A New Policy for Postdocs

As fellowships change, policy provides more uniform benefits

By Marla Vacek Broadfoot

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Durham, NC -- A new policy covering benefits for Duke postdoctoral researchers is meant to ensure the equal treatment of a population that has changed greatly over the last two decades. The policy went into effect April 1 following more than three years of discussion among administrators, faculty and postdoctoral fellows.

What was once a transient position on the way to a faculty appointment has now turned into a job that could last as many as seven years, said James Siedow, vice provost for research. Nationally, while the number of postdocs has increased, the number of tenure-track positions has declined. The result is a population of postdocs that stay in the post longer, are older and more likely to have families, he said.

While Duke has policies for graduate students and faculty, it has never had a policy that covers salary, vacation and benefits for the people in-between, Siedow said.

“Postdocs saw themselves as the forgotten people in the research enterprise,” Siedow said. For this reason members of the Duke University Postdoctoral Association (DUPA) lobbied for a uniform policy. Such postdoctoral policies have already been created by most major universities, including those that compete with Duke for postdocs, such as Stanford, Harvard, UNC and Yale.

In 2004, the Duke leadership formed a committee to devise such a policy. A whole host of issues came up during the process; the most complex being how to provide benefits to individuals who came to the university with outside funding, Siedow said.

Defining a Postdoc

One of the reasons for a new policy for postdoctoral researchers is to more clearly define the fellowship positions and researchers' responsibilities, as well as their benefits. The policy is divided into seven sections covering issues as varied as pay and vacation to eligibility for the retirement plan and a grievance process. To read the policy, click here.

Duke has approximately 800 postdocs. About 90 percent of them are paid through research grants and are called postdoctoral associates. Because these individuals are considered Duke employees, they can sign up for Duke health, dental, vision and life insurance.

But the other 10 percent, called postdoctoral scholars, receive fellowship awards from outside sources. Under the new policy, these individuals must spend their first month as an associate, paid by Duke, to become vested in the Duke system and eligible for benefits, before tapping into their external funding.

Some faculty voiced concerns about other aspects of the policy, in particular the minimum salary, which some said may be too high for the university to afford. The salary will be raised over the next three years from $32,000 in 2007 to a standard set by the NIH in 2009. This minimum stipend must be met, Siedow said, for Duke to stay competitive for postdocs.

“Several faculty members who once complained about the salary have already had a change of heart,” Siedow said. “Recently, one such member asked me if he could pay a potential postdoc more money to successfully recruit her to his lab.”

In addition to benefits and salary, the 10-page policy also states how many vacation (20) and sick (12) days can be taken each year. The parental leave policy is equivalent to the staff leave policy.

With each element of the policy, Siedow and the policy’s authors tried to protect postdocs from the potentially capricious actions of a principal investigator who may not have their best interests at heart. The policy clearly defines the minimum salary, benefits and leave to which each postdoctoral researcher is entitled, and no boss can change that.