Societal production and careers of PhDs in chemistry and biochemistry in France and Japan

Abstract

Since the late 1980s, the production of PhDs has become a much-discussed political issue, and the reforms and tensions surrounding this category of graduates have gathered momentum. Vocational fields and the contents of PhD education have evolved everywhere, partly because, as academic competition has intensified, the American ‘graduate school model’ has become widely diffused at international level. Based on both quantitative surveys and qualitative investigations, this article attempts to understand the ways in which PhDs are produced and integrated into the labour market in France and Japan, the way in which PhD training is linked to Japanese and French higher education and research policies and the way they have evolved together in recent years. In doing so, we seek to determine the societal foundation underpinning the labour market for PhD holders and the innovation trajectory each of the countries is now following.

Keywords:

• international comparison
• PhD studies
• PhD policy
• research policy
• labour market

Notes

1. We wish to thank the ANR (the French Research Agency) for the funds which allowed us to carry out this research work within NewDynam project.

2. France and Japan enjoy a comparable ranking in this competition, with 19 and 17 Nobel Prizes for science respectively since 1945. The proportion of the 1% of most-quoted academic articles – all fields included – during the 2000s is 4% to 5% in both countries.

3. The fields of chemistry and life sciences were targeted because of: (a) their high unemployment rates; and (b) the above-average share of PhDs finding jobs in industry.

4. In France, 20 interviews (11 at the Chimie Paris Tech, nine at Paris-Sud university) and in Japan 23 (nine at Kyoto University, 14 at Tokyo University).

5. Number of researchers per thousand of the economically active population: 11% in Japan, 8.4% in France.

6. In 2006, the ratio of PhDs in science/engineering per 1 million inhabitants was 56 in Japan, compared to 93 in France, whereas the overall number of degrees awarded annually was 11,400 in France and 16,000 in Japan (source: OECD).

7. They can then either take personal leave and return to university or continue to be remunerated by their companies for the purpose of following this training.

8. Only 4% of industrial researchers have a PhD in Japan, compared to 13% in France.

9. Ten percent in 2007 compared with 7% in 1999 (3 years after obtaining their degree): (source: Cereq Generation Surveys).

10. 2008 Annual Survey on Education, Ministry of Education, Tokyo

11. In 2010, job seekers – not necessarily unemployed – accounted for 29.2% of all fresh PhD graduates, 32% of PhDs in science; in 2004, the figures were 22.2% overall and 23% for PhDs in science.

12. Academic posts employing PhD holders three years after they have gained their degree account for 58% of permanent employment contracts in France and only 43% in Japan.

13. 2008 annual survey of post-doctorates, NISTEP 2010, Tokyo.

14. Three years after completing their studies, 38% of PhDs in science/engineering in France are employed by private firms, compared with just 28% in Japan; 62% in France are employed in HER, compared to 72% in Japan, excluding employment in sectors not attached to HER or to private firms,

15. 39% in France and 44% in Japan go into industry.