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Inflation and graduate student stipends

Brian Leiter

A soon-to-be PhD student writes:

I am an incoming philosophy PhD student at a university in a major U.S. city. While I have been fortunate enough to receive funding and a stipend for the duration of my program, I find myself increasingly worried about getting by with rising inflation and costs of living — especially considering that the stipend is the same for all five years.

Would you be willing to ask your readers how departments are thinking about this issue? Are any considering raising stipends to keep up to the cost of living? Would it be worth trying to transfer programs that provide better funding?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Best wishes,

A concerned student

My general sense is that stipends do increase, and that the amount offered and guaranteed is, as it were, a minimum.  Students should raise these concerns with their departments.  Comments from others welcome; please submit your comment only once, it may take awhile to appear.

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10 responses to “Inflation and graduate student stipends”

  1. Grad Student

    In the UK, or at least in Oxford, although admittedly it's much harder to get funding, if you do, then the yearly amount is updated according to inflation (or at least this is what they write to you in the letter. I'll see next year to be sure).

    Reply
  2. Yale Graduate Student

    I can only speak for my institution, Yale, which next year is raising humanities and social sciences base stipends 14%. This was expressly to address cost of living concerns and to bring greater parity with the sciences. My understanding is that stipend rates at Yale are evaluated yearly against things like inflation and other budgetary issues, rather than being fixed for any particular number of years.

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  3. Dave

    As a former non-Yale graduate student, I would guess most universities are NOT raising the graduate stipend by 14%! But perhaps the unionized grad students will do a bit better in this moment.

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  4. Unionized Grad Student

    If the grad workers at the program you're starting are unionized, addressing wage/stipend raises through the union is another option. At my University, the stipends specified in our contract are also only pay minimums, which means it is always possible for the University to raise them. In my experience, those raises or adjustments for inflation are things that are won after organizing with one's fellow grad workers, rather than being preemptively carried out by the university administration without any prior pressure. Although I have less insight into how that process would work specifically through one's department, since we negotiate with the university administration directly on these issues.

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  5. Grad student

    I’m a graduate student at a public university in a red state where we are currently embroiled in a fight with the administration to recognize our union (they wont’t, for the same tired reasons usually cited by corporations). Our stipends, prior to the beginning of this, had not risen in the entire time anyone I know had been at the university (8+ Years). The admin has finally allocated an extra chunk of money to us going forward from this year as an appeasement gesture, but they definitely would not have done so with out sustained protests, media coverage, and a recent strike. They almost certainly won’t do so again. From what I hear from students in other universities, including unionized ones, this is the lay of land. Universities do not adjust stipends for inflation unless significant pressure to do so is exerted, for a long time.

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  6. Nate

    When I was a PhD student and had funding (2011-2016), my stipend increased year-over-year. That said, it was still a graduate stipend. I think it started at $16k and ended at $20k, so if not for my spouse having a job, I still would've been living near the poverty line for most of it.

    Reply
  7. Faisal K. Bhabha

    I'm a student at the University of Toronto. As for others, the amount we're guaranteed upon admission is truly just the minimum amount. It seems that the department periodically reviews this sort of thing. For instance, this year, the department increased the minimum funding package–I think by 2,000 CAD (about a 9% bump), but don't quote me on that number. This increase also applies to current grad students who were only guaranteed the old minimum.

    Reply
  8. McGill Grad Student

    That's good that there is a raise in Toronto. At McGill, I don't believe that any increase in the stipend is planned. The Philosophy Department has been straightforward that they'd be happy to increase student funding, but nothing is really forthcoming from the university, so they are investigating using supervisor's research funds and other sources to supplement student funding. The Philosophy Department is also moving to a five-year funding model instead of the existing four-year one, so that's a victory.

    Reply
  9. Cornell Grad Student

    We usually get a stipend raise of around 2-3%, depending on inflation. However, the stipend raise this year did not match inflation: we got a 5% raise or thereabouts, which doesn't match the current rate of inflation (8.6%). The university is selling the 5% stipend raise as a win for grad students despite it effectively amounting to a pay cut.

    Reply
  10. Concerned undergrad

    From what I hear from grad students at UNC, their funding is extremely poor: less than $20,000 without summer teaching. They have been given only tiny raises in the past many years, and the funding is just not livable at least in 2022. Since January 2020, rent alone in Chapel Hill has increased by 24 percent. (https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2022/01/city-rent-in-chapel-hill#:~:text=Since%20January%202020%2C%20rent%20in,average%20increase%20of%2016%20percent.) UNC was my dream grad program, but the funding situation has made me decide not to apply. I hope philosophy departments realize that PhD students need money to live, study, and teach well.

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