• Question: Do you think your priverlaged background made a big difference to you doing science as a job?

    Asked by to Claire, Ian, Sergey, Vicky, Zena on 16 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Claire Shooter

      Claire Shooter answered on 16 Jun 2014:

      I was very lucky to do my Bsc before tuition fees came in. I think tuition fees were a terrible move by the government and everyone who has to cope with them has my sympathy. I also found that getting into science in London was incredibly competitive when I graduated, and I ended up interning for a few months to get experience. I was lucky in both these situations to have financial support from my parents, but my career since then has funded itself, through paid work and through applying for funding from research bodies for my PhD. I suppose I got a foot up, but funding is available to everyone and I believe my hard work was more important than my background

    • Photo: Ian Simpson

      Ian Simpson answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      Why do you think I had a privileged background ? I went to state schools and neither of my parents went to University. I worked hard at school, passed my exams and received offers to go to Universities. I was fortunate to be offered a place at Oxford, but I certainly wasn’t there because of my background.

      Like Claire I’m strongly against tuition fees and think we should still have maintenance grants as well. I think it is ridiculous that young people are emerging from Universities with large debts. Societies develop through the education of their peoples, our investment in education at all levels is an investment in our collective future and incredible value for money.

      Science is definitely not the preserve of people with privileged backgrounds, in fact I would suggest it’s the opposite of that. There are many other professions that the wealthy gravitate towards. To quote Prof. Steve Jones, “You’d have to be mad to get into science for the money.”

    • Photo: Sergey Lamzin

      Sergey Lamzin answered on 17 Jun 2014:

      I did not come from a privileged background.

      I studied in Germany, luckily there education is free. There are no tutuition fees, only an administrative charge of 120€ per semester for the paperwork.
      Still I had to pay for living.

      I will share a small trade secret with you though how to study and be paid for it:
      Employ yourself as a tutor for the same courses you did last semester!

      It’s easy and you get to boss around students! Professors generally couldn’t care less wether their tutors do a good job or not.

    • Photo: Vicky Schneider

      Vicky Schneider answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      I think that it helps to get to know and have opportunities that otherwise might be hard to access…but no background should stop anyone from doing science…of course as for many other professions if you don’t even have the chance to access certain places, meet people that are in that environment you might struggle but not because you lack the abilities to be a successful scientists.

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