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photonics experts, statisticians or agricultural scientists.
A rigorous application of the argument that the supply of places in different disciplines should relate to
some assessment of demand implies the need for succession planning and an assumption of stability
in demand which is unrealistic and highly unlikely. Even academic departments wax and wane in
response to external factors, including the changing balance of research funding flowing from business
as well as from government decisions.
The oversupply argument often focuses on the lack of academic careers for graduating PhD students.
Focussing on academic careers ignores the data that demonstrate PhD graduates tend to have high
rates of employment, even if most are in non-academic positions. Research students are sufficiently
intelligent to be aware that they have only a small chance of obtaining permanent academic positions.
Moreover, at least in the physical and natural sciences, doctoral students show a decreasing interest in
academic careers the further they are into their degree program. 69 The major reasons for taking a PhD
relate to an intrinsic interest in the subject and personal satisfaction.
Supervisors and research students should all know that in principle PhD training provides benefits
for many career paths, including those going beyond the performance of research in other sectors.
Moreover, at least some part-time PhD students are already working in their chosen career and
are taking a PhD for personal interest and enrichment or to help advance their existing career.
Nevertheless, taking a broader view of the career trajectories that a PhD can expedite does raise issues
about the balance of outcomes that PhD training should explicitly aim to achieve.
In any case, labour market planning is always difficult and often out of kilter with business and other
cycles. A University of California report on workforce projections and job market trends for graduate
and professional degree recipients emphasised the difficulties involved by noting that a review of major
national PhD workforce studies and projections:
... indicates that different analyses have reached sometimes conflicting conclusions regarding future
Ph.D. demand and supply, with some analyses projecting large Ph.D. shortages and others projecting
large Ph.D. surpluses. 70
There are many aspects to the debate on the appropriate balance between the supply of PhD
graduates and the demand for them. The perspectives of students, employers, universities, PhD
supervisors and others can be very different because they each have a different view about the
purpose and value of a PhD. For example, producing graduates unable to find opportunities to use the
narrow, specialised knowledge they have acquired through the qualification they have achieved may
seem wasteful. However, the research performed by a research student can have a value beyond and
independent of its benefit to the student or to the graduate’s ability to use in subsequent employment
the specialised skills developed in performing the research. Moreover, a
high quality PhD program produces more than specialised knowledge.
Many PhD graduates have interesting and useful jobs that make use
of their specialised knowledge indirectly at best but which provide
challenging opportunities to use the analytical, conceptual and problem
solving skills their training developed. This then raises questions about
the purpose of a PhD and whether current PhD training is the best way
to meet this purpose.
Should the number of
PhDs depend more on
student, employer or
government interest?
While it is not necessary to have a PhD to be a high school teacher, some teachers do have a PhD.
The questions are whether this makes them better teachers and if so whether this makes the cost of
69. www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7399-535a
70. http://www.ucop.edu/planning/documents/apdx2.pdf
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