Against all odds: determinants of doctoral candidates’ intention to enter academia in Germany

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on doctoral students in Germany and the drivers behind their intention to enter an academic career. The aspirations of young researchers after graduating from doctoral training have become an important issue to policymakers in light of the changing nature of doctoral training. Design/methodology/approach – Borrowing from Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behavior, we investigate how attitudes towards a career in academia, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control determine graduates’ intentions to pursue an academic career. We extend the model of Ajzen by measurements of research and training conditions in order to estimate the impact of organizational settings. We analyze a sample of 5,770 doctoral candidates from eight universities and three funding organizations. Findings – We find that apart from attitudes towards careers, academic career intentions are related to research and training conditions at the organizational level. Further, we find that large differences within the field of study and affiliation to a university or funding organization provide substantial explanations. Originality/value – This paper explores doctoral candidates’ academic career intentions which are an important precondition for the propagation of academic staff. For developers and practitioners in the field of doctoral training, our results yield a good understanding of the relationship between organizational settings at the level of doctoral training and career intentions.

Academic career intentions in the life sciences: Can research self-efficacy beliefs explain low numbers of aspiring physician and female scientists?

“…As expected, the majority of the respondents were female: 63 percent in medicine and 60 percent in life sciences. This gender ratio appears to be representative for those fields of study [ 16 , 17 , 67 ]. Moreover, the respondents’ age (mean = 31) did not significantly differ.…”

The “why” and “what for” of research in Social Sciences: early career researchers' conceptions

“…Doctoral students who have children also considered research to be a source of recognition and influence. Today's obstacles to beginning and pursuing an academic career are an object of concern internationally, as is evident from the study by Hauss, Kaulisch and Tesch (2015) on German doctoral students wishing to pursue an academic career, or the study from Turner and McAlpine (2011) students in the United Kingdom. These difficulties are a likely key to understanding these groups' conceptions about doing research.…”

What Keeps Them Interested? Influences on the Stability of Research Career Intentions in the Course of Academic Qualification

“…Due to the variety of internal and external influences on the development of individual career intentions, the attempt to explain them and their changes over time set high demands on the theoretical approach used. In the past, the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) and the Social Cognitive Career Theory (Lent, 2013;Lent et al, 1994) were frequently used for studying the career intentions of ECRs (e.g., Berweger, 2008;Briedis et al, 2014;Evers & Sieverding, 2015;Hauss et al, 2015;Mozhova, 2018). Both approaches originate from social psychology and focus on human behavior.…”

“…McAlpine et al (2018) find that intentions to remain in or leave academia are affected by the interaction of supervision and community support. Other scholars identify positive influences of network integration (Jaksztat et al, 2017) and further conditions of doctoral training and education (e.g., institutional affiliation or formalization of supervision; Hauss et al, 2015) on developing research career intentions. Additionally, several recent studies point to the importance of the prevailing working conditions in the European scientific systems and job (dis)satisfaction.…”

“…In this regard, a distal influence factor is the field of study. In reference to ECRs from the humanities and social sciences, there is a reduced chance for a research career intention for doctoral candidates belonging to the life sciences, natural sciences, or engineering sciences (Hauss et al, 2015). This finding implies unequally attractive options on the non-scientific labor market.…”