Geography of doctoral education in The Netherlands: Origin and current work location of recent PhDs from five Dutch universities

Cathelijn J F Waaijer

doi:10.1093/reseval/rvx040

Abstract

Human capital is indispensable for regional innovation and economic growth, and PhD graduates (PhDs) play an important role in these processes. This is the first study describing the geographic origin and current work location of PhDs from Dutch universities, which are located in a densely populated area with a high concentration of basic science and science-based industries. Our study shows that their country of origin is strongly related to the field of study, as engineering PhDs were born outside The Netherlands much more often than PhDs from other fields. Furthermore, we show that PhDs disproportionally come from the same region as where the PhD university is located. PhDs also frequently did their pre-PhD degree at the university where they obtained their PhD degree. Finally, a disproportionate number of PhDs stay in the PhD region to work, especially if they also did their pre-PhD degrees at the PhD university. The extent of PhDs staying in the PhD region varies by sector, with PhDs in the higher education sector staying in the PhD region more often than PhDs working in other sectors. This implies that the geographic concentration of PhDs in the region of the PhD university is mainly due to PhDs staying to work at the same university rather than employment opportunities in other (science-based) industries—a finding at odds with Dutch science policy, which promotes mobility in academia but also stresses the importance of the region in innovation by science-based industries.

Highlights

PhD graduates are a unique group of highly skilled workers trained in scholarship and science
The second largest group was PhDs born in other western European countries, followed by PhDs born in the Americas, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and Africa
This is the first study of the “geography of doctoral education” in the Netherlands

Summary

Introduction

PhD graduates are a unique group of highly skilled workers trained in scholarship and science. There have been some studies into the mobility of PhDs (including those not working in academic research), but it is difficult to obtain internationally comparable data, as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) stated in its 2008 overview on the mobility of highly skilled people (OECD 2008). The 2010 NUTS3 (COROP) division provided by Statistics Netherlands on 1 January 2012 was used to classify the Dutch municipalities listed in PhDs’ CVs and online available data such as the place of birth, place of pre-PhD degree and current job(s) into the 40 NUTS3 regions (Statistics Netherlands 2013). We were able to retrieve the country of birth of 1,322 PhDs, the country of pre-PhD degree education of 1,331 PhDs, and the country of the current job of 1,251 PhDs (out of 1,405 PhDs studied in total)

Results

Discussion and conclusions

Tables and figures