February 2010:
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More than half of UK PhD students quit
academia for industry as soon as they get their qualifications,
according to the first-ever detailed report on the early
careers of those with doctorates. While the report will
quash fears that PhD students are so specialised as to
be unemployable, it will raise concerns about the future
supply of academics.
The report, What Do PhDs Do?, from the
UK GRAD programme,
found that about 60 per cent of UK PhDs in physical, engineering
and biomedical sciences leave academia, compared with
about 30 to 35 per cent of arts, humanities, social science
and economic PhDs. The report says that over time these
proportions increase as, for example, PhDs on short-term
postdoctoral positions move into other employment sectors.
Report author Ellen Pearce said: "The figures will
raise serious issues about how universities retain PhD
students and sustain the teaching base of UK universities."
The report, which analyses what UK rather
than overseas PhD students do, found the students to be
highly employable. Nearly three-quarters got jobs - in
or outside academia - six months after graduating. This
compared with 69 per cent of masters students and 61 per
cent of undergraduates. UK PhDs are about 50 per cent
less likely to be unemployed (3.2 per cent) than first-degree
graduates (6.6 per cent).
"It is hard to say whether this
is brain drain or brain circulation," Ms Pearce
said.
The report also found that the percentage
of female PhD graduates had increased from 40 per cent
in 1999 to 46 per cent in 2003. In all, 12,520 research
students were awarded PhDs in 2003. Between 1999 and 2003,
there was a 31 per cent rise in the number of PhD students
registering for their final year.
"We interviewed employers from
different sectors and found them to be highly enthusiastic
about PhD students," said Ms Pearce. "Their
response puts all the emphasis on transferable skills
into perspective. It is clear that PhD students have
a high value in the market."
Stephen Court, senior research officer
for the Association of University Teachers, said there
had been a sharp decline in the number of young entrants
to academia coming from the UK.
"It is not surprising that a
high proportion of people with PhDs do not choose a
career in higher education," he said. "Universities
are finding that the prospect of fixed-term contracts
and the low pay they offer are extremely unattractive
to potential academics."
In 2002, Sir Gareth Roberts' report
SET for Success put in motion a major programme of transferable
skills training for PhD students.
Morgan Kavanagh, a director at recruitment
consultants Huxley Finance, said: "We recruit for
clients who require high-level quantative skills, so we
look only at PhDs - first-degree graduates simply can't
compete.
"PhDs are much more sophisticated
in their thinking and have a broader toolkit of skills
to draw on in the demanding roles we place them in."
The general manager in a private engineering
firm said: "We've found that PhD graduates have a
combination of maturity and autonomy that is more useful
for our work than engineering graduates with a similar
length of experience in industry."
Jocelyn Prudence, chief executive of
the Universities Colleges and Employers Association, said:
"Higher education recognises that recruitment and
retention of academics is a vital area and for that reason
the framework agreement on pay modernisation addresses
work-life balance, career development and renumeration.
These have been shown to be the most important issues
people consider when making decisions about their working
life. The framework will deliver on all three. Real progress
is already being made to offer postgraduates an academic
career that is both attractive and fulfilling."
The UK GRAD report shows that 38 per
cent of PhDs are in the biosciences, 33 per cent in the
physical sciences (including engineering), 14 per cent
in the arts and humanities, and 11 per cent in the social
sciences. Some 4 per cent of PhDs were doing theses in
other areas such as education.
Taken from the Times
Higher Education Supplement
Claire Sanders
Published: 08 October 2004
