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I saw this question:

Why not outsource the research projects to phd students?

It's so badly formulated that it generated a series of comments and answers that have no real connection with each other. It's closed for the moment, but I think beneath the large confusions in which OP is about what is research and what is a PhD, there is an interesting question. Maybe the title could be changed to something like:

  • What are the socio-economic reasons for PhD students to receive monetary compensation?
  • Why is awarding a PhD title not enough to compensate for a graduate student's work?

While I believe I know very well the answer to these, it might be a question worth exploring. Should we try to improve it, and if yes, how?

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    I wouldn't try to salvage that much controversial and badly received question. But that may be only me.
    – yo'
    Oct 5, 2015 at 14:26
  • Note that if nothing further happens, the question will not be deleted, as it has positively scoring answers. The only restriction that closing implies is that no new answers can be added.
    – Wrzlprmft Mod
    Oct 6, 2015 at 8:07
  • @Wrzlprmft You mean that it will not be automatically deleted. Once it is closed, it can be deleted by user vote.
    – ff524
    Oct 7, 2015 at 3:27

1 Answer 1

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The question is clearly not asking

What are the socio-economic reasons for PhD students to receive monetary compensation?

or

Why is awarding a PhD title not enough to compensate for a graduate student's work?

although those are interesting side issues that were raised in the comments. This seems very clear to me, as the OP does not seem to even consider the possibility that a institution might pay a PhD student - he/she refers to PhD students as being "free" to the institution. So those suggested titles are clearly inappropriate, as they would conflict with the OP's intent.

However, I do think the question can be salvaged by editing it to make the OP's intent clear. In this case, I edited the title to

What incentive does an institution have to hire expensive research staff instead of having PhD students fill all those roles?

Which seems to be what the OP was trying to ask, and is also consistent with the existing answers.

Now that the question is no longer unclear, I shall reopen it.

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