The first American academics fleeing Donald Trump’s America for France have arrived.
Aix-Marseille University last week introduced eight U.S.-based researchers who were in the final stage of joining the institution’s “Safe Place for Science" program, which aims to woo researchers who have experienced or fear funding cuts under the Trump administration. AMU offers the promise of a brighter future in the sun-drenched Mediterranean port city.
While both France and the European Union have launched multimillion-euro plans to woo researchers across the pond since Trump assumed the U.S. presidency in January, AMU’s initiative was the first of its kind in the country — meaning the eight researchers who were welcomed are the first academic refugees planning to trade the United States for France.
While that is true, academic wages are still laughably low in Europe, even compared to wages here.
You can earn more after 5 years in the industry than as a full professor in academia. We should pay academics more.
It was one of the reasons I left academia. I doubled my pay within two years.