I think anyone who is studying could be considered a student, regardless of whether they attend lectures or follow a syllabus. Therefore I would regard anyone reading for a PhD as a student. A graduate student, but still very much in a learning role. While I think its unfair that the general public have negative attitudes about students, its probably not useful to get wound up about it. Yes, you are PhD student now, and you do rank low but that's not forever.

I reckon a huge amount of anguish comes from our own egos about PhD students' place in the pecking order and it can backfire horribly. I remember attending a conference where a PhD student had written something like Jane Smith (BA, PhDCand) on the opening slide of her presentation like it was a degree in its own right and everyone just laughed at her for being pretentious and insecure for the rest of the conference.

Whether we accept it or not, the academic community is really hierarchical with precise terms for every rank and it probably doesn't go down well if there is any perception of people trying to pass as something else. An RA is a very specific role, as is a lecturer, professor or associate. If an RA was to call themselves as a lecturer because in the past they have delivered a lecture or two would not do anything positive for their career or standing with their peers. Sadly I think its very 18th Century in its attitude and any whiff of not knowing your place is enough to cause problems. On the other side, I have seen PhD students have similar attitudes towards undergrads or people below them in the pecking order and I think this comic strip sums it up quite well

http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd041206s.gif

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I see your point Badhaircut. TBH I'm quite content to be called a student WITHIN academia (although having previously been an RA, I now have far more skills and knowledge than when I was a staff member, though I do spend a greater proportion of my time learning stuff).

But it's outside of academia I steer away from the 'student' tag. Not least because, having pursued two different fields, I've spent best part of a decade under the student label, but I do not want that interpreted as a decade of going to the odd lecture and watching daytime TV, as that is very far from the truth.

If non academic people ask what I do, I say 'I work in research' or 'I'm a scientist' depending on the context. I don't think that is misleading. At the end of the day, I have a desk in an office which I work at full time at least five days a week, with colleagues and collaborators. I'm happy for those colleagues to regard me as a student (as long as they don't interpret that as 'idiot' or 'lackey' though.)

I also find it a bit odd that we are called 'students' because we are still learning stuff. I don't anticipate that my need to learn will stop if I start my first post doc, or lectureship. The intensity may be different, but a sustained career in academic requires continual learning and training, surely?

Perhaps 'Apprentice researcher' would be a better title! :)