– Laudel, G. , J. Gläser(2007). From apprentice to colleague: The metamorphosis of Early Career Researchers. Higher Education, Volume:55, Issue: 3 (March, 2008),pp: 387–406
Abstract . While the studies of Early Career Researchers (ECRs) have contributed politically important insights into factors hindering ECRs, they have not yet achieved a theoretical understanding of the causal mechanisms that are at work in the transition from dependent to independent research. This paper positions the early career phase in a theoretical framework that combines approaches from the sociology of science and organisational sociology and emphasises the transitional process. In this framework, the early career phase is considered as containing a status passage from the apprentice to the colleague state of their career in their scientific communities. In order to capture the mechanisms underlying this transition, it is important to analyse the interactions of these careers as they unfold over time. The usefulness of this approach is demonstrated with a pilot study of Australian ECRs. We show (a) that misalignments of the three careers stretch the transition phase; (b) that the two major factors affecting the transition are a successful PhD and a research-intensive phase prior to normal academic employment; and (c) that the most important condition hindering the transition is the lack of time for research. It can be concluded that as a result of a ‘market failure’ of the university system, the transition from dependent to independent research is currently being relocated to a phase between the PhD and the first academic position.
– Naess, T. (2004). Forecasting the Norwegian Labour Market for Graduates Holding Higher Degrees. Higher Education in Europe, XXIX, Issue 1, p0-114, 12p
Abstract. This article investigates the phenomenon of long-term unemployed graduates of Norwegian higher education institutions over the period 1973–1999. The phenomenon was unexpected. One explanation for it is that the market for graduates was and remains in disequilibrium because wages are not sufficiently flexible downward. Thus unemployment would be involuntary. The other explanation is that unemployment is voluntary because the elasticity of the graduate labour supply is pushing wages down, and graduates are not accepting employment for which wages appear to be unacceptably low. They are waiting for better opportunities to appear. The author has undertaken a simulation by which he has proved, to his satisfaction, that the first explanation is the correct one and that only a slight improvement in the employment prospects of university graduates can be expected in the near future.
– Leray, N., Raban, T. & Laviolette, G. (2006). From PhD to Employment. Fedora Employment group.
Abstract.Le guide de la formation et de l’emploi des docteurs en Europe. Pays par pays, ce guide rassemble les informations sur tout ce qu’un jeune docteur européen doit connaître lors du cheminement le conduisant de la préparation de sa thèse de doctorat à son premier emploi, que ce soit dans le secteur académique ou privé. La nouvelle édition 2003 de cet ouvrage est publiée par l’Association Bernard Gregory, Fedora (Forum européen de l’orientation académique) et le service emploi de l’université Denis Diderot (Paris 7). En mars 2006, le guide a été augmenté de trois nouveaux pays : la Hongrie, la Pologne et la République Tchèque. [ Text, in English]