How Much Does a PhD in Neuroscience Cost?

A doctorate in any field is a significant undertaking both intellectually and financially. In recent years, the costs of PhD students are increasingly borne by the primary investigator as part of a grant proposal, while the number of graduate students supported by individual fellowships has remained relatively constant [1]. 

In the US for example, research grants funded about 40% of all biomedical sciences PhD students in the 1980s and this figure had risen to 70% by 2007 [2]. National Institutes of Health statistics also showed that very few PhDs in the US were funded out of pocket, with at least 96% of PhDs receiving full funding [2].
One aspect of neuroscience education cost that varies quite widely by country is the amount of money required for tuition. Based on a search of program websites, in the US, tuition can range from USD 30,000-80,000 for the duration of the program, depending on how the university charges its students and the number of full time semesters required. In Germany, on the other hand, tuition from the university's side can be as low as 200-300 euros per semester, and the bulk of the cost of a PhD is for the stipend/salary that pays living expenses and supports the student during the training period.
Comparing for example Germany and the US, the cost for the principle investigator is quite different because US tuition is two orders of magnitude higher! One might expect this to have a corresponding impact on the number of PhD students in the two countries, perhaps with fewer being accepted in the US where they are relatively more expensive. If anything, the trend is reversed. According to a 2011 article in Nature magazine, the number of PhDs in the US increased by 2.5% from 1998 to 2006, while the number of doctoral graduates in Germany remained virtually the same [3]. As neuroscience funding gets more and more competitive in both Europe and the US, while the numbers of scientists entering the pipeline increases, one wonders what the future will hold for the cost of a neuroscience PhD [4].

[1] Alberts et al., PNAS, 2014
[2] http://1.usa.gov/1MrTiHP

[3] Cyranoski et al., Nature, 2011
[4] Joels et al., Neuron, 2015

by Lauren Elizabeth Mamer, PhD Student AG Rosenmund
this article originally appeared 2015 in CNS Volume 8, Issue 4, Money on My Mind.