PhD students told to consider selling Avon products to make ends meet

‘While they’re called students, they’re producing vital research which in many cases has a direct and meaningful effect on wider society.’ Photograph: Image Source/Alamy

Postgraduates chosen for their “excellent potential” to become future leaders in environmental science and sustainable business should consider selling Avon products, pet-sitting and joining clinical trials to cope with the cost of living crisis.

The advice – issued on Wednesday by the prestigious Aries Doctoral Training Partnership funded by the Natural Environment Research Council at the University of East Anglia – provoked outrage among researchers who described the letter as “appalling”, “ridiculous” and “unbelievable”.