Evaluation of doctoral studies by Polish PhD graduates 5 years after receiving degree

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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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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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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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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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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

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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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

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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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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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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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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[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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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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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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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 17

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Human sciences Social Sciences Natural sciences Technical

Sciences

Health Sciences Hard Sciences

1st Women

1st Men

5th Women

5th Men

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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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Thank you for your attention

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