Under the Microscope: There is a general public perception that salaries in science and engineering are relatively modest and do not compete well with salaries in many other disciplines, writes Prof William Reville.
Since salary is a primary motivator when choice of career decisions are being made, this perception will dampen enthusiasm for careers in science and engineering.
The Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation (ICSTI) has examined the salary question to see if this general perception rests on an underlying reality, and it announced its findings yesterday in a statement entitled "A Comparison of Starting Salaries for Science and Engineering Graduates". The good news is that, in contrast to the anecdotal evidence, average starting salaries for science and engineering graduates are very competitive with starting salaries for graduates in other disciplines.
ICSTI advises the Government and Forfás on science, technology and innovation policy.
There is much concern over the decline in take-up of the physical science subjects, physics and chemistry, in second-level schools in recent years. The Task Force on the Physical Sciences (2002), chaired by Dr Daniel O'Hare, made recommendations to promote take-up of these subjects and to retain levels of take-up. The task force did not examine the impact of salary perception on take-up of physics and chemistry.
How important is perception of salary when students make their CAO career choices? An MRBI poll (September, 2002) reported that students ranked the most important influences on their choice of a third-level course in this order - interest in career, availability of jobs and salary. Salary is a primary motivator and it may merit a higher ranking than third because salary considerations may silently contribute to the first ranked "interest in career".
Over the period 1995 to 2000, starting salaries increased for certificate, diploma, primary and higher degree graduates in science and engineering. The salary increases were more progressive at certificate and diploma level than at primary and higher degree levels, with increases of 103 per cent, 63 per cent, 29 per cent and 25 per cent recorded respectively.
The ICSTI study shows that the average starting salary (€24,000) for science and engineering graduates who take up employment in the science, engineering and technology (SET) sector, compete very favourably with starting salaries in the main alternative professions pursued by science and engineering graduates. The principal alternative professions and average starting salaries (2001 figures), are accounting (17,500), consulting (27,500), financial services (20,000), logistics/transport (21,000) and retailing/ purchasing (€23,000). Thus, SET average starting salaries exceed starting salaries in all of these alternative professions with the exception of consulting.
In addition to graduates with primary qualifications, Ireland's economy and research infrastructure requires a steady supply of scientists and engineers trained to the highest level. In order to attract enough recent graduates into MSc and PhD programmes, it is clearly important that postgraduate stipends compete favourably with starting salaries for new graduates in industry.
The ICSTI study shows postgraduate stipends compare reasonably favourably with starting salaries in industry. However, postgraduate college registration fees are taken from the gross stipend, which leaves the remaining disposable postgraduate income anywhere between 7 per cent and 33 per cent less than the disposable income of a starting graduate in industry. ICSTI recommends this situation should be balanced up and suggests consideration be given by the granting bodies to paying postgraduate fees directly to the universities.
The ICSTI study also reports, drawing on the excellent data collected by the HEA on first destination of award recipients in higher education, that, over the period 1995 to 2000, up to 50 per cent of science graduates with a primary degree left science.
Most left to pursue employment in the business/finance sectors, and engineering was another option. The leakage out of science was much less for newly qualified higher degree science graduates. In contrast to the trend in science, the level of outward migration from engineering to other professions is minor at both primary and higher-degree levels.
No specific reasons for the migration from science were identified. Since starting salaries in the SET sector are, on average, higher than most of the non-SET professions pursued by science graduates, this cannot be a major factor influencing the migration. The anecdotal evidence suggests that considerations of career development options and perceptions of future potential earnings strongly influence this migration.
This ICSTI statement carries welcome news for the SET sector in Ireland. The perception that the market offers less money to science and engineering graduates than to their counterparts in most other professions is wrong. There is good money in science and this message must go out loud and clear.
The ICSTI booklet on starting salaries is available from the ICSTI Secretariat, Wilton Park House, Wilton Place, Dublin 2. (Tel: 01-6073186; e-mail icsti@forfas.ie). William Reville is associate professor of biochemistry and director of microscopy at University College Cork