The unequal, insecure plight of PhD researchers across the E
Apr 15, 2023 5:59:05 GMT
jonksy likes this
Post by buccaneer on Apr 15, 2023 5:59:05 GMT
The future of scientific progress and knowledge in the EU looks young but precarious.
At the start of their research careers, Europeans with a bachelor's and master's degree face different forms of insecurity depending on which member state they are in.
In the EU's less research-intensive countries poor salaries, low public-private investment and a lack of formal contracts prevail, while in those with more research activity there is high competition among candidates for a permanent research contract.
Mostly, but not exclusively, in the latter "PhD students face a succession of fixed-term contracts, without a perspective for an open-ended contract," senior economist at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) Jürgen Janger explained to EUobserver.
From his analysis Precarious Careers in Research (2022) it is clear that for PhD students, having a formal contract and access to social protection is not always the norm. In countries such as Poland, at this early stage of their research career, three-out-of-four did not have a formal contract before the pandemic.
... While in Germany or Belgium the business sectors invest about 70 percent of the total R&D expenditure, in Latvia they put in little more than 20 percent. These differences impact the chances of becoming a researcher in different EU countries. To give another example, in Sweden and Denmark, working as a researcher is seven-to-eight times more likely than in Romania, the WIFO analysis estimates.
Their vision of the future is not much more promising. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that, on average, it takes a doctorate-holder more than a decade to attain the salary of a master's holder.
At the start of their research careers, Europeans with a bachelor's and master's degree face different forms of insecurity depending on which member state they are in.
In the EU's less research-intensive countries poor salaries, low public-private investment and a lack of formal contracts prevail, while in those with more research activity there is high competition among candidates for a permanent research contract.
Mostly, but not exclusively, in the latter "PhD students face a succession of fixed-term contracts, without a perspective for an open-ended contract," senior economist at the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO) Jürgen Janger explained to EUobserver.
From his analysis Precarious Careers in Research (2022) it is clear that for PhD students, having a formal contract and access to social protection is not always the norm. In countries such as Poland, at this early stage of their research career, three-out-of-four did not have a formal contract before the pandemic.
... While in Germany or Belgium the business sectors invest about 70 percent of the total R&D expenditure, in Latvia they put in little more than 20 percent. These differences impact the chances of becoming a researcher in different EU countries. To give another example, in Sweden and Denmark, working as a researcher is seven-to-eight times more likely than in Romania, the WIFO analysis estimates.
Their vision of the future is not much more promising. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that, on average, it takes a doctorate-holder more than a decade to attain the salary of a master's holder.
euobserver.com/health-and-society/156897