Sir

The underlying assumption of the report by the US National Research Council on PhDs in the life sciences is that leaving academic science is a disaster (Nature 395, 103; 1998).

You say “the report dismisses the notion that PhD programmes should be broadened to prepare graduates for alternative careers that, it maintains, do not require a PhD”. This assumption that a life science PhD is only useful training for scientific research is narrow-minded and not dynamic. For many years it was said that manufacturing did not require a university degree. However, with many new university graduates seeking jobs in the 1980s, manufacturing was restructured to incorporate modern technology and now employs many university graduates. Thus, an apparent glut of overtrained people increases productivity as their talents are transferred to new areas of employment.

We agree that providing better information to prospective students is an excellent idea. Applicants should know what jobs are available and what career paths exist both within and outside science. Then they should choose freely whether to begin their doctoral training. Setting an arbitrary quota on the number of PhDs allowed in the United States would be foolish. Economic history contains a wealth of examples of the failure of quota systems to perform efficiently. Young life scientists need improved information about career options, not limits on the number of PhDs.

Those who only want to clone themselves in economics departments are also lamenting that there are not enough jobs for PhDs at research universities. But economics PhDs who go into consulting and investment banking do very well and they bring a willingness to entertain complex solutions and creative insights.

Life science PhDs have similar opportunities to use their skills in marketing, sales, management, and research in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Their technical training is also of use as biotech equity analysts, patent attorneys and venture capitalists. Who is to say we aren't improving the lives of the individuals and increasing productivity?