 2012, the average cost of a full year in a Ph.D. program was $21,400. Of the $21,400, the net price for the student was $8,480. Of the $21,400, roughly $12,920 was covered by grants. 39.2% of surveyed Ph.D. students offset the cost of their degree with teaching assistantships.

Why do these sources seem to contradict each other?

Does this also differ by country?

Answer 1

It's kind of both. When you study, you (or someone) has to pay the university the tuition fees. However, in many countries, the professor/department/scholarship will have funding to pay the university and pay you a stipend.

• If you don't have funding, then the net result is you pay the university.
• If you do have funding, then the net result depends on how much funding is provided. Quite often, the net result is you are paid. If the funding is only partial, you still might have to pay the university.

Answer 2

Don't confuse cost with price.

The following applies in the US. There is also some difference by field and by university. Generally, though,...

I think $57K sounds a bit high, though it probably includes such things as health insurance. The stipend is set to cover modest living expenses of a student in that locality, recognizing that many are married. Enough for frugal living, but little enough that you want to finish ASAP.

And for almost all doctoral students, a TA or an RA will come with forgiveness of almost all costs. Those costs are borne by the institution or the government that supports it. But a privately funded student will have high cost of tuition. Again, I'd guess $99K is at the top end of the scale, and those are total costs over the multi-year program, not annual costs. And, most students in doctoral programs have a TA or (fewer) an RA. Both provide valuable service to the institution, especially in making the faculty more productive.

But yes, the costs are high, since in some fields the labs are costly and the professors are well paid. Even building maintenance isn't free.

You aren't normally paid for your research. A TA means you assist in teaching (normally) undergraduates. An RA probably means that you assist in someone else's research, though your project might grow out of that. You are paid a stipend, not normally a "salary" (US). The tax implications of that difference might be important, but most likely taxes will be due.

Answer 3

I am now living in a country where generally PhDs are not paid unless you find a grant and where a lot of people do a PhD for free. In my country this can also happen, however it's now getting more and more common to require actually having a grant or some kind of compensation before being able to start a PhD, thus most people over there earn a salary. I'm paid a salary for my PhD as I'm employed outside of university.

Generally around here doing a PhD does not cost money, outside of registration fees and stuff like that, which is generally quite low and definitely below 1000€ for the whole PhD. If you get a grant these fees are generally covered by the grant. Of course, if you're not paid you'd have to account for how much it costs you not to have another jobs that pays you.

I do not know about you, but I'd never accept to work for free. Doing a PhD is a job in my mind, since you're doing something that takes your time and generating useful research for other people to use (which is quite different from what a student does for example during his master), thus I'd never accept to do a PhD for free. On a side note, I personally disapprove of people who accept to do unpaid PhDs or to work overtime; this because you're basically lowering the salary of other people doing a PhD by accepting to do the same job for free.