Destinations of Edinburgh University PhD Graduates
Analysis of data from 3 consecutive years from 2009 – 2011
All UK universities carry out a survey of their graduates six months after graduation.
Over the 3 year period from 2009 – 2011 destination data was returned by 520 Edinburgh
graduates across all 3 Colleges who were in employment at the time of the survey.
Employment destinations of PhD graduates from 2009 - 2011 by College are shown in the
graph above. ‘University-other’ includes other job roles at the university, excluding teaching
and research, e.g. computer manager and university administrator. ‘Non-university
researcher’ includes researchers employed in commercial, public and voluntary sector.
‘Other’ includes all job roles not included in the other categories.
Of those in employment:
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35% Humanities and Social Sciences graduates were employed in university teaching,
compared to 4% for the Colleges of Science and Engineering, and 10% for Medicine
and Veterinary Medicine (many of whom were clinical lecturers)
Those employed in university teaching were working either as lecturers, teaching
fellows or tutors, many on a casual or temporary contract.
46% of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, 43% of Science and Engineering, and only
26% Humanities and Social Sciences graduates were working as researchers within a
university.
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18% Science and Engineering and 11% Medicine and Veterinary Medicine graduates
were working in research jobs outside universities compared to only 3% Humanities
and Social Sciences graduates.
The % of PhD graduates in ‘other’ roles, working outside universities in a nonresearch role, was similar across all 3 Colleges at around 30%.
Who else employs researchers?
Some of the non-university employers who have recruited our PhD graduates into research
positions over the last few years are shown below:
In the humanities and social sciences:
Scottish Parliament
Department for Work and Pensions
Icelandic Centre for Ethnology and Folklore
In the sciences:
Scripps Research Institute
Max Planck Institute
Fine Organics
Dicerna Pharmaceuticals
European Space Organisation
Johnson Matthey
TPP Global Development
What else have PhD graduates gone on to do?
Many of our PhD graduates choose not to continue with an academic or research career.
Some of the other options they have chosen are shown below.
In the sciences:
The jobs
Analytics Manager
Science Communications Manager
Fire Engineer
Charity Officer
Trainee Health Care Scientist in
Cell Therapy
Management Consultant
Clinical Research Coordinator
Business Analyst
Medical Information
Officer
Medical Science Liason
Manager
Chartered Accountant
Mathematics Engagement
Officer
Medical Writer
Customer Support Engineer
Scientific Editor
Regional Regulatory
Affairs Officer
Geoscientist
Risk Analyst
The employers
Waters
Unilever
Royal Bank of
Scotland
Tesco Bank
Complete Medical Group
Worldwide
e-Therapeutics
GlaxoSmithKline
Novumed GmbH
Scott Logic
Scottish National Blood
Transfusion Service
Health Protection Agency
Risk Management
Solutions
Dicerna Pharmaceuticals
Fine Organics
Ministry of Defence
AkzoNobel
Royal Geographical Society
Institute of Physics
Aviagen
Arup
Deustche Bank
Wood Group
Barry and Hibbert (now
Moody’s Analytics)
Deloitte
In the humanities and social sciences:
The jobs
Academic Editor
Health Studies and Policy
Manager
Market Intelligence
Specialist
Business Development
Manager
Web Developer
Policy Analyst
Strategy Consultant
IT Support Officer
Political Consultant
Clinical Psychologist
Computational Linguist
The employers
Ministry of Defence
NUS Scotland
KPMG
Fife Council
Chalhoub Group
Kennox Asset Management
IFOK
Al Jazeera
National Museums Scotland
Anderson Strathern