Online Stakeholder Consultation - results from the survey of non-academic employers of PhD holders

This report presents the results of the online stakeholder questionnaire conducted by the European Science Foundation within the DocEnhance project^[1] in November 2021. As part of the project, online and face to face regional workshops with non-academic stakeholders were organised by four of the participating universities from the project consortium to explore the needs of PhD employers and their views on the skills and value-added of the doctorate degree[2]. The online questionnaire aims to complement this work, by reaching out to more potential PhD employers outside academia to better discern any gaps in the transferable skills needed for PhDs in the non-academic labour market. Additionally, during the first year of the DocEnhance project, a career-tracking survey was carried out with 2000+ recent PhD graduates from nine participating European universities from the project consortium and beyond (Maastricht University, Technical University of Munich, Arctic University of Norway, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, NOVA University Lisbon, Matej Bel University, University of Alcala, University of Sassari and University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague)[3]. The stakeholder questionnaire complements the views of PhD holders with the views of non-academic employers. The attention is particularly paid to a comparison between the skills acquired by doctorate holders at the completion of their doctorate and the importance given to these skills by non-academic employers.

[1] For more information about the DocEnhance project, see: https://docenhance.eu

[2] Findings were published in Internal Deliverable 1.3 Minutes from stakeholder workshops DocEnhance EU-funded project.

[3] Boman, J., Beeson, H., Sanchez Barrioluengo, M., and Rusitoru, M. (2021). What comes after a PhD? Findings from the DocEnhance survey of doctorate holders on their employment situation, skills match, and the value of the doctorate. Strasbourg: European Science Foundation (ESF). Available at:

https://docenhance.eu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/DocEnhance-D1.2_Report-on-career-tracking-of-PhD-graduates.pdf