Looks like my Alma Mater ended up in the press again (the bad side). This link was forwarded to me by a friend of mine.
Obligatory Excerpt:
Postdocs are neither students nor faculty, so their roles, rights and responsibilities in a university are often undefined, governed more by convention than policy. This often leaves postdocs at the whim of domineering advisors, but also can find advisors facing distrustful and frustrated postdocs.
Here’s another passage that was fascinating
Across the country, the difficult working conditions of postdocs have been getting some attention lately. As the number of people getting doctorate degrees outpaces the number of tenure-track faculty positions, the number of postdocs has been rising, and people are spending much longer in these types of positions.
…
The number of postdocs coming from other countries has increased dramatically over the past 15 years. According to a National Science Foundation study, the number of foreign postdocs in science and engineering rose by 8,000 from 1988 to 2000, while the number of U.S.-citizen or permanent-resident postdocs rose by only about 1,500
I don’t have anymore info besides what the article says so it’s hard to know about the specific case mentioned. However, those numbers in the second passage quoted lead to many other questions. Who are rising into the postdoc ranks mainly? Does anyone have an idea of the ratio of native citizens versus influx of non? Also, what happens with many of the foreign postdocs? Are there numbers that show the rate that they decide to settle and stay in the U.S.?
If anyone has an idea about those numbers that’d be great to know.
