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Mission possible: putting trainees at the center of academia's mission

Nature Biotechnology volume 32, pages 593–594 (2014)Cite this article

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Academia's pursuit of tokens of prestige has eclipsed trainees' well-being and career development. It is time for that to change.

The academic system is built on a scheme in which the largest sector of the research workforce—graduate students and postdoctoral fellows—is frequently undervalued and misused. Under the current system, many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows are treated as cheap and easily replaceable labor, and the enterprise of academic research as a whole emphasizes fancy equipment, infrastructure, top-tier publications and the pursuit of research funding. Education of trainees is relegated to an afterthought—a side effect of pursuing these tokens of prestige. Because the current system has allowed trainees to be the cheapest form of research labor, many are given inappropriate tasks instead of having the maximum opportunity to learn how to develop hypotheses, devise innovative experimental approaches, develop keen critical and analytical thinking skills and fully build their professional credentials. The culture and the power system that have created this scheme leave many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows feeling worthless, disposable and creatively and intellectually invisible1,2,3. This causes psychological and intellectual harm to our trainees and also prevents them from developing their full potential of becoming independent scientists.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Ronin Institute, Montclair, New Jersey, USA

    Viviane Callier

  2. Markey Cancer Center, University of Kentucky and at Integrative Academic Solutions, Lexington, Kentucky, USA

    Nathan L Vanderford

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  1. Viviane Callier
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  2. Nathan L Vanderford
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Correspondence to Nathan L Vanderford.

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Callier, V., Vanderford, N. Mission possible: putting trainees at the center of academia's mission. Nat Biotechnol 32, 593–594 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2928

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