Opinion
Australia likes to position itself as a global research leader. With just 0.3% of the world’s population, we punch above our weight with more than 3% of global research output, at quality levels above OECD averages. The success of Australia’s quality research output is not accidental; it is built on the labour of Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidates across our universities.
Yet, the people who are contributing over half our university's hours to research, the HDR students who are the future of our nation’s research capacity, have to survive on stipends that are now below the poverty line.1
The impact of living at or below the poverty line for those who comprise the backbone of the research workforce clearly contributes to the decline in domestic PhD enrolments across the sector.
But there is a deeper issue of low stipends at a national level – it is not just diminishing the future workforce; it is flatlining research productivity.
HDR support directly linked to productivity
Research and development is meant to generate new and more efficient ways of doing things through new ideas, products and processes, resulting in economic growth and an expansion of knowledge.
In fact, the economic benefits were touted across the sector, with calls to invest in R&D to drive broader growth in productivity and the economy.
Yet whenever bodies call for an investment in R&D, many forget to mention that it is the HDR candidates that will be doing the research for the new projects. HDR candidates contribute more than half of all university research hours (54% of the total person years of effort),1 three-quarters work more than 49 hours a week on their research.2 And given the average age of a HDR candidate is in their mid-30’s, this comes at the cost of other aspects of their personal lives.3
They are the backbone of Australia’s medical, scientific, technological, social science, and humanities research workforce.
Despite this, the minimum Research Training Program (RTP) stipend in 2026 sits at $34,315 per annum, which as of September 2025, shockingly falls beneath the Henderson Poverty Line for single person ($690.50 per week).4
We crunched the numbers in our 2026-2027 Pre-Budget Submission to show how the HDR stipend contributes to the nation's research productivity.
And this abysmally low stipend has taken its toll on our nation's R&D sector.
Between 2006-16 Australian researchers increased their research productivity by ~121%, massively exceeding the OECD average of the time of 39%. Yet, between 2013-23, our productivity only grew ~64%.
And it’s not because there are fewer HDR candidates, in fact, there are more than ever – and some would argue, not enough.
We modelled research productivity and the historical stipend base rate and developed a mathematical model based on the relationship, to forecast future research productivity with a given stipend rate (Total Research Outputs and Top 10% Cited Outputs) (Figure 1). We also validated our forecasted research productivity for 2023 against the recently released 2025 CWTS Leiden rankings, and predicted a 0.361% growth rate, compared with the actual growth rate of 0.571% (about a 300-publication difference).
Figure 1. Year-on-Year Growth in Research Productivity (Navy: % Growth in Total Outputs From Previous Year; Green: % Growth in Top 10% Cited Outputs From Previous Year) and The PhD Stipend Rate (Orange: % Growth in RTP Stipend Base Rate From Previous Year) Since 2006 (Dotted Line: Forecast for 2023-2026 Based on Published RTP Stipend Base Rate; 2027 Forecast Based on Theoretical Increase to Equivalent of Minimum Wage). (Data Source: CWTS Leiden, ABS and Department of Education)
We think the modelling speaks for itself. When Kevin Rudd delivered the only meaningful increase to the RTP stipend in 2010, it fuelled almost a decade of growth. We applied the same logic using our model, and increasing the RTP stipend base rate to ~$43,000 (minimum wage) would deliver the largest increase to research productivity in recent memory.
To their credit, many universities have begun lifting stipends above the mandated federal minimum, in order to remain competitive to attract the best candidates for their research programs. In 2026, only four universities still offer the base RTP rate; fourteen now pay above the sector average, and several exceed $40,000 per year – it seems that universities have been listening to their postgraduates.
However, celebrations are not in order. Thirteen universities still have HDR candidates living below the poverty line, and institutions cannot continue to plug systemic underfunding indefinitely without sacrificing priorities elsewhere in their development. The solution should not and cannot rely on individual institutions’ goodwill alone.
The current stipend system assumes HDR candidates can simply absorb rising rents, food costs and energy bills, and maintain the level of outputs. The evidence shows they cannot.
A survey of over 8,000 University of Melbourne postgraduates revealed that three-quarters of postgraduate students identify cost-of-living pressures as their primary challenge. Housing insecurity, food insecurity and the need to take on additional work are now routine features of HDR life. 5 Indeed, according to Nature, Australian candidates report greater issues with their financial security and mental health issues/burnout when compared globally. 6
A research system that relies on exhausted, financially stressed candidates is not efficient – it is self-sabotaging.
It is time to recognise that investing in HDR candidate stipends, is investing in Australian R&D.
The public budget office thinks that raising the RTP stipend to minimum wage and keeping the same number of stipends available, would cost a ballpark $300m a year.
I wonder where we have heard of ~$300m locked in a medical research future fund?
Footnotes:
- Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] 2022. 8111.0 – Research and Experimental Development, Higher Education Organisations, Australia, 2024. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/8111.0.
- Woolston, C. (2017). "Graduate survey: A love–hurt relationship." Nature 550(7677): 549-552.
- Universities Australia. Investing in PhD candidates in Australia; 2024.
- Melbourne Institute – Applied Economic and Social Research. Poverty Lines: Australia – September Quarter 2025.
- University of Melbourne Graduate Student Association. Graduate Student Survey: Insights from graduate students; 2025.
- Nordling, L. (2025), “Are these the happiest PhD students in the word?” Nature 646, 1013-1016 (2025)
Jesse Gardner-Russell is National President and Richard Lee is Vice-President of the Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA).