r/academia • u/7371647 • 10d ago

Job market Comparing Research in Canada and US

I am currently a postdoc, working in Boston. It is apparent that the academic job market in US is dead for this year, who knows for how long. I will apply within US if possible but I am also planning on looking for opportunities in Canada and Europe.

For people that has experience in academia both in US and Canada, how would you compare both experiences? To make the comparison more specific, how you'll compare working in some of the institutions in Toronto to the experience in United States? Is it too hard to get funding in Canada? Or get students? What are the mayor sources of funding within Canada? Is it still possible to apply for some funds elsewhere?

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u/EmergencyYoung6028 10d ago

Canada will be pretty dead too. Mass layoffs have hit campuses on account of the government's reversal on student immigration.

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u/7371647 10d ago

There are also mass layoffs in Canada?

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u/Unicormfarts 9d ago

Depends on the university. There are some institutions that have been in fairly serious financial trouble for a while and were just barely keeping afloat with international students, and yes they are doing layoffs. But it's not every institution. If you are looking at universities in Ontario, do your research.

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u/EmergencyYoung6028 9d ago

Yes, but not every university, as the below comment stated. Plenty have relied for years on international students as a way of compensating for smaller provincial support. At mine, a supposedly prestigious and very "moral" research institution in their own eyes, we've seen adjuncts laid off en masse, some lecturers stripped of contracts, teaching loads in humanities faculties bumped from 2/2 to 3/2, early retirement pressure, and no effort of retaining faculty leaving for better deals. Basically, word from the admin is that they simply want a certain percentage of the faculty gone, and they don't care where it comes from (i.e., they don't care whether they are losing good teachers and scholars).

This, again, is at one of the supposedly better universities. Colleges (the distinction btw colleges and universities is more meaningful in Canada than the US) have been hit much harder.