Usefulness of SSH PhD graduation in Hungary Member of Financial Research Corp. H-1023 Budapest, Felhévízi út 24. Dr. Annamária Inzelt László Csonka PhD Triple Helix XI Conference London, 8-10 July, 2013. www.penzugykutato.hu/en Research questions What is the main impact of PhD graduation on the individuals career? Does PhD degree holders have better career opportunities than others? Are post-doctarate researchers satisfied with their career? 1
PhD holders career in the international literature Human resources of science and technology (binding together the Triple Helix) Thune, 2010; EUA 2009; Salminen-Karlsson & Wallgren 2008 PhD career and labour market Lavoie & Finnie 1998, Auriol, 2007, MORE 2010 [IKU] PhD in an international context Brain drain project 2001E [IKU]; NMOB 2002 [IKU]; Zellner, 2003; Auriol, 2007; Canibano et al. 2008 Impact, satisfaction Landry et al. 2001; Mathieu, 2003; Jeffrey, 2010; Campostrini, 2011 Main methodologies used in the research Online survey In-depth interviews Targeted population: PhD obtained in the field of SSH between 2000-2011 interdisciplinarity; impact Difficulties in identifying target population Altogether a sample of 1100 doctorate holders in Hungary Topics covered: PhD education, first/current employment and career path; international activity, interdisciplinarity and impact; Selected by the survey responses and other sources Broad selection of various SSH fields Further selection criteria: regional location, year of PhD, sector of employment, gender Online survey and interview are part of the POCARIM project. 2
Basic characteristics of the Hungarian sample - 244 respondents out of 1108 - from 5 regions - 8 HEIs doctoral schools Year of graduation: - 2001-2004: 9-2005-2008: 51-2009-2010: 115-2011-2012: 69 Most responses in the fields of: - Econ./Business - Lang. & Lit. - History - Education - Law - Sociology Geographical representation of our sample 3
Main characteristics of career paths (survey) Sector of Employment Current job obtained Internationalisation Type of employment in public sector (HEIs, 72%; government 9%), in private sector (business 7%), NGOs 4%, unemployed: < 2%. Before the PhD: 72% In the year of PhD: 10% After the PhD: 15% 86% working in Hungary, 8% in the European union, 2% in other countries; 10% obtained his/her MA degree abroad Typically full time permanent job, Motivation for change: better conditions or better opportunities Impact of PhD degree (survey) Fours aspects of potential impact were covered by the survey: personal satisfaction, career, employer organisation and society (local, national, global level) Personal satisfaction: - 50% very beneficial, - 41% beneficial. Career: - 41 % very beneficial, - 44% beneficial and - 13% neutral. Organisation of work: -32% very beneficial, - 46% beneficial and - 16% neutral. Society: less and less beneficial as we move from the local to the global level; the share of neutral answers are growing 4
Impact of PhD on personal career (extracted from the interviews) the PhD had a positive influence on my career. [ ] the innovation agency saw my degree as a positive asset. And I could not come back to the university without the degree. So I see it as a positive thing. The degree itself wasn t, but the process was [influential]. the PhD degree was rather a requirement for pursuing an academic career. I don t think that my PhD influences my carrier. No. It was just a hobby for me. It was just accomplishing the dream that I had as a child. Summary The typical respondent of our survey has a rather short career paths often tied to the PhD awarding organisation, which fact has an influence on our results Basically respondents are satisfied with their PhD education but the degree has limited impact on their career PhD degree seems to be more appreciated in the public than in the private sector Relatively little variation by sub-fields of SSH or regions in their assessment Internationalisation throughout their career remains on a relatively low level PhD degree seems not to provide any competitive advantage on the labour market in general More detailed analysis will be available soon 5
Thank you for your attention! : csonka.laszlo@penzugykutato.hu 6