Students skip research for cushy jobs

Higher studies or job? That's one question that crosses the mind of every graduating or postgraduating student. Trends, however, reveal that most of the students, especially in the IT sector, are opting for cushy jobs and hefty pay packages, instead of doctoral programmes.

Statistics also prove this point. India produces more than 15,000 MTechs in computer science every year but when it comes to the number of PhDs in this field, it's less than 50. So, does this sound a death-knell for research in India?

M B Srinivas, associate professor, International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad, agrees that it is becoming difficult to find students inclined towards taking up PhD courses after their postgraduation.

Srinivas heads the very large scale integration (VLSI) and embedded systems centre at IIIT and is the mentor of two PhD students and nine students for MS by research, a research-oriented postgraduate programme, at the institute.

"Six of these MS by research students will be graduating this year. However, none of them is keen on doing PhD as they already have got attractive job offers from various multinational companies," he adds.

According to Srinivas, the job market boom in the IT sector is responsible for the dwindling interest in PhD in computer science.

"Today an MTech from a reputed institute can easily get a minimum salary of Rs 6 lakh annually. So, students tend to feel that it's more practical to take up a job and earn good money instead of spending years to get a PhD," he adds.

Generally, the duration for a PhD programme ranges between three and five years. Taking into consideration the salary that a postgraduate in computer science would earn during that period (approximately Rs 30 lakh), and deducting the scholarship and funds that a PhD would receive otherwise (around Rs 5 lakh), the monetary loss would amount to an approximate Rs 25 lakh for that period. Srinivas, however, says that the satisfaction obtained during research programmes cannot be measured.

Apart from the aforesaid supply-side reasons, there are demand-side grounds for declining interest among students in PhD programmes.

Today, according to Srinivas, there are less than 15 companies in the country that require the services of a PhD in computer science. "Microsoft, Google and John F Welch Technology Centre are some of the names in this regard," he adds.

Bangalore-based Microsoft Research Lab India Private Limited, for instance, does research in areas of multilingual systems, digital geographies, sensor network applications and software engineering. Today, it employs 30 people on full-time basis and is looking at ramping up its operations.

P Anandan, managing director, Microsoft Research Lab India Private Limited, says that they are working out ways to promote the concept of research through various programmes like assistant researcher programme.

The information and communication technology (ICT) for underserved communities awards programme, through which university researchers can apply for awards of up to $40,000 for their projects, is also one such effort.

Harish Bhattiprolu, director, sales, Kenexa Technologies (India), a provider of talent acquisition and retention solutions, therefore, says that though there is no mass demand for PhDs in computer science in India at present, there is a niche demand for people with such qualifications.

"And with increasing focus on India as an R&D centre, the niche demand will continue to grow," he adds.