Postgraduates chosen for their “excellent potential” to become future leaders in environmental science and sustainable business should consider selling Avon products, pet-sitting and joining clinical trials to cope with the cost of living crisis.
The advice – issued on Wednesday by the prestigious Aries Doctoral Training Partnership funded by the Natural Environment Research Council at the University of East Anglia – provoked outrage among researchers who described the letter as “appalling”, “ridiculous” and “unbelievable”.
An email to PhD students on the programme recognised that many were finding it “increasingly challenging” to live on their stipends, £15,600 a year at present, and attached a three-page document from the UEA careers office setting out options to make ends meet.
