Study on carrier paths and experience from PhD studies - interviews with Polish PhD graduates 5 years after receiving degree

1. Evaluation of doctoral studies by Polish PhD
graduates 5 years after receiving degree
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2. Quantitative survey conducted in Fall 2014.
 800 graduates were interviewed: 418 women and 382 men (out
of 5000 persons who received PhD degree in 2009) working in
different types of institutions and in different parts of the
country.
 The survey covered the following fields: humanities, social
sciences, natural sciences, medical and health sciences,
technology and agricultural sciences. This field classification
follows the guidelines for research statistics suggested by
UNESCO (1978).
 The population for our study was drawn from data possessed by
OPI (National Information Processing Institute).
Qualitative study conducted March-June 2014
 33 individual in-depth interviews were conducted with PhD
graduates representing social sciences, humanities, hard and
technical sciences, as well as medical sciences, who had earned
their Ph.D. degree in 2009
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3.  QUANT: 48% of female and 56% of male respondents started to work on
their PhD immediately after earning MA. The rest mostly worked at
universities or research institutes (23% of women and 18% of men) or
outside the academic word (19% of women and 17% of men).
 To some extent, motivations to engage in work on the doctoral thesis
are diversified by gender. The motivations indicated by men seem to be
somewhat more instrumental (willingness to increase the probability of
getting a good job) in comparison with women. Only female respondents
assessed their academic careers from the perspective of the ability to
reconcile between their family and work duties.
 The interviewees’ motivations were not differentiated by the field of
science, but by their life experiences:
◦ scientific passion and interests, the need of independence and autonomy, the lack of
ideas for professional career outside academia – when moving immediately from MA
to PhD
◦ longing for intellectual challenges, willing to strengthen one’s value on the labor
market – when working outside the academic community after MA
 Contextual factors
◦ the labor market situation (e.g. the level of unemployment)
◦ social prestige ascribed to higher education (devaluation of master’s degree)
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4.  QUANT: A decisive majority of respondents declared having
obtained some funds for their doctoral dissertation. Most often,
these were provided by the institution, in which they defended their
dissertation (47% of women and men) and grants awarded by public
institutions (20% of women and 21% of men).
◦ Less frequently, the respondents listed funds from: other universities, research
institutes from outside the academic world, international research projects,
private and public enterprises.
 Our respondents’ dissertations projects were financed from the
public funds: most often in the case of life sciences and – less
frequently – in technical and hard sciences.
 QUAL: Many indicated the lack of information on the contests,
insufficient own research achievements, lack of encouragement from
the promoter and the colleagues. Several of the female interviewees
did not apply for grants, because they believed their achievements
were insufficient, and their ideas were not good enough.
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5.  QUANT: 63% of female respondents and 57% of males admitted that they
have never applied for any national stipends while working on their Ph.D.
dissertation. 22% women and 24% men applied successfully at least once.
 Women were visibly less eager than men to apply for national scholarships
in both medical sciences, in which they are dominant, and hard sciences.
 80% of respondents, both female and male, never applied for foreign
scholarships. Only 9.8% of women and 9.4% of men declared they applied
successfully.
 There is a positive correlation between applying for foreign scholarships
and earning a PhD in medical and social sciences, as well as studying in the
university from the first quintile with regard to prestige. On the other hand,
gender of the supervisor or gender of the doctoral student did not play a
significant role.
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6.  QUANT: more than 70% of our female and male respondents have never
received any fellowship to do a research abroad.
◦ Those, who received such fellowships, mostly pointed out that they stayed in Germany,
France, UK and other old EU member states. Only 7.6% of female respondents and 9.6% of
male respondents indicated the research fellowships in USA or Canada.
 More than a half of the respondents, especially men, stayed abroad
only for a relatively short period of time – three months or less.
 Slightly more than a half of surveyed female and male PhD graduates
indicated that they had another experiences abroad: conferences,
summer schools, seminars and workshops.
 QUAL: Main reasons for not going abroad:
◦ lack of knowledge of how and where to apply;
◦ lack of awareness that fellowships are important in building academic career;
◦ lack of support from the supervisor, no examples among peers;
◦ teaching obligations or commitments related to research projects, family commitments.
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7. 7

8. 71%
87%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
0,5 1 1,5 2 3 3,5 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 15 16 18 20 23 24 27 30 33 36
Men without children
Men with children
Length of research stay abroad of male respondents with
and without children (cumulated %)
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9. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
0,5 1 1,5 2 3 3,5 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 15 16 18 20 23 24 27 30 33 36
Women without children
Women with children
Length of research stay abroad of female respondents
with and without children (cumulated %)
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10. 10
Family obligations are obstacles in professional work (%)
26,6
18,9
51,2
15,8 18,6
63,5
Yes Difficult to say No
Wonem N=418 Men N=382
• Women are more often in partnership relationships and divorced
• Men are more often married
• Women more often do not have children (35%) than men (31%)
• Men have more often 2 or more children (43%) than women (37%)
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11. Support of supervisor when working on Ph. D dissertation (in %)
11,4 14,6
74,1
7,5 10,2
82,3
Not received Difficult to say Received
Wonem N=418 Men N=382
Source: “Ph.D. graduates 5 years after receiving the degree” (2014) dataset
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12. QUAL:
 Support offered by the supervisor is a significant factor that
determines the course of career of female and male
graduates, not only in terms of work on their doctoral
thesis, but also gathering of professional experience within
the framework of research projects, applying for grants and
possibilities of participating in trips abroad.
 About one third of all respondents (11 persons – 6 men and
5 women) pointed to the key significance of the network of
contacts and the scientific position of their supervisor in the
context of the possibility of getting a regular or casual job
in the field of science.
 Decisive majority of promoters, who got their doctoral
students involved in large national or international research
projects were men.
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13. People Women Men
N % N %
Ph.D. supervisor 170 40.6 188 49.7
Colleagues from your academic
institution
63 14.9 63 16.8
Professors from other academic
institutions
24 5.8 17 4.4
Spouse/partner 12 2.9 14 3.6
Other family members 17 4.1 11 2.9
Friends 24 5.8 11 2.9
Other people 19 4.5 9 2.5
To what degree different people helped you in finding your actual job?
Respondents’ declarations by gender (categories: „to a large degree” + „to
a very large degree”)
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14. [1] AIC: 6855.02
Est Sig
(Intercept) 47.955 ***
Promoter’s gender - men -5.423
Graduate’s gender - men 7.063 *
Social sciences 16.800 **
Life sciences 9.309 .
Technical sciences 18.269 **
Medical sciences -12.557 *
Exact sciences 15.687 **
Science and quintile -3.937
Prestige and quintile 1.192
Father’s education University 2.030
Mother’s education University 6.718 .
[1] Significance codes: 0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.
Dependent variable: „Supervisor’s assistance in obtaining the
present job”
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15. Main place of work Women Men
N % N %
Institution in which respondent
received Ph.D
301 71.9 267 70.4
Other institution in Poland 117 27.9 111 29.4
Other institution abroad 1 0.2 1 0.2
Total 418 100.0 379 100.0
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16. Career plans of PhD holders by commencement of
their doctoral training period, by type of workplace –
in percentages. Universities, Research institutions (first
choice)
Women N % Men N %
Academic career in the same
university or in other higher
education institution
287 68.6 250 65.6
Scientific/research career not in
higher education institution
49 11.8 47 12.3
Nonacademic career in public
sector
38 9.1 31 8.1
Nonacademic career in private
sector
11 2.6 21 5.4
Different 1 0.3 2 0.6
I did not have specific precised
plans
32 7.6 30 8.0
Total 418 100.0 382 100.0
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17. Competences acquired while working on the
doctoral thesis
Correlation
index
Competences acquired while working on
the doctoral thesis, used in the current job
Theoretical knowledge .435 Theoretical knowledge
Methodological knowledge .424 Methodological knowledge
Management of research projects .551 Management of research projects
Scientific research planning .498 Scientific research planning
Ability to cope with complex problems .579 Ability to cope with complex problems
Synthetic and analytical thinking skills .532 Synthetic and analytical thinking skills
Ability to present results of scientific work .517 Ability to present results of scientific work
Experience in working in a research team .675 Experience in working in a research team
Experience in interdisciplinary cooperation .665 Experience in interdisciplinary cooperation
Experience in cooperation with private sector
entrepreneurs
.642 Experience in cooperation with private sector
entrepreneurs
Experience in cooperation with public sector
companies
.623 Experience in cooperation with public sector
companies
Contacts with persons dealing with my field of
science in Poland
.605 Contacts with persons dealing with my field of
science in Poland
Contacts with persons dealing with my field of
science abroad
.636 Contacts with persons dealing with my field of
science abroad
Significance level .0000
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18. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Human sciences Social Sciences Natural sciences Technical
Sciences
Health Sciences Hard Sciences
1st Women
1st Men
5th Women
5th Men
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19. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Human sciences Social Sciences Natural sciences Technical
Sciences
Health Sciences Hard Sciences
1st Women
1st Men
5th Women
5th Men
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20. Thank you for your attention
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