From apprentice to agenda-setter: comparative analysis of the influence of contract conditions on roles in the scientific community

Abstract

Academic career paths in Europe are heterogeneous, and the chances for early career researchers to become a permanent member of the academic profession differ from country to country. In some countries, the employment prospects are very insecure. It is asked whether contract conditions at universities influence the chance of taking over a mature role in management functions in the scientific community in Germany, the Netherlands and Norway. The concept of Laudel and Gläser about the organizational career and the community career is operationalized with comparative survey data. The analysis shows certain common predictors for all countries: academics not holding a PhD degree, as well as those spending the majority of time for teaching, have lower chances to perform management functions in the scientific community. Still, every country shows a different composition of predictors.

Keywords:

• academic career
• career stages
• generations
• international comparison
• academic community

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. http://www.foustatistikkbanken.no/nifu/; National R&D statistics -> R & D personnel (head count); Institution: Universities.

2. The data are weighted. Unweighted case numbers: DE 963, NL 539 and NO 880. Academics without teaching or research activity are excluded, through this the dataset reduced by DE 7%, NL 14%, and NO 7%.

3. Questions: What is your gender? Year of Birth.

4. The Norwegian personnel statistics suggest a larger share of permanently employed staff 6 years after obtaining a PhD.

5. ISCED disciplines, compare http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/isced-fos-consultation-draft-2013-en.pdf, p. 13. In the survey, respondents were asked to identify the discipline of their current academic unit. Missing cases were imputed by the discipline of highest degree or current teaching.

6. M0 controlling by gender and disciplines explains 6% of the variance in Germany and less in the other countries. Gender is significant in both Germany and Norway, but moderated by other variables in the following models.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the German Research Foundation and the Hans-Böckler-Foundation.