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Careers of Doctorate Holders (CDH)

TRAINING WORKSHOP ON SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION INDICATORSCairo, Egypt

28-30 September 2009

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UIS approach to Human Resources statistics: CDH project

• Methodology developed “from the scratch” together with OECD & Eurostat.

• Aimed both at developed and developing countries

• With participation from experts from both developed and developing countries

• Promoting the methodology by encouraging developing countries to conduct such surveys and produce cross-nationally comparable statistics on careers of doctorate holders

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Relevance of the CDH project

• World economy is increasingly based on knowledge and information.

• Knowledge is now recognised as the driver of productivity and economic growth.

• As a result, there is a new focus on the crucial role of highly qualified individuals who represent a key to the production, application and transmission of knowledge.

• Statistics on the global trends in human resources for Science and Technology (HRST) are very week.

• The quality and comparability of international data on migration is particularly weak.

• Diversity of data collection methods hinders international comparability, and does not provide information on career paths and mobility patterns.

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Background

‘Brain drain’ or loss of skilled personnel identified as priority by UIS and UNESCO Paris

OECD and EU are interested in skills loss from developing countries

Moves from university to industry

US NSF also interested in changing US patterns of academic recruitment

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Process

To meet the users demands UIS, OECD & Eurostat launched a project on “Statistics on the Careers of Doctorate Holders”.

Each organization took responsibility for issues appropriate to their mandate. Expertise and resources are shared across the three partners.

Initial expert group: Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Portugal, Russian Federation, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, Uganda, the United States.

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Objectives

To design an internationally comparable tool for tracking the careers of doctorates holders and highly qualified people in different countries.

To pilot test this instrument in volunteer countries.

To collect and exchange information on the career paths of holders of doctorates from existing data sources and the new survey tool.

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Task forces

Production of output tabulations, and development of common definitions (led by OECD)

Drafting of methodological guidelines (led by Eurostat).

Development of a model survey with a supporting methodology (led by UIS).

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Output tabulation program

• Conceived to be used by countries when delivering the requested data to the international organizations;

• Consists of several tables organized in four broad groups:

1. personal characteristics

2. education characteristics

3. employment situation and perceptions

4. international mobility: inward and outward

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• Research qualification

• Recent doctorate recipient

• Age

• Citizenship status

• Residential status

• Country of citizenship / birth / residence / doctorate award / prior education / …

• Time to completion of doctorate

Definitions (1)

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• Employed/Unemployed/Inactive/Employee/Self-employed workers

• Temporary/permanent employment

• Full-time/part-time employment

• Gross annual earnings

• Field of research qualification

• Sector of employment

• Occupations

• Internationally mobile research qualification holder

Definitions (2)

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Methodological guidelines

• Define and structure the target population

• Describe the sources for building sampling frames

• Present some aspects of data collection, data processing and results estimation.

• Should be seen as an orientation for countries that plan to launch a CDH survey as well as a tool to improve and align their existing national surveys to an international standard.

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Target population

Consists of individuals fulfilling the following criteria:

• having an education at ISCED 6 level (research qualification) obtained anywhere in the world, and

• being resident (permanent or non-permanent) within the national borders of the surveying country.

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Target population structure (1) • Target population, residents in country X (the surveying

country) that are:

A. Citizens of country X with doctorate awarded within country X

B. Citizens of foreign countries with doctorate awarded in country X

C. Citizens of country X with doctorate awarded abroad

D. Citizens of foreign countries with doctorate awarded abroad

• Non-target population, residents outside country X that are:

E. Citizens of country X, with doctorate awarded within country X that have left country X

F. Citizens of foreign countries, with doctorate awarded in country X that have left country X

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Target population structure (2)

• What to do with doctorates abroad

- Groups E and F are usually taken into consideration in the reporting countries where these doctorate holders are resident.

- If countries are able to construct a sample frame, and reach group E, the survey could also be extended to this group, even if countries are not requested to report information to the international organizations on them.

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Sources for constructing sampling frames

• National education registers

• Universities

• International and national foundations

• National libraries

• Population censuses

• Research institutes

• Professional organizations

• Central registers of foreigners

• Alumni organizations

• Previously conducted surveys on doctorate holders

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Survey types

• Cohorts of recent graduates:• administered on graduation and repeated every few years• simple and straightforward, but• limited coverage of the target population

• Snapshot surveys (cross-sectional retrospective sample of all doctorates):

• one time, administered on an occasional basis • more appropriate tool for collection of information related to the

entire target population • covers all cohorts at the same time• quickly provides information on the mobility and career

development of doctorate holders

• Should not be seen as mutually excluding but rather complementary

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Instruments (developed by UIS)

• Core model questionnaire containing “core questions” which would provide data to fill in the output tabulations. The questionnaire will be accompanied with a manual comprising the definitions and other guidelines.

• CDH questions data base comprises the set of questions among which the suitable questions can be chosen and applied by countries when designing CDH surveys. CDH data base will be web-based and openly accessible.

• The core model questionnaire is mainly foreseen for countries which do not have CDH type surveys yet.

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The following existing CDH questionnaires were used:

• USA (SED and SDR),

• Canada (SED),

• Switzerland (Survey of Tertiary Graduates plus Doctorates surveyed the year after they received their degree),

• Portugal (Survey of former PhD Scholarships receivers concerning their professional situation),

• India (Pilot study on the Career Profile and Professional Achievements of Doctorates in science from the Selected Central Universities/Institutions),

• Ukraine (Structure of database of Doctorate Holders in Ukraine)

Construction of Core model Questionnaire

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Modules

• Education of those with research qualifications (module EDU)

• Early career research positions (module ECR)

• Employment history (module EMP)

• International mobility (module MOB)

• Career related experience (module CAR)

• Personal characteristics (module PER)

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Information on educational history of doctorates holders, such as:

• institution

• field of science

• duration

• sources of financial support

• country of previous degrees

Doctoral Education

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• Often referred to as postdocs (definitional problems)

• Title, Field of S&T, total length

• Reasons for taking this position

• Activities involved (Research, teaching, other)

• Main source of financial support

Early career positions

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• Detailed information on employment status, working hours, principal employer, sector and type of employment (postdoc, temporary or permanent employment, part-time or full-time job ), annual earnings, job-satisfaction.

• Relationship of job & doctorate degree.

• Retrospective career history within ten past years (including occupation, dates, years of experience, and reasons for leaving position).

• “multi-job” pattern is foreseen.

Employment situation

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• Information on mobility patterns, including inflows (group D) and outflows (group C).

• Enables to distinguish temporary mobility from permanent mobility as well as to identify the reasons for departure and return.

• Provides data on intentions to move out of the country within the next year including the destination planned.

• Enquires about linkages with country of origin.

International mobility

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• Marital status

• Number of dependents

• Place of birth, date of birth, citizenship status (in order to better deal with dual nationality as well) and residential status.

• Contact information

Personal characteristics

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Way forward

• CDH surveys are being carried out in the EU, AU, US.

• The CDH kit has been published as a joint publication with OECD & Eurostat.

• An international database is being constructed.

• Involve more developing countries!

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Thank you!

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m.schaaper@uis.unesco.org