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The Early Careers of Social Science Graduates and the Value of a Phd

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  • Ernest Rudd

Abstract

To look at the relevance of a PhD to the careers of graduates in the social sciences, the Economic and Social Research Council commissioned a survey of a sample of graduates in certain social science subjects who gained first‐ or upper second‐class honours degrees at British universities between 1972 and 1977. A substantial proportion of respondents with PhDs, and especially of those who also held first‐class honours, had become university teachers. The rest were scattered over a wide range of jobs, but few of them had needed a PhD to gain their first job after completing their studies, and there was no job group where the majority of respondents said that they had needed a PhD to do their first job well. In all job groups there were some respondents who regarded skills in research as relevant to their jobs, but other qualities imparted by a university, such as a training of the mind, were generally regarded as more relevant. Graduates with no university level post‐graduate qualifications were generally paid more than those with a PhD, implying that employers put a higher value on experience in employment than on post‐graduate research.

Suggested Citation

  • Ernest Rudd, 1990. "The Early Careers of Social Science Graduates and the Value of a Phd," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 153(2), pages 203-232, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jorssa:v:153:y:1990:i:2:p:203-232
    DOI: 10.2307/2982801
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    Cited by:

    1. Thomas Bolli & Tommaso Agasisti & Geraint Johnes, 2015. "The impact of institutional student support on graduation rates in US Ph.D. programmes," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 396-418, August.
    2. Simeonova-Ganeva, Ralitsa & Panayotova, Nataliya & Ganev, Kaloyan, 2013. "Моделиране На Възвращаемостта От Образование И Реализация На Притежателите На Докторски Степени На Пазара На Труда В България [Modeling returns to education and labour market outcomes of doctoral d," MPRA Paper 48175, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Muhammad Arslan Haider & Zulfiqar Ali, 2015. "Expansion and Evaluation of Social Sciences Disciplines in the Public Sector Universities of Pakistan from 1947 to 2013," PIDE-Working Papers 2015:131, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics.
    4. Jennifer Platt, 2000. "Women in the British Sociological Labour Market, 1960-1995," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 4(4), pages 127-138, February.

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