Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

ENGINEERING: ISSUES CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENTDoctorates in engineering as a percentage of total doctorates in 2006(rounded figures)Slovak Republic (27%), Poland (26%), Bulgaria (25%), Romania (23%), Czech Republic(22%), Cyprus (21%), Belgium (20%), Portugal (20%), Lithuania (19%), Latvia (18%),Denmark (16%), Austria (14%), Estonia (9%), Germany (9%), Spain (9%).Western and Eastern Europe countries – lowest in Belgiumand Cyprus (only 28 years) but significantly higher in, forinstance Bulgaria (44), Lithuania (42), Romania and the CzechRepublic (40). In about half the countries surveyed, womenobtained their engineering doctorates faster than their malecounterparts (Table 1).whereas, for instance Germany, Estonia and Spain (with around10 per cent) show other preferences (medical sciences are 30per cent in Germany and 20 per cent in Spain). The humanitiesshow between 10–15 per cent of total doctorate degrees in amajority of the countries observed. The study estimates theshare of engineering science doctorates in the United States asperhaps some 15 per cent.Whereas the numbers of women are increasingly equalling orsurpassing those of men at the lower levels of tertiary education(enrolments, graduates) – of course still with variationsbetween countries and fields of study – they are still underrepresentedamong overall doctorate holders and as scienceand engineering graduates compared to men. They are alsooverall less engaged in typical engineering and technician professionsand in research occupations. Female 1990–2006 doctoratesaccounted for between 30–50 per cent of the total; themedian of some twenty-two countries ( Europe and the UnitedStates) being just under 40 per cent in 2006. There are howeverclear signs that since 1998, the numbers of female doctoratesare now increasing faster than those of men, but they still haveto catch up in both the science fields (with 38 per cent on averageof total doctorates) and notably in engineering where theyonly represented 21 per cent of the total doctorates in 2006.Overall unemployment rates for doctorate holders (notexceeding 2–3 per cent in 2006) are currently about half thoseof graduates with lower level diplomas and still lower thanthose of the population as a whole, though with variationsbetween countries and fields of training. Women are morelikely to be unemployed than men and are also engaged inmore unstable positions than men. Unemployment rates aregenerally higher in the humanities and social sciences (wherethere is a majority of female doctorates) than in the ‘hard sciences’(including engineering) where men still constitute themajority of the workforce. The first CDH survey had shownthat in the United States (2003), the unemployment rate forengineering and technology doctorate holders (and also inthe natural sciences) was higher than that of any other broaddiscipline, notably the social sciences and the humanities but,apparently, this situation is slowly becoming more balanced.The world median age at graduation of doctorate holders inengineering appears to be about 32 years around 2005–2006(with some fifteen countries in the 30–35 years interval), butthis figure reveals considerable differences notably betweenBroadly three-quarters of the overall doctorate holders areworking in the higher education sector. The government sectoris also an important employer of doctorate holders who areactive in research and teaching activities or otherwise workingin management and professional positions. Engineering doctorateholders would be expected essentially to work in theenterprise sector but in nine out of the thirteen countries forwhich such sector of employment data are available, the universitysector attracts more engineering doctors than firms. Inthe other four countries (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republicand the United States) enterprise is employing something likeat least 10 per cent of the engineering doctors population.Table 1: Median age at graduation of engineeringdoctoral graduates 2005–2006Women Men TotalArgentina .. .. 33Australia 31 31 31Austria 30.9 32.5 32.4Belgium 29 28 28Bulgaria 34 45 44Cyprus .. 28 28Czech Republic 33.5 40.0 39.5Denmark 31.7 31 31.2Estonia 37.0 32.0 34.5Finland 34 33 33Japan 33.5 34.0 ..Latvia 32 32 32Lithuania 31 29 30Norway 30.7 31.1 31.0Poland 32 32 32Portugal 34 36 36Romania 38 43 40Slovakia 30 30 30Spain 31 32 32Sweden 32 32 32Switzerland 30 31 31United States 30.2 31.0 30.8Source: OECD, UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Eurostat78