Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 103924 |
| Pages (from-to) | 67–108 |
| Number of pages | 42 |
| Journal | SCIENTOMETRICS |
| Volume | 130 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 25 Nov 2024 |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2025 |
Abstract
Doctoral education is a crucial stage in the academic socialization of early-career researchers. Prior research has shown that career paths and activities of Ph.D.s are shaped by the universities and departments in which they were trained. To widen this focus, we analyze the role of public research organizations (PROs) and private-sector firms as organizational employment contexts of doctoral education. The empirical context of our study is Germany, where PROs and firms employ large numbers of doctoral candidates and provide the organizational environment for their dissertation research. Utilizing a novel process-generated dataset that covers about 40,000 STEM Ph.D.s who graduated from 1995 to 2011, we find that Ph.D.s employed at PROs during doctoral education are more likely to stay in academia than their university-employed peers. Despite extensive policy efforts that sought to strengthen the research performance of German universities, doctoral candidates employed at basic research-oriented PROs had the strongest cross-cohort increase in their post-graduation academic employment share. This group also experienced the most pronounced fall in the share of high post-graduation income owners. Industry-employed doctoral candidates are unlikely to migrate to the academic sector and have the highest likelihood of obtaining high post-graduation incomes.
Keywords
- Career outcomes, Doctoral education, I23, I26, Industry-trained Ph.D.s, J48, Public Research Organizations, STEM Ph.D. Graduates
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)
- General Social Sciences
- Computer Science(all)
- Computer Science Applications
- Social Sciences(all)
- Library and Information Sciences
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In: SCIENTOMETRICS, Vol. 130, No. 1, 103924, 01.2025, p. 67–108.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Keeping up with the Max Plancks?
T2 - Germany’s quest for university excellence and the role of public research institutes in doctoral education
AU - Buenstorf, Guido
AU - Koenig, Johannes
AU - Otto, Anne
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2025/1
Y1 - 2025/1
N2 - Doctoral education is a crucial stage in the academic socialization of early-career researchers. Prior research has shown that career paths and activities of Ph.D.s are shaped by the universities and departments in which they were trained. To widen this focus, we analyze the role of public research organizations (PROs) and private-sector firms as organizational employment contexts of doctoral education. The empirical context of our study is Germany, where PROs and firms employ large numbers of doctoral candidates and provide the organizational environment for their dissertation research. Utilizing a novel process-generated dataset that covers about 40,000 STEM Ph.D.s who graduated from 1995 to 2011, we find that Ph.D.s employed at PROs during doctoral education are more likely to stay in academia than their university-employed peers. Despite extensive policy efforts that sought to strengthen the research performance of German universities, doctoral candidates employed at basic research-oriented PROs had the strongest cross-cohort increase in their post-graduation academic employment share. This group also experienced the most pronounced fall in the share of high post-graduation income owners. Industry-employed doctoral candidates are unlikely to migrate to the academic sector and have the highest likelihood of obtaining high post-graduation incomes.
AB - Doctoral education is a crucial stage in the academic socialization of early-career researchers. Prior research has shown that career paths and activities of Ph.D.s are shaped by the universities and departments in which they were trained. To widen this focus, we analyze the role of public research organizations (PROs) and private-sector firms as organizational employment contexts of doctoral education. The empirical context of our study is Germany, where PROs and firms employ large numbers of doctoral candidates and provide the organizational environment for their dissertation research. Utilizing a novel process-generated dataset that covers about 40,000 STEM Ph.D.s who graduated from 1995 to 2011, we find that Ph.D.s employed at PROs during doctoral education are more likely to stay in academia than their university-employed peers. Despite extensive policy efforts that sought to strengthen the research performance of German universities, doctoral candidates employed at basic research-oriented PROs had the strongest cross-cohort increase in their post-graduation academic employment share. This group also experienced the most pronounced fall in the share of high post-graduation income owners. Industry-employed doctoral candidates are unlikely to migrate to the academic sector and have the highest likelihood of obtaining high post-graduation incomes.
KW - Career outcomes
KW - Doctoral education
KW - I23
KW - I26
KW - Industry-trained Ph.D.s
KW - J48
KW - Public Research Organizations
KW - STEM Ph.D. Graduates
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85210150074&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11192-024-05195-w
DO - 10.1007/s11192-024-05195-w
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85210150074
VL - 130
SP - 67
EP - 108
JO - SCIENTOMETRICS
JF - SCIENTOMETRICS
SN - 0138-9130
IS - 1
M1 - 103924
ER -