The Route to Employability for Doctoral Graduates: The Picture from the UK and Overseas
When the PhD was introduced in the UK in the early 1900s, its purpose was exclusively to facilitate entry to academia. Over time, the attributes a doctorate bestows on the individual have transformed it from simply a signifier of high academic attainment to a qualification that differentiates graduates in the job market. The revolution in the doctorate globally, influenced by the knowledge economy and political awareness of the potential value of doctoral graduates, has led to several critical changes in UK doctoral education. These include: the introduction of cohort training and the value placed on it; emergence of new forms of employment-related doctorate, for example, professional doctorates and industrial PhDs in STEM disciplines; and shrinking resources for arts-based doctoral degrees, with a significant imbalance between public funding for arts, humanities and social sciences (AHSS) and STEM disciplines.
There remains the contentious question of `What is the doctorate for’? Individuals, organizations, government and society frequently ask if it is for learning how to do research or a route to myriad careers’? Can it be both? In this context, the article explores:
demand for doctoral graduates in the UK;
current registrations on UK doctoral programmes;
the value of a doctorate for different stakeholders;
continuing underlying lack of appreciation of doctoral graduates and their abilities, a feature of both the UK and Australia;
the wide-ranging attributes that doctoral graduates possess; and
how these might be more overtly recognised by graduates themselves, potential employers and society in general.
Doctoral graduate employment statistics
How do we know if doctoral graduates possess the range of attributes needed to be successful in gaining and remaining in employment, whether in research or other fields? By one measure – employment destinations – we know they are in demand.
In part due to a shortage of tenured posts in universities and the perceived disadvantages of academic life, doctoral graduates entering academic careers are now very much in the minority. This suggests that the increase in numbers of doctoral graduates in the 21st century has been driven by the competitive job market in the UK and internationally.
Demand for UK doctoral graduates is demonstrated by high employment rates: according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), 84% of doctoral graduate leavers in 2021 were in employment in May 2023 and only 2% unemployed, compared with 75% of taught masters and 5% unemployed. Similar statistics for Italy quoted in a 2018 book chapter (Cristina Lisimberti, in Employability and Comptences. Innovative Curricula for New Professions, V Boffo and M Fedeli (eds)), show that 91.5% of PhD graduates are in employment four years after graduation. This high employment rate is seen as a `competitive advantage’ associated with a doctorate. Interestingly, the same publication suggests that, for those already employed before beginning their doctorate, 23% benefited from better jobs after graduating and that 18% saw a rise in income as a result. Similarly to the UK, few Italian doctoral graduates now obtain a permanent academic post.
Registrations on doctoral programmes
In the UK, recent growth in doctoral registrations suggest there is continuing investment in this qualification, by individuals as well as public funding bodies. This is partly driven by the need to demonstrate a range of highly developed professional and personal, or `employability’ skills which has led to inflation in the qualifications required to enter many careers and has resulted in steady growth in doctoral candidate registrations, especially since 2007-08, with some year-on-year fluctuations. The most recent Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) figures show a steep increase in doctoral enrolments between 2019/20 and 2020/21, and a leveling off/small decrease in the most recent figures for 2021/22:
| 2017/18 | 100,520 |
|---|---|
| 2018/18 | 101,995 |
| 2019/20 | 101,560 |
| 2020/21 | 104,965 |
| 2021/22 | 104,645 |
Figure 3 – HE student enrolments by level of study. Academic years 2017/18 to 2021/22 (Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2023). Online. Available at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/19-01-2023/sb265-higher-education-student-statistics/numbers
Value of the doctorate to the individual compared with lack of appreciation more widely
While difficult to evidence or quantify, another factor to consider is the personal benefit that can be experienced by acquiring a doctorate.
It is tacitly acknowledged that completing a doctoral degree is a positively life-changing experience for the individual, separately from their earning power, and that this in turn contributes to societal benefits. But despite their role in the knowledge economy (as acknowledged by UK government policies over the last 20 years) and in maintaining the competitiveness of the UK globally, doctoral degrees are still seen by stakeholders as costly – in time and money – compared with masters and bachelors qualifications. And even though the knowledge economy recognizes the value of skills and education, borne out by employment statistics, doctoral graduates generally are not necessarily highly regarded by society or employers in the UK, especially SMEs, partly because of lack of knowledge about what a doctorate is and the abilities and skills it develops in the individual. This is in direct contrast with some continental countries such as Germany, where individuals aiming for high level jobs in any sphere would be expected to possess a doctorate.
Over-supply of doctoral graduates has also been raised as a concern in the UK. In Norway, however, all PhD candidates must obtain public funding before they are able to register at a university, thereby limiting the number of graduates, while in Italy the question of professionalism and the identity of doctoral graduates is very much an issue of the moment.
In Australia, a similar situation exists as in the UK, with some lack of recognition of the value of doctoral graduates, although a recent systematic literature review found that, on the basis of their review in Australia `it was hard to see sufficient scholarly evidence’ for `employers’ dissatisfaction with PhD employability’. The review’s conclusions, though, did identify some actions we in the UK might support that needed to be taken to address the perceived lack of employability of doctoral graduates, including:
improving stakeholder understanding of the value of doctorates;
making more effort to meet the diverse learning needs of candidates;
and the issues of unequal access to and lack of funding for university-industry collaboration in doctoral programmes.
The authors of the paper contend that the outcomes of their review are pertinent to all countries because of the international recognition of the PhD as a qualification and suggest more research is needed into the reasons why employers of doctoral graduates choose them over graduates with lower qualifications – this might also be a valid area for further enquiry in the UK.
Disciplinary variations and the individuality of the doctorate
When addressing doctoral employability, we need to differentiate between disciplines: many STEM doctoral graduates progress straight into employment directly related to their subject, for example bio- or biomedical sciences and a variety of engineering disciplines. Many of these graduates will continue doing research in industry or other PhD topic-related areas.
Some non-STEM doctoral graduates also progress directly into subject-related employment, such as psychology, economics, film studies, drama and education, among others. And whatever their subject, teaching in secondary or primary education is a choice for some doctoral graduates, although recent shortages in STEM school teachers in particular show this is not always a sought after career.
Any doctoral graduate, however, may choose not to pursue a career in their research field, but to seek employment elsewhere, including self-employment. Disciplinary differences together with the individuality of doctoral study means it is impossible to guarantee that all graduates will emerge with comparable attributes. This makes it even more important that graduates are aware of the range of their abilities on completion of the doctorate.
Doctoral graduate attributes
Whatever their role, doctoral graduates bring a wide range of professional and personal skills to their field, many of them developed when doing and learning about research, as well as from training opportunities offered during their doctoral education. These will not only be essential in employment, but will be expected by their employers.
Such attributes are well documented and include:
high level problem-solving, logic and analytical skills;
the ability to work with others in multidisciplinary and multicultural environments;
resilience;
integrity and honesty;
leadership;
creativity;
emotional intelligence.
Currently, however, these and other professional and personal skills rarely make an overt contribution to the final examination of doctoral candidates. University examination regulations and guidelines for doctoral examiners normally refer to assessing the candidate’s capability to undertake independent research but, partly because of disciplinary influences and the individuality of the doctoral experience, do not necessarily reference these characteristics. Yet viva observations show that personal and professional attributes are keenly sought by doctoral examiners in their assessment of the candidate and their work.
A small Australian study involving 23 interviews with doctoral graduates mostly in their 30s and 40s suggested that most interviewees had positive relationships with their supervisors, who `supported their career prospects in various ways’ but that some thought `the expertise they had obtained in their PhD programme did not significantly help their careers due to the lack of deep and relevant knowledge. They did agree, however, that `they benefited immensely from the professional skills they had acquired during their PhD’. Interestingly this group reported that these skills did not emanate directly from undertaking a research programme, but from the life skills acquired in juggling the demands of `significant other commitments’, such as marriage, raising children, buying houses and finding and keeping jobs. They agreed that these activities helped them to become `more self-sufficient, multifunctional and especially good at time management’. It is possible, though, that some of the graduates’ experiences during their research education, had contributed to their ability to juggle multiple demands later in life.
In Canada, the University of British Columbia’s Public Scholars’ Initiative scheme was introduced to help broaden the concept of scholarship to include employment contexts and to prepare researchers for different careers. Participants are financially supported to conduct `rigorous scholarship in non- or alternative academic settings’ and write their thesis on research undertaken with the employer. Hundreds of doctoral candidates have now participated in this initiative, which is open to researchers in any subject and encompasses any employment sector. This is potentially a model that could be adopted by UK universities to ease doctoral graduates’ transitions to employment.
The way forward for doctoral employability
The focus of this blog is doctoral employability, but the fact remains that the primary purpose of a doctorate is to teach the candidate how to do research independently, with thoroughness and integrity. Critically, it is the only academic qualification that fulfills this role. Therefore it is essential, if the UK is to maintain its reputation for knowledge creation and transfer, that research training is at the core of all doctorates.
But this does not rule out the concept of a doctorate as training for a wide range of challenging jobs, which has become an almost equally important purpose. My contention is that there is not enough emphasis on the personal and professional skills that are gained through undertaking a doctoral degree – i.e. that research, professional and personal skills are complementary – and that this must be recognized in the final examination.
We also need to address the perceived lack of awareness of doctoral employability skills, to ensure that all doctoral graduates are aware of the highly developed personal and professional skills they possess and able to persuade potential employers of their capabilities. We need to investigate how satisfied doctoral graduates are with their personal development and with their investment, in time particularly, but also their financial investment, even if their degree has been publicly funded.
Achieving better employment outcomes, particularly job satisfaction, for doctoral graduates and resolving the perceived dissatisfaction with doctoral graduate attributes – possibly a political trope – requires a partnership approach between universities, employers of all kinds, politicians, and graduates themselves.
