I am a Master's student in Data Science in a great school in Russia (Skoltech). Started it to switch to ML research after 9 years in the industry as a software engineer and so far did not regret it one second. Weighing my options for a future PhD. Geography does not really matter. It might easier for me to do it in Russia or in the UK since I lived in both countries, but I am open to all opportunities. What are the places/programs with decent PhD stipends to live comfortably?
Here is what I know of:
- In the UK, Meta offers collabs with UCL and Oxford (see AI Research Assistant on their website). AFAIK, they offer IC3 level comp for the role - 60-70k (ish) GBP. It is more than 3x of the regular PhD stipend in London (~20k GBP) and above median salary in the city; - Same Meta collab in France (do not know the name of the school); - In Russia it might be possible (but not trivial) to find a scientific advisor from the industrial lab (AIRI, Yandex Research, etc.);
What else?
I would enjoy doing research after graduation, but if we take London, to be honest, I am not ready to survive on 20k there (a typical PhD stipend). When I was there last year, my en-suite room in a good place was ~1450GBP after bills. Which means that the entire stipend would go towards rent. I could take a hit financially and burn my savings or rent in a much more modest place for a year or so, but not so sure about committing to it for 3-4 years.
It's enough to live a relatively comfortable life, but as mentioned by the sibling comment you could get much more in the private sector.