EQUALITY GUIdE - KU Leuven

Chapter 3 ! Career management 133
Figure 4: Evolution FTE junior and senior researchers at the Flemish universities (1992-2002)
In order to study the promotion opportunities of academic personnel, one and the
same group of researchers has to be followed from the starting position at a certain
point in time till the end position at a later time. The VRWB published such a cohort
analysis where the graduates from five Flemish universities (K.U.Leuven, UGent, UA,
VUB, UHasselt) were followed during their career within the institution. The results
show that 43% of the junior researchers between 1991-1994 obtained a doctorate by
2002, 18% of those junior researchers got an appointment as a senior researcher for a
limited period of time, 4% for an unlimited period of time (see table 21).
Table 21: Progress from graduation till senior researcher (1991-2002) 141
Group Total JUN %total JUN Code
! Graduates with initial second-cycle degree (obtained 27813 STUD
in academic years 1990-1993)
! Of those who go on to become junior researchers
(1991-1994)
3119 100% JUN
! Of those who obtain a doctorate till 2002 1342 43% DOC
! Of those who become senior researchers for a limited
period of time (till 2002)
! Of senior researchers for an unlimited period of time
(till 2002)
549 18% SEN BD
138 4% SEN OD
141 Vlaamse Raad voor Wetenschapsbeleid (2006), op. cit.