Tracking destinations ‘most powerful tool’ for doctoral careers

Universities easily forget the PhDs who fly far from the academic nest, but keeping tabs on them would help supervisors prepare their future charges for work in the wider world, experts have said.

While the share of people with doctorates in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development group of rich countries grew by 23 per cent from 2016 to 2021, the number of permanent positions available has not kept pace.

Those who miss out must find work elsewhere, but little is known of what they do, said Carthage Smith, a senior policy analyst at the OECD.

“We haven’t systematic data on where they go,” he said. “This whole issue of lack of data and lack of publicity of the data is critical and cuts across everything – whether it’s about developing the policies, comparing across countries or individual choice.”

The University of Lausanne’s Verity Elston, who led a recent OECD report into doctoral careers, said two research assistants at Lausanne spent the best part of a year using Google to track down as many doctoral graduates as possible from between 2007 and 2017.

The resulting database allowed the university to finally give doctoral students a realistic picture of their prospects. “Perhaps the most powerful tool we have is the ability to put people into contact and publish portraits of people in all kinds of careers, including professorships,” she said.

“They see that people doing other things are really satisfied in what they do, that they are successful, that they’re not unemployed, that they haven’t gone to the dark side. That they’re still doing valuable things for society.”

Part of the reason for the data gap was the lingering assumption, particularly among some self-regarding supervisors, that their progeny would surely follow the academic calling, but a growing number were taking an interest in those who did not, Dr Elston said.

Comprehensive doctoral destination data could convince supervisors and centres to broaden and enrich training “to reimagine what doctoral training is about”, she added, and help universities build better links with potential employers of PhDs. “We can increase affiliation so we can better inform our PhDs. That’s a cyclical process.”

She said the OECD report suggested an oversupply of PhDs should still be seen as a net benefit for wider societies and, rather than capping the PhDs an institution could produce, academics should learn to admire other vocations.

“If you come from an environment where every other choice is plan B, then you’re going to reproduce that same thinking, and that’s what you’re going to transmit to your team,” Dr Elston said.

ben.upton@timeshighereducation.com