Determinants of career pathways of PhD graduates

Careers of doctorate holders have been receiving increasing attention by both researchers and policy makes. The number of doctorate holders has been on a steep increase since several past decades, with 154 000 new doctoral graduates registered in OECD countries in 2000 and 276 800 in 2017. The number of posts in academia has not increased in similar proportion and it has been demonstrated that doctorate graduates increasingly end up employed in non-academic sectors. While doctorate holders do find highly satisfying jobs outside academia, available data also indicates that for many this transition to non-academic careers appears to be driven by extrinsic motivation, i.e., lack of opportunities and (permanent) research positions in academia.