Each UK doctoral graduate should be paid a three-month stipend immediately after they submit their PhD thesis to give them time to find suitable employment, a new report on early-career researchers recommends.

In a published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) and the British Academy on 29 February, the idea of a ¡°post-PhD transition fund¡± is suggested by Gemma Tidman, a Leverhulme early career research fellow in comparative literature at Queen Mary University of London, who suggests the support would ¡°relieve new postdocs of the pressure to accept any old work, however poor the conditions¡±.

¡°Three months is not much, but it could be a lifeline for those needing the headspace to recover, complete PhD corrections, job hunt or retrain,¡± states Dr Tidman, who argues that this ¡°post-PhD support should be available to all PhD graduates, regardless of funding status¡±.

The stipend would be available for any PhD graduate without a salary above the living wage and would be ¡°activated upon thesis submission¡± explains Dr Tidman.

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¡°Those just out of a PhD need money: this much we know. But they also need time. Time to rest and recalibrate after years with all eyes on the finish line,¡± she adds of the proposed payment, which at a quarter of the minimum ?19,237 tax-free PhD stipend would equate to ?4,809 per student.

Dr Tidman explains that the payment could help to prevent PhD ¡°burnout¡± and could be piloted by funding agencies with a view to improving the well-being and job prospects of doctoral graduates.

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The UK government should also improve the career prospects of recent PhD graduates by introducing a ¡°research tax credits scheme¡± to encourage non-university employers to take on new doctoral degree recipients, says Dr Tidman, who notes the existence of a similar scheme in France.

¡°Helping employers discover the valuable skills and experience gained during a PhD would produce a virtuous circle, in which postdocs have increasingly rich and varied job prospects; businesses profit from highly skilled employees; and universities must begin to offer genuine careers again ¨C with progression from early-career academia through to late ¨C so as to retain their primary asset: their people,¡± writes Dr Tidman.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com