Creating sustainable
research careers
4 November 2015
Laurence Hopkins
Head of Research
What is sustainability?
What is a research career?
Research career or research contract?
Increase in academic staff, by contract, 2009-10 to 2013-14
16.0%
90%
14.2%
80%
14.0%
80%
70%
Staff growth
60%
10.0%
% with salary over £42,500
50%
8.0%
40%
6.0%
30%
4.0%
19%
20%
2.5%
2.0%
10%
0.0%
0%
Research only
Teaching and research
% with salary over £42,500
% increase in staff
12.0%
Research career or research contract?
Temporary researcher contracts in Italy, 2004-2013
35 – average age
3500
2871
3000
6.2 – average number of
research contracts
2406
2500
10.4% have had between 13
and 30 temporary contracts
2000
1602
1 in 3 working outside HE
don’t use professional skills
acquired during PhD and
postdoc
1500
1160
1000
643
466
500
6
23
126
53% ‘can’t imagine their
professional future’
271
0
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Source: FLC CGIL
(Italian trade union for academic staff)
RTD Statali
RTD Non Statali
Totale
Research career or research contract?
Academic staff in Australia by function and contract type (%), 2012
T&R
74%
RO
25%
12%
TO
85%
9%
0%
1%
10%
10%
3%
80%
20%
30%
40%
Ongoing
50%
Fixed term
60%
70%
80%
Actual Casual
Source: AHEIA, 2014. T&R = teaching and research. RO = research only. TO = teaching only
90%
100%
Research career or research contract?
Academic staff by contract level, Germany, England and USA
100%
75%
74%
Full professor
Associate professor/senior lecturer
50%
Junior professor/lecturer/assistant professor
Assisting staff with permanent contracts
Assisting staff with temporary contracts
25%
28%
17%
0%
Germany 2009
England 2009
USA 2010
Source: http://www.gew.de/Binaries/Binary65439/WiKo10_Reinhardt_Kreckel.pdf
Research career or research contract?
Degree of satisfaction with different aspects of the current academic position per current career stage (EU27)
Source: MORE2 Higher Education Survey (2012). Based on European Framework for Research Career classification
Aspects of current academic position
R1 (PhD)
R2
(Postdoc
or equiv.)
R3
(Associate
professor
or equiv.)
R4
(Professor
or equiv.)
Average
Intellectual challenge
94
92
93
95
93
Job location
90
92
89
89
90
Level of responsibility
89
85
87
93
89
Reputation of employer
91
90
87
87
88
Degree of independence
89
78
87
92
87
Contribution to society
80
81
87
90
85
Dynamism
86
82
84
88
85
Social status
78
78
80
84
80
Job security
62
57
75
89
73
Mobility perspectives
70
65
59
66
64
Opportunities for advancement
66
55
60
67
62
Benefits
54
55
52
53
53
Salary
59
49
52
54
53
Average
77
74
76
81
77
Are we producing too many PhDs?
• European Science Foundation - The oversupply of PhD holders in
Europe is causing ‘considerable dissatisfaction and stress’ for
researchers on temporary contracts – the current situation is ‘not
sustainable’
• According to Eurostat there were 747,267 doctoral candidates in
2012 compared to just over 500,000 in 2006 - an increase of 46%
• The MORE2 survey found that between 68% (Germany) and 83%
(Croatia) of PhD graduates wanted a research career in academia
across a selection of 12 member states.
• National Academy of Sciences report (US) – reduce numbers, make
graduate students aware of job market, raise starting salaries and
limit postdoc service to 5 years
• Interviewees in all of our six case study countries reported a large
mismatch between the supply of postdocs, postdoc
expectations, and the number of opportunities in higher
education.
Do we focus too much on the
supply side?
Business sector researchers per 1,000 labour force
9
8
7.4
7.63
7
6
5
4
3
2.98
2
1.38
1
0
All EU
Source: Deloitte, 2013
US
Japan
China
Do we focus too much on the supply side?
400
350
Researchers (thousands, FTE)
300
Higher education sector
Government sector
Business enterprise sector
250
200
150
100
50
0
Cyprus
Finland
Germany
Italy
Romania
UK
Recommendations from our report
• Review contract arrangements for
researchers (including impact on
research quality)
• Manage researcher expectations
with better data on careers
• Ensure appropriate balance
between research duties and
teaching/tutoring/admin for ECRs
• Improve the status of research staff
- formally recognise all contributions
• Establish platforms for dialogue
about research careers with social
partners
Final thoughts
• Do we want HE research (only) careers that are
distinct from academic (T&R) careers?
• Global issues – global solutions? European
solutions?
• What can we do as a sector, as organisations and as
individuals to stimulate the demand side for highlevel skills?
• Is our approach to PhD education too laissez-faire or
is this a strength?
• Are we attracting and retaining the best and the
brightest? How can we measure this?