EQUALITY GUIdE - KU Leuven

Chapter 2 ! Career paths: recruitment ! promotion ! dismissal 119
that they were permanently living abroad, what made it difficult to make an appointment
for an interview. Three people working abroad but returning to Belgium now and
then were included in the group of participants. Two people sent an e-mail that they
once planned to start a research at Ghent University, but were never employed by this
institution. As 65 respondents enabled us to select a well-balanced group of participants,
this response rate was considered high enough. A second mailing was planned
in case the response rate had been lower.
In order to select a well-balanced group of researchers in terms of gender, age, research
domain and their desire to return to Ghent University, the potential respondents were
sent a questionnaire, asking for their:
! gender;
! nationality;
! year of birth;
! years/months of employment;
! faculty of employment;
! full-time or part-time position;
and:
! whether Ghent University was their first employer;
! why they left Ghent University;
! whether they wanted to return to Ghent University.
In case they wanted to co-operate, they could complete their contact information and
the day and place of their preference to meet for an interview.
Not all questions proved relevant for this research. E.g., the question whether Ghent
University was their first employer was of no use. Some questions needed an extra
option among the answers and others were not specific enough. E.g. the reason why
they left Ghent University should also include the option that their contract with the
institution was finished, and the question whether they would like to return to Ghent
University also needed the optional answer ‘Maybe’. The latter question, whether they
wished to return or not, might be put more specifically, e.g. whether they wanted to
pursue an academic career at Ghent University or not.
After receiving the completed questionnaires, a group of 32 researchers was selected.
This number enabled us to conduct, transcribe, code and interpret the interviews in six
months time and proved high enough to yield satisfying results. Sixteen men and 16
women were selected, half of them older than thirty and half of them younger, half of
them wanting to return to university and half of them satisfied to have left the institution.
Among them, 18 respondents came from the alpha sciences (Arts & Philosophy,
Economy & Business Administration, Law, Political & Social Sciences, Psychology &
Educational Sciences), 8 from the beta sciences (Sciences, Engineering, Bioscience
Engineering) and 6 from the gamma sciences (Medicine & Health Sciences, Pharmaceutical
Sciences, Veterinary Medicine). Eighteen respondents preferred to meet at the
university (12 men, 6 women), 14 interviews were conducted at home (4 men, 10
women).