PhD student Maxim makes $18 an hour to research children’s cancer – it’s barely above Australia’s poverty line

Maxim Buckley is researching acute lymphoblastic leukaemia at the University of Adelaide and says people are shocked when they learn how little PhD student researchers are paid. Photograph: Supplied

Maxim Buckley studies how leukaemia cells communicate with each other. It’s critical research but as a PhD student he’s paid just $18.50 an hour, a rate that’s just above the poverty line.

The 29-year-old is in his final months of research at University of Adelaide on acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, which predominantly affects children, research that will help future treatments of the cancer.