The problem with country-based stipends

[Rostyslav Zatserkovnyi]

As some of you may have noticed, this year's student stipends are calculated based on each student's individual location - the base stipend is set to $6000 for the US and is then modified, with the stipend amounts being clamped at $2400 on the lower and and $6600 on the higher. While there's been a fair share of complaints (in the Facebook group and elsewhere) about the idea of country-based stipends, I think that it's fundamentally good: a flat rate makes the stipend equivalent to a mid-level software development job in some countries and doesn't even pay for rent in others. The PPP modifiers are also fine; they appear to be based on a proper cost of living index and sound about right.

The baseline stipend amount ($6000) is indeed the problem - it is just low. Stipends in most, if not all, countries are now much lower compared to an average, non-competitive, entry-level software engineering job. In Ukraine, where salaries are as low as they get, a $2400/4=$600/month salary is still lower than the ~$800 median for a generic entry-level job. EU stipends (even for countries where the stipend's increased from last year's) are still 2-4 times less than the respective average salaries, and the US baseline ($6000/(4*4*40)=~$9/hour) is still close to minimum wage. And it's not like there's no room to straight up increase the baseline: a quick Google Sheets-based calculation suggests that (assuming the same country/student distribution as GSoC 2016) every stipend could theoretically be increased by 43% and the total budget would still match last year's.

The reason this is a problem is because the point of a GSoC stipend is to "allow students to focus on their development work rather than getting a job unrelated to their academic pursuits" - and the program is structured accordingly, demanding a 40-hour workweek and a fairly competitive selection process. However, if the stipend is not as competitive as what a student might get over the course of a mediocre programming/"coding" internship, it becomes irrelevant: the only motivation left for a student to apply is because they're so enthusiastic about open-source that they're willing to go through a low-paid open-source internship. (Or because they don't have any other options, I guess.) While this was previously the case in developed countries, it's now the case everywhere.

[Ashutosh Maurya]

Yes. I agree. For example in India, until last year the stipend was 5500 USD equivalent to 3.7 Lac Rupees which was a very heavy amount.No 3 month Internship could pay you this much. Now , it's 2400 USD that is, lesser than half. It's still a good amount, but don't know this is enough for putting a 40 Hour a week effort.This might be just enough to cover up all expenses , but surely it's not that much of a motivation in India now.Point to note is that in 2016, the largest pool of students (450+) working was from India.

[Chathula Sampath]

this time sri lanka also can get $2400 as i heared ! is it fare?

On Monday, January 23, 2017 at 7:02:11 AM UTC+5:30, Rostyslav Zatserkovnyi wrote: