New efforts to broaden PhD training are “fantastic” but Australian medical industry needs capitalisation

Fabienne Mackay says the medical industry hasn’t
been supported enough.
Picture: Aaron FrancisSource: News Corp Australia

The Australian published an article (18/2/2015) quoting Professors Stephen Jane and Fabienne Mackay on medical research PhD training and post PhD opportunities. Link. Excerpts quoted below.

"Monash University’s Central Clinical School head, Stephen Jane, said the new PhD ... included content on intellectual property, designing clinical trials and statistics. He said the PhD would arm students with 'a skill set commensurate with a far broader range of career options but also emphasise the necessity to engage with industry'.

"...for leading medical researcher Fabienne Mackay, head of the department of immunology at Monash University, the real problem is that Australia’s medical industry hasn’t been supported enough to grow to the scale the country needs to capitalise on its strong medical research. She said the US was also facing an oversupply of medical researchers but, unlike Australia, there was a big medical industry to soak them up.

“'The real problem does not come from universities who develop links with national and international industry partners to create opportunities for their students and the workforce. The problem is the choice made by leaders of this nation who have neglected efforts to diversify our economy and never made the choice to exploit homegrown talents to build a decent homegrown medical industry,' she said."