Subjective and objective professional success of PhD holders in Germany

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Christiane Gross; Dr. Steffen Jaksztat
• Subject Area: Empirical Social Research
• Term: from 2019 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 433155285

The success of PhD holders has been researched extensively. However, these studies often only examine single success indicators, do not investigate the connections between subjective and objective indicators, only focus on specific disciplines or do not use Germany-wide data. Moreover, from today's perspective, existing studies analyse career paths of older doctoral cohorts. Other limitations of previous studies include cross-sectional analyses and a focus on "successful" careers within academia, thus neglecting the fact that most PhD holders leave the academic system upon completion of their doctorate. In this research project, we want to expand the present empirical findings on the professional success of PhD holders by examining the subjective and objective professional success of PhD holders within and outside of academia from a cross-sectional and a longitudinal perspective. The quantitative-empirical research project will be conducted as a collaborative venture between the German Centre for Higher Education and Science Research (DZHW) based in Hannover, and the Chair of Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences at the University of Würzburg.The DZHW PhD panel serves as data basis for the project. It is a nationwide longitudinal study with PhD holders from all disciplines who completed their doctorate in the 2014 examination year. Data from five survey waves will be available at the beginning of the project. These longitudinal data are up-to-date, have not been widely used so far, and promise new insights into the professional success of a current doctoral cohort. This dataset allows to look specifically at PhD holders who leave academia after completing their doctorate. Moreover, both inter-individual differences and intra-individual changes in perceived career success can be taken into account using longitudinal methods. The project aims to generate new insights into the career paths of PhD holders and to close the existing research gap in order to identify new possibilities for improving the doctoral phase on university policy level (e.g. more targeted counselling and support offers). The project addresses various research interests and success indicators: the occupational fields of PhD holders, the overall retention in science careers, with specific analyses of gender and intersectional inequalities, the connection between parenthood and career goals, and determinants of income satisfaction and (in)adequate employment. Each of these six topics will be dealt with separately and published in a journal paper. The contributions will be accompanied by the publication of an anthology aiming to promote further research on doctoral careers and scientific exchange in this field.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants