PhDs—Ten Years Later [1996]

Articles from PhDs - Ten Years Later Study:

Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education. 2003.  “Career Outcomes of Political Science PhD Recipients:  Results from the PhDs–Ten Years Later Study.  Report for Political Science Association.  Download:  Career Outcomes of Political Science PhDs

Rudd, E. and L. Homer. 2005. “CIRGE Charts Work/Family Paths of Female PhDs.” in Women in Higher Education, September 2005, pp 36-37.  Download:  CIRGE Charts Work Family Paths 

Maresi Nerad and Joseph Cerny, Communicator, Vol XXXII (7), Fall 1999. Reprinted in ADE Bulletin no 124, winter 2000. Association of Departments of English, New York: the Modern Language Association.  Download:  From Rumors to Facts

Nerad, Maresi.  “Improving Doctoral Education: Recommendations from the PhDs - Ten Years Later Study. Communicator, vol XXXIII, no. 2, p. 6.  Washington DC. March 2000.  Download:  Improving Doctoral Education

Gupta, D., Nerad, M. and Cerny, J. 2003. “International PhDs: Exploring the Decision to Stay or Return.” in International Higher Education, Spring, Boston: CIHE, Boston College.  Download:  International PhDs

Aanerud, R., Homer, L., Neard, M., and Cerny, J.  “Paths and Perceptions: Assessing Doctoral Education using Career Path Analysis.” in The Assessment of Doctoral Education, eds. Peggy L.Maki and Nancy Borkowski.  Sterling, VA: Stylus, 2006.  Download:  Paths and Perceptions 

Maresi Nerad.  Paper presented at the “Science, training and career : changing modes of knowledge production and labor markets” Workshop held on 21 and 22 October 2002 in Enschede, The Netherlands.  Download:  The PhD in the US

Maresi Nerad and Joseph Cerny. “Postdoctoral Appointments and Employment: Patterns of Science and Engineering Doctoral Recipients Ten-plus Years after Ph.D. Completion”, Communicator, VXXXV (7), August-September 2002.  Download:  postdoctoral-appointments

Maresi Nerad and Joseph Cerny. “Postdoctoral Patterns, Career Advancement, and Problems.”
Science,3 September 1999, Vol. 285, pp. 1533-1535.  Download:  Postdoctoral Patterns 

Nerad, Maresi, Rebecca Aanerud and Joseph Cerny. 2004. “So You Want to Become a Professor! Lessons from the PhDs—Ten Years Later Study,” in Paths to the Professoriate: Strategies for Enriching the Preparation of Future Faculty. eds. Donald H. Wulff, Ann Austin, and Associates. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.  Download:  So You Want to Become a Professor 

Maresi Nerad and Joseph Cerny, “Widening the Circle:  Another Look at Women Graduate Students.” Communicator Vol XXX11 (6), August 1999.  Download:  Widening the Circle

Aanerud, Rebecca, Emory Morrison, Lori Home, Elizabeth Rudd, Maresi Nerad and Joseph Cerny.  2007.  “Widening the Lens on Gender and Tenure:  Looking Beyond the Academic Labor Market.”  NWSA Journal, Vol 19.  No. 3 (Fall).  Download:  Widening the Lens 

Methods: The PhDs—Ten Years Later study surveyed nearly 6,000 PhDs who completed their graduate education between 1983 and 1985 from 61 doctoral granting institutions across the United States. Six disciplines were chosen to represent major fields of study: life science, engineering, humanities, physical science, and social science. Respondents completed a 22-page questionnaire that focused on their employment history, the job search process, factors that influenced their decisions to accept first and current positions, retrospective evaluations of their doctoral programs, and the usefulness of the PhD. The survey had a response rate of 66 percent for domestic PhDs and 52 percent for international PhDs.

The PhDs-Ten Years Later survey, designed by Maresi Nerad who was one of the study’s co-PIs, was developed in order to collect information on the career paths of doctorate holders and to examine the feasibility of assessing doctoral programs in terms of the career outcomes of their graduates.  As such this study was the first national survey that asked students to retrospectively evaluate their doctoral programs and the usefulness of their PhDs in light of their careers. It was also the first survey that collected career-path information up to a period of 10+ years. A timeframe of over ten years assures that most graduates have settled into more stable and permanent employment because some fields practically require a postdoctoral appointment. (In biochemistry the average time PhD recipients spend in postdoctoral appointment is 3.9 years.)

Some key findings of the study include:

  • an analysis of career paths including information on postdoctoral appointments and their role in career advancement, and specific employment patterns of women and minorities;

  • relationships between types of institutions attended and subsequent career paths;

  • factors that influence the decision of international doctoral recipients to remain in the United States or to return home;

  • an investigation of the career paths of dual career couples and the effects of marriage and children on career advancement;
  • measurement of job satisfaction and how PhDs value their education education;
  • a comprehensive retrospective evaluation of many aspects of doctoral programs across the six selected field and types of universities.

Investigators: Joseph Cerny, Professor and Graduate Dean 1985-2000, University of California, Berkeley; Maresi Nerad, Director of Graduate Research, University of California, Berkeley, Graduate Division