Professor: a Harvard PhD student costs the school ~$500k
Afinetheorem · x · 2026-11-10
Economist Afinetheorem continues his "PhD students aren't workers" thread, citing internal emails from Rotman professor Kevin Bryan: a PhD student at Harvard costs $500k; stipends (32k CAD post-tax) fall below Northern Ontario minimum wage; students faced unsafe housing and secret side jobs. Bryan's advocacy — $7k more per student would fix it, admin spending up 20% real over 9 years — finally won extra funding in 2025, with 6th-year funding on the September agenda. No school would pay a "PhD worker" $100k including training costs.
Related event: Economist Argues PhD Students Are Costly Apprentices, Not Workers(6 posts)→
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