Applied Research Or Cheap Labor?

from the just-wondering... dept

The Globe and Mail is running an article about how Canadian colleges are increasingly offering "applied research" opportunities, that get students involved with industry to try to take on certain issues. The benefits seem pretty clear. The students get some real world experience in tackling very real problems. The firms involved get the insight of some (hopefully) intelligent students who may have a unique perspective on how to solve certain problems. In many cases, the local community can benefit too, depending on the problem solved (the article talks about alternative energy sources, for example). However, there's still something about the article that makes it sound like this is just a way for companies to get cheap labor out of students for their own benefit. Maybe that's fine, given the circumstances (cheap labor in exchange for a good learning experience), but it seems like some people might find it questionable.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Just Me, 27 Sep 2005 @ 10:51am

    Since when

    is this newsworthy? Internships have been a part of high school and college life for decades.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Rikko, 27 Sep 2005 @ 10:53am

    Nothing wrong here

    If a student objects to being "exploited", they are free to not participate, simple as that.

    Given the horrible time I had finding work after I graduated, I have little sympathy for people who are "above that sort of thing" and expect that their degree or their grades really gets them anywhere.

    Companies don't want fresh graduated - a Bachelor's degree is too vague and too easy to make you of immediate use. If I were a HR manager and needed a junior employee, I would always pick the one that spent a few terms in a business environment and already knew the political basics, if not the technical basics.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    Mike (profile), 27 Sep 2005 @ 11:06am

    Re: Since when

    It's not quite internships that they're talking about. These are situations where they're taking a company's specific issues directly into the classroom.

    I don't think it's a problem, personally, but I could see how some would.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Mike, 27 Sep 2005 @ 11:50am

    Cheap Labor


    Having worked with "Interns" or other sources of "free" labor, they ain't always free.
    An intern will typically consume 10% of my time each week and I do not realize a return of any kind. My interns are usually app developers and the amount of time I need to explain how to do something usually exceeds what it would have taken me to do it myself.
    It is good for company branding and usually about one in five I wind up hiring after they graduate. And one in five I recommend they find a new profession that doesn't involve code.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    dorpus, 27 Sep 2005 @ 12:25pm

    Re: Cheap Labor

    So in other words, 3 out of 5 interns spread the word that you are a mediocre employer, and 1 out of 5 spreads the word that you really suck. ;-)

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.