Perspectives For PhD Graduates
The
amount of PhD holders in Germany has greatly increased since the 1980s,
producing many more graduates than available positions in academia [1].
Since then, the surplus of PhD degrees on the market has presumably
been the cause of changed job perspectives for graduates. In the past,
the traditional PhD-postdoc-professor career seemed more predefined for
young scientists. Nowadays, the PhD bears importance as a title that
represents more than just scientific expertise and the key to becoming a
professor.
Outside
of academia, a PhD title, regardless of the field it is in, is
worshipped as a sign of highly valuable personal skills such as
motivation, responsibility, perseverance and ambition. These traits are
extremely important for leading positions in any profession [1]. Thus,
scientists holding a PhD are appreciated in research and development in
industry, in consulting, in patent law, scientific writing, sales and
much more [2].
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| "The PhD Factory" by Pina Knauff |
The Changing Face of Grad School
In
the last few decades, the quality of PhD education has improved.
Graduate schools were founded to turn the classical student-professor
relationship to a more structured and interdisciplinary system. This
helped shorten the graduation time and increase the quality of the
degree [3]. Nonetheless, the prospects of long-term employment in
academia remain poor in Germany [4].
One advance was the introduction of the junior professor position with tenure track option in 2002, representing an alternative to the classic Habilitation
[5]. More recently, in 2015, a draft bill was passed to prevent
short-term contracts in academia [6]. Despite these steps, Germany still
lacks promising career prospects for PhD graduates in academia. There
is clearly much room for improvement.
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