THEY reckon producing a PhD is like having a baby - painful and protracted, though nine months of pregnancy is mercifully briefer than a three-year doctorate. Doing both at the same time, though, has seemed impossible to many women, so the University of NSW has introduced a scholarship for pregnant PhD candidates.

It will cover the six months psychologist Kate Hetherington, the first recipient, plans to take off from her research on the role of rumination in depression to care for her baby Ava, now 10 weeks.

Cover … Kate Hetherington and baby Ava. Credit:Janie Barrett

The $11,000 or so she will receive not only eases financial pressure, but ''makes me feel much more supported by the uni. I feel like having a baby during this process is not seen as a bad career move'', Ms Hetherington said.

The nation's chief scientist, Ian Chubb, has warned that productivity is at risk from a drop in the proportion of students doing physics, chemistry, biology and maths at school and university in the past two decades.