With some notable exceptions, academia has historically been a field occupied by those lucky enough to be born into wealth. Reserved for the rich and privileged, by design.

Over time, education has become more accessible to the general population resulting in more people from diverse backgrounds joining academia. This has been the case with me too. I was born a few years before Croatia, the country of my birth, would become engulfed in a war that ravaged the Balkans for the better part of the decade. While my family was lucky to live on an island, sheltered from war, it also meant that my parents lost their jobs and had no means to support their family. During my entire childhood and young adult life my family was indebted and struggling to make ends meet. Even so, I was blissfully unaware we were poor. It was my normal and while we did not have much, I never felt underprivileged or disadvantaged. My parents were supportive, and I’ve always been interested in school and fascinated by science and exploration. Although I knew nothing of how academia works, I knew I liked it and I was thinking about it, a lot. To complicate things more, nobody in my family had ever gone to university. So I had to figure out how to get to where I wanted on my own. Yet, wanting it and achieving it from our financial position was not always easily reconcilable. As we lived in a remote island village, I’ve been bussed to another village for school since grade 4 and at 14 had to move away to attend high school. This meant more financial strain on my family. Thus, since we were teenagers, during every school vacation my sister and I worked in my parents’ restaurant to help financially. This also meant that an internship during this time was out of the question. In fact, I could not have considered any unpaid internship or position at any other time either, as I had to focus on my studies. This is a major reason why my first ever publication was my PhD research paper.

Still, nowadays students are expected to have internships, a “pre-doc”, and sometimes a publication under their belt before even starting a PhD. But how much is this a measurement of someone’s success and how much is it a measurement of their access to resources and privilege? Of course, regardless of access, you have to work hard, be clever, ambitious, and driven to succeed. I would hate to take away from someone’s accomplishments. Still, it is concerning that these criteria will eliminate countless talented and brilliant young minds because they could not match these accomplishments. Without academic parents, and no access to internships and top-notch labs, their CVs will never be comparable to the ones who have it all. Ironically, this will not only harm the underprivileged candidates, but the research as a whole. It will de-diversify the fields and likely eliminate some people with exceptional potential. Academia is already a hostile place to the ones with less deep pockets. The job insecurity, low pay, and general life instability that comes with having to move often, are not compatible with underprivileged backgrounds. Now on top of it, we are trying to gatekeep these candidates even before they set foot in academia. To whom is this beneficial? Who stands to gain? Short-term it is clear that the path will be cleared for the more financially and academically padded candidates, but long-term we all lose. Academia loses the bright minds, their ideas, wits, and input. Other scientists lose potential groundbreaking collaborations and insightful colleagues. The deterred candidates lose their dreams of doing science.

Looking back, I can clearly see how much of a leg-up people with better finances and academic parents had. How unprepared I was and how little I knew how to set myself up for success. Not because I was less than, but because I had less access and less know-how. I struggled, a lot. I did not know which services were available to me, what were my rights, or what I should have been helped with. I tried to do it all on my own because I thought I had to. Nobody ever told me otherwise, because I did not have a support system that knew academia, or that could help me financially. I also had some luck because I did not have to have a paper to be accepted into a PhD.  I also had the luck to have great scientist friends and colleagues who sometimes suffered with me, but often helped me through my obstacles. I was also lucky to finish a PhD at a world-renowned institute. I accomplished many things since, although I still struggle. I also feel that I could have done so much more had I been able, or known how, to access resources and help. But just because I (and many, many others in academia) struggled, I hope, collectively, we can make it better for the new generation of scientists.

I am not claiming to have the solution, but we should be more aware that, as my mom says, “paper puts up with anything”. In other words, not everything that is written down should be taken at face value. There is a person and their story behind every (early career) CV, and the accomplishment section is heavily related to it. I would suggest that we look at early career success less as an objective measurement and more through the prism of inequity and access.

Photo by Noémi Macavei-Katócz on Unsplash