For a generation, not all doctoral grads in Australia have found academic employment, creating a “PhD crisis discourse” in universities here.
Li’An Chen and colleagues track discussions on employability in a new paper, based on 41 sources*
“Positive stories about the PhD are not common in the Australian news media, and the ‘chatter’ in social media groups containing or pertaining to doctoral study is filled with ‘doom and gloom’ predictions and stories of mental health issues,” they write, finding:
- ”there is clearly much more work to do to gauge how satisfied research degree graduates are with their training and career preparation”
- employer dissatisfaction with the employability of PhDs is the most common reason to change doctoral education, but based on the review “it was hard to see sufficient scholarly evidence” of a problem
- “academics tend to put an emphasis on the moral incentives of the doctorate, namely the quality of research being produced and the contribution to academia as a profession.”
Ms Chen and colleagues also found 15 problems for PhD students identified in sources, grouped in concerns around, candidate need, issues in doctoral training and assumptions about job markets.
However, while “the literature we examined suggested that doctoral graduates tend to have positive employment outcomes outside academia,” “the perception by candidates that not becoming an academic is a failure was also pervasive.”
They call for government and industry employers to engage with doctoral training.
“While we accept the fact that scholars can exert little influence on financial expenditure, we call for a deepened dialogue between universities, employers, and the government on these critical issues.”
* Li’An Chen, Inger Mewburn & Hanna Suominen (all ANU), “Australian doctoral employability: a systematic review of challenges and opportunities,” Higher Education Research & Development (August 4) HERE
