Non-academic Careers Research Articles

Through Their Own Eyes: The Implications of COVID-19 for PhD Students

AbstractCOVID-19 is expected to radically alter higher education in the United States and to further limit the availability of tenure-track academic positions. How has the pandemic and its associated fallout affected doctoral students’ career aspirations and priorities? We investigate this question by comparing responses to a PhD career survey prior to and following significant developments in the pandemic. We find little evidence that the pandemic caused substantial shifts in PhD students’ aspirations and priorities. However, some differences emerge when considering later dates in our survey period, particularly among more senior students who express a greater interest in some non-academic careers and job characteristics. Contrary to expectation, we also find evidence that the pandemic improved some students’ perceptions of their academic departments. In our conclusion, we speculate whether steps taken by the comparatively well-resourced institution that we study helped to mitigate some of the more negative consequences of the pandemic.

1. SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY TRAINING DURING FELLOWSHIP: A NATIONAL ASSESSMENT

Background ACGME and ABP requirements for fellows include at least 12 months of scholarly activity (SA) and generation of a work product. Yet there lacks detailed guidance on how programs can best integrate SA training into fellowship. Objectives Our objectives were: a) understand resources and perceived barriers to fellow SA training; b) identify factors associated with high productivity (>75% of fellows publish a manuscript); and c) identify factors associated with fellowship program director (FPD) satisfaction with overall SA training. Methods Cross-sectional survey approved by SPIN, administered to pediatric FPD nationally in 2019. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, Chi-squared/Fisher exact tests, and multivariable modeling. Results 517 of 810 FPD responded (64%). 35% (181/517) of programs were highly productive. 69% of FPDs were extremely/very satisfied with overall SA training. 28% felt resources were somewhat or not at all adequate. The most frequent major barriers were lack of funding to conduct SA (21%) and lack of sufficient divisional faculty mentorship (16%). 41% believed training should be shortened to two years for fellows pursuing non-academic careers. Programs with high productivity were twice as likely to have a T32, an FPD with >5 publications in the past 3 years, and not experience Scholarly Oversight Committee (SOC) expertise as a barrier (OR=2.1, 2.0, 1.9, respectively) (Table 1a). Not viewing an adequate research curriculum as a barrier was also significant (OR=1.6). Satisfaction was associated with high productivity, having a division specific research curriculum, FPD having >5 publications in past 3 years, and FPD belief that overall SA resources are adequate, SOC expertise is not a barrier, and training should not be shortened for fellows pursuing non-academic careers (all OR >2, Table 1b). Conclusions FPD research productivity, provision of an adequate research curriculum, and fostering expert SOC guidance appear critical to promoting fellow productivity and FPD satisfaction. Fellowship duration may need to be reconsidered given FPD beliefs and the dissatisfaction some have with their program SA training.

Two sides of the same coin: political science as professional and civic education

While the relevance of political science is often evaluated with respect to its scholarly impact, evaluations of the teaching impact are rare. This paper offers a step towards strengthening the societal relevance of a political science degree. We treat the societal relevance of political science as a matter of the (non-)academic career preparation and civic education of its graduates. We are therefore interested in the career paths and individual learning outcomes of Austrian political science graduates. Data from the Graduate Monitoring and semi-structured interviews show that most graduates work outside of academia, moreover, as our results show, many graduates state that they had to acquire additional skills for their professional careers. Consequently, future curricula might consider a stronger focus on non-academic career preparation. At the same time, however, graduates highly value the civic dimension of the programme and the impact it had on their political agency.

Basic vs. applied doctoral theses in nuclear engineering – Case study of theses completed in Slovenia

In view of many discussions on rethinking graduate education to better support the non-academic careers, we have reviewed the doctoral theses, completed within graduate studies of nuclear engineering at the Jozef Stefan Institute and the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) between 1993 and 2019. The theses are divided (in the present paper) in three groups: “basic”, “applied” and “application-oriented basic”. The merits of each kind are discussed, including from the point of view of nuclear engineers intending to continue their careers in the nuclear industry. As a specific case, the topics studied were reactor thermal hydraulics, severe accidents, ageing and integrity of components, and probabilistic safety assessment. The review shows a strong preponderance of basic and application-oriented basic theses over applied ones. It also appears that the predominantly academic orientation of the doctoral theses enabled not only academic, but also industrial careers.

Life Origin on Earth, Knowledge Development

An enigmatic and important feature of life origin on Earth is embodied with a number of different hypotheses and knowledge based on experimental data and biomedical principles. These hypotheses and understanding generally contain some small-scale experimental simulation, chemical structure comparisons and a series of guesswork from existing biological knowledge and principles. So far, there is no widely agreement of single hypothesis without significant arguments and conflicts between researchers of different disciplines and individual biological characters. Thus, it needs more heated debates, cooperation and circulation for life origin topics academically and in large media to all human population. These debates and publication may invite interests of non-academic careers and solve this enigma from widest human professions. Keywords : Human evolution, life-origin, RNA-world, systems biology, genetic information system, environmental ecology.

Trends in Research and Graduate Affairs in Schools and Colleges of Pharmacy, Part 2: Students

Objective. To examine the landscape of research and graduate affairs nationally and within schools and colleges of pharmacy. This report, part 2 of a three-part series, focuses on characteristics of full-time PhD enrollees and graduates in schools and colleges of pharmacy, and career planning and preparation in graduate programs. Findings. Despite a 41% increase in funding awarded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to schools and colleges of pharmacy over the last 10 years, NIH funding per principal investigator only increased 14% and graduate student enrollment increased just 6% during the period. However, there was a 15% increase in PhD degrees conferred in the 10-year period, which is evidence that degree completion time decreased. The number of female graduates from pharmacy schools consistently increased, and outpaced growth in the number of male graduates by more than 10%. Most graduate programs do not include training for industry-specific skills, abilities, and experiences to better prepare graduates for nonacademic careers, although national programs have been recognized as vital to graduate student career preparation. Summary. Graduate biomedical science programs and faculty members must recognize that academia is an "alternative" career choice for their trainees, and provide job skills training to support the majority of nonacademic career choices, without compromising the rigorous training in basic biomedical disciplines.

Theoretical, practical and hybrid ex-academics: Career transfer stories

The academic career stories and trajectories of PhD holders have been widely studied in the context of economic austerity and an oversupply of doctors. However, few studies have investigated career building among ex-academics and how a doctoral degree and university work might affect their career possibilities outside academia. This paper explores the trajectories of ex-academics: PhDs with university work experience who have left academia to pursue non-academic careers. Based on 40 qualitative interviews with ex-academics, their employers and senior university leaders, the study employs a narrative approach to construct five career stories: the Theoretical Endangered Nerd, the Practical Geek, the Chic Hybrid, the Pristine Novice and the Odd Elite. This varied picture of career sensemaking provides new insights into career building among ex-academics.

Professional societies can play a vital role in career development

Ph.D.s in the life sciences are seeking nonacademic careers in large numbers, and private sector employment is reaching an all-time high. In this climate, trainees are seeking mentors and opportunities to understand and explore different career paths. Scientific societies such as the Society for Developmental Biology play vital roles in professional development to support members at all stages of their careers and promote a range of employment opportunities. To this end, the Professional Development and Education Committee of the society offers full day workshops and sessions at regional and annual meetings that support constituents throughout their careers. For example, a new GetHIRED! workshop the day before the 2019 annual society meeting was developed as an interactive job skills workshop for postdoctoral fellows to gain insights into the job application process. The committee also aims to advocate for innovative approaches to teaching and science literacy in both the classroom and through outreach activities. The activities offered by scientific societies can reach a broader audience than individual institutions, and have lasting impacts in the quality of their members’ careers by augmenting professional development opportunities.

Why Embark on a PhD Today? A Typology of Motives for Doctoral Study in Russia

Data obtained in interviews with doctoral students and their academic supervisors as well as in doctoral student surveys conducted across six Russian universities is used to explore the motives for embarking on and pursuing a PhD, and evaluate their incidence. Drawing from Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory, three basic types of motivation are identified — intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation — and described in the context of doctoral education. Even though academic labor has been losing its prestige in Russia, intrinsic motivation associated with interest for research, science and education remains the most popular motive for embarking on doctoral study. At the same time, a significant percentage of doctoral students are driven by external non-academic motives, such as specific social benefits or desire to use PhD as an asset in a non-academic career.

Biased Beliefs and Entry into Scientific Careers

We investigate whether excessively optimistic beliefs may play a role in the persistent demand for doctoral and post-doctoral training in science. We elicit the beliefs and career preferences of doctoral students through a novel survey and randomize the provision of structured information on the true state of the academic market and information through role models on non-academic careers. One year later, both treatments lead students to update their beliefs about the academic market and impact career preferences. However, we do not find an effect on actual career outcomes 2 years post-intervention.

Plugging In: How One Graduate Program Shaped Doctoral Students’ Scholarly Identities as Interdisciplinary Scientists

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how one graduate program shaped doctoral students’ scholarly identities as interdisciplinary scientists. Background: Scholarly identity refers to the ways individuals see themselves as legitimate, contributing members of their academic community. However, much of the research on scholarly identity focuses on students and faculty within traditional, discipline-bound contexts. We therefore know little about how doctoral students develop scholarly identities that are interdisciplinary in nature. By interdisciplinary, we refer broadly to scholarly work that uses methods, concepts, frameworks, or perspectives from two or more academic fields or disciplines, or scholarly work aimed at addressing research problems that spans multiple academic fields or disciplines. Methodology: This qualitative, ethnographic case study focuses on the University of Maryland’s Language Science Center (LSC), which houses a National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) Program for doctoral students in the interdisciplinary language sciences, which includes fields such as linguistics, hearing and speech, computer science, and neuroscience. The LSC is nationally and internationally known for its interdisciplinary graduate training program and thus provides a platform for understanding the components of graduate training that contribute to students’ scholarly identity development as interdisciplinary scientists. We draw from four years of qualitative data collection, including student interviews, student and faculty focus groups, ethnographic observations, and document analysis. Contribution: Across the public and private sectors, there is a strong push for developing interdisciplinary solutions to society’s problems. However, many colleges and universities are not organized to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and research. Focusing on the ways one graduate program facilitated interdisciplinary scholarly identity development for doctoral students therefore provides graduate programs with a potential roadmap for navigating the barriers that may block the development of students with interdisciplinary research interests. Findings: We found curricular and co-curricular NRT program activities contributed to students’ scholarly identity development as interdisciplinary scientists by connecting them (or “plugging them in”) to a pre-existing, interdisciplinary network of students and faculty; increasing doctoral student competence in the methods, cultures, and perspectives of other disciplines; encouraging doctoral students to find common ground with scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds; and broadening doctoral students’ views of the potential impact and application of their work. Recommendations for Practitioners: Graduate training programs in the interdisciplinary sciences should think strategically about the kinds of activities that help students develop a scholarly identity and the conditions and contexts in which scholarly identity development might be undermined. We offer multiple examples of the kinds of activities graduate programs can consider using to facilitate scholarly identity development and the underlying mechanisms that make such activities successful. Recommendation for Researchers: Developing a scholarly identity is an important component of doctoral student success and should be considered as a useful potential theory for individuals who study graduate education. Impact on Society: Graduate programs play a critical role in training not only the next generation of faculty, but also the next generation of scientists in government and industry. If more graduate programs can successfully train doctoral students to be interdisciplinary scientists, societal benefits could include more responsive and adaptive solutions to pressing social problems. Future Research: Future researchers should consider how different graduate training elements produce students with different types of interdisciplinary scholarly identities, how the scholarly identity of students trained in interdisciplinary graduate programs continues to evolve as they transition into both academic and non-academic careers, and the strategies and experiences of faculty members who mentor students from outside of their own disciplines.

Teaching physics for tomorrow: Equipping students to change the world

Why should engineers have all the fun?

Research-Track Residency Programs in Orthopaedic Surgery: A Survey of Program Directors and Recent Graduates.

The importance of research in resident education has been emphasized in the orthopaedic surgery community, and a number of residency programs have incorporated a year or more of protected research time into their training. However, limited information exists as to what programs are looking for in applicants to research-track residency programs or the perceived benefits of completing such a program. We identified orthopaedic surgery programs that have tracks involving at least 1 year of protected research time and sent surveys to their program directors and to the 2012 through 2016 research-track graduates. Twenty-three programs with research tracks were identified, and 19 program directors (83%) responded to the survey. The survey revealed that only 2 (11%) of these program directors were willing to accept lower scores and grades among applicants to their research track compared with their primary clinical (categorical) track. While most of the program directors (14 [74%]) preferred that applicants have an interest in academics, only a few (3 [16%]) considered it a failure if their research-track residents did not pursue academic careers. We obtained the e-mail addresses of 82 research-track graduates, and 66 (80%) responded to the survey. The survey revealed that those who went into academic careers were more likely than those who went into private practice to view completing a research track as beneficial for fellowship (73% versus 35%, respectively) and job (73% versus 22%, respectively) applications, believed that the income lost from the additional year of residency would be compensated for by opportunities gained from the research year (50% versus 17%, respectively), and said that they would pursue a research-track residency if they had to do it over again (81% versus 39%, respectively; all p values <0.05). The majority of program directors preferred that applicants to their research-track program have an interest in academics, although most did not consider it a failure if their research-track residents entered nonacademic careers. Graduates of research-track residency programs who entered academics more frequently viewed the completion of a research track as being beneficial compared with those who went into private practice.

How to tell your adviser you’re pursuing a nonacademic career

How to tell your adviser you’re pursuing a nonacademic career

CAREER ADVANCEMENT AND JOB SATISFACTION AMONG NON-ACADEMIC STAFF IN UNIVERSITY SETTINGS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ETHICAL LEADERSHIP

Career advancement path of academic staff (also referred to as faculty members in this paper) is well spelt out in ranking for promotion policy guidelines. Emerging academic staff when well oriented into the academic arena, get to know what competences, skills and credentials to work on so as to move from one level of rank to another and within how much time. While rank equivalences exist for their counterparts, the non-academic staff‘s elaborate criteria on how to move from one level to another is usually lacking. Moreover, there are no clear guidelines for rank implications when one migrates from non-academic roles into academic roles. The disparity exists because of various reasons such as: limited financial resources, diversity of non-academic careers within universities and unclear appraisal mechanisms among others. Nonetheless, the need to have a career advancement path for non-academic staff is long overdue in addressing a major disparity between personnel of the same institutions. This is primarily an ethical issue in regard to human resource management. Ethical leadership therefore demands that this disparity is addressed even as higher education leadership seeks to create work environments where employees can thrive as they advance in their careers, regardless of their domain of operation, whether academic or non-academic. This paper therefore seeks to review literature on issues related to career advancement/promotion opportunities for non-academic staff, and their implications for ethical academic leadership in university settings. It is hoped that the discussions in this paper will lead to amicable solutions for clear and effective career advancement pathways for non-academic personnel in university settings. Article visualizations:

The Crossroads of Health Policy and Academic Medicine: An Early Introduction to Health Policy Skills to Facilitate Change.

Despite significant health care reform in the past 10 years, health disparities persist in marginalized and low-resource communities. Although there are a lot of reasons for health disparities, many of which are not related to health care, changes in health policy can lead to improved health equity. Redefining health policy as an important aspect of medical education could popularize the teaching and application of health policy competencies within academic health centers. The Kern model was applied to develop a workshop to educate medical students on basic health policy concepts and opportunities for them to apply a health policy framework to facilitate organizational change. Specifically, the workshop helped trainees to define common concepts in health policy, to understand a framework for developing policy initiatives, and to identify areas of overlap between health policy and academic medicine. Instructional methods included a PowerPoint presentation, vignette-based small-group discussion, and career reflection. The workshop was implemented at three national conferences with a total of 144 participants. Comparing pre- and postworkshop survey responses, participants felt health policy work was compatible with an academic medicine career. Over 95% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that each objective had been met. By viewing health policy through the lens of academia, trainees were able to develop a new appreciation for how health policy activities can contribute to peer-reviewed publications, teaching, and leadership opportunities. Participants were better situated to integrate health policy skills in their academic or nonacademic careers.

Message from The Executive Director

Message from The Executive Director

Humanities PhD Graduates: Desperately Seeking Careers?

National and international statistics show that across disciplines there are many more PhD graduates than academic positions. In fact, more than half of graduates find their careers outside the academy—though the kinds of positions they accept, their work satisfaction, and the relevance of their PhDs is much less clear. As regards scholarly studies on post-PhD careers, most have examined social scientists and scientists with little attention to humanities doctoral graduates. This study addresses this gap by exploring the career experiences of Canadian PhD humanities graduates through descriptive statistics and narrative analysis. Specifically, it highlights the PhD experiences and post-graduation career trajectories of 212 Canadian humanists from 24 universities who graduated between 2004 and 2014. The study offers insight into humanities career challenges, including during the PhD, the range of non-academic careers that humanists find, as well as their work satisfaction and the perceived relevance of the PhD.National and international statistics show that across disciplines there are many more PhD graduates than academic positions. In fact, more than half of graduates find their careers outside the academy—though the kinds of positions they accept, their work satisfaction, and the relevance of their PhDs is much less clear. As regards scholarly studies on post-PhD careers, most have examined social scientists and scientists with little attention to humanities doctoral graduates. This study addresses this gap by exploring the career experiences of Canadian PhD humanities graduates through descriptive statistics and narrative analysis. Specifically, it highlights the PhD experiences and post-graduation career trajectories of 212 Canadian humanists from 24 universities who graduated between 2004 and 2014. The study offers insight into humanities career challenges, including during the PhD, the range of non-academic careers that humanists find, as well as their work satisfaction and the perceived relevance of the PhD.

Stories of moving on HASS PhD graduates’ motivations and career trajectories inside and beyond academia

It is widely accepted that the academic job market is very limited and unlikely to expand any time soon, yet enrolments in PhDs continue to rise. If the PhD is no longer preparation for academia, where do these graduates go on completing their degrees? This study of Australian PhD graduates in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) explores motivations to undertake a research degree, their experiences of academia, and their current employment. These personalised narratives reveal the impact and value of doctoral education on the employment trajectories of HASS PhD graduates in non-academic careers. These stories uncover both the ‘cruel optimism’ and positive employment outcomes experienced by HASS doctorate holders. It is argued that commencing PhD candidates should be encouraged from the outset to seriously consider their doctorate as preparation for careers beyond academia; rather than being ‘failed academics,’ these graduates succeed as high-level knowledge workers.

Preparing political science students for a non-academic career: Experiences from a novel course module

Higher education is increasingly expected not only to provide students with disciplinary knowledge and skills but also to prepare them for a future career. As political science is a diverse discipline and does not train students for a certain profession, its students often feel uncertain of the career paths available to them and how their expertise can be used in a future career. In this article, we present and discuss the course ‘The Professional Political Scientist’, given at the bachelor’s level at the Department of Political Science at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, which is an attempt to fill this gap. We present the preparatory work, the design, the pedagogy behind the themes and exercises included in the curriculum, as well as the experiences and evaluations of the first three rounds of the course. Finally, we provide suggestions for teachers interested in developing similar courses.