The more open universities are about where their PhDs are getting jobs, the better equipped current students are to forge their own career paths.
This is a guest post by Chris Pickett, director of Rescuing Biomedical Research.
For the past 20 years, expert panels of scientists have recommended universities track and report the career outcomes of their PhD alumni. Little progress has been made, though it remains an important recommendation. Seeing where PhDs go after completing their degree is important info for prospective and current trainees to be able to blaze their own career path.
When we at Rescuing Biomedical Research started our career outcomes project in 2015, about two dozen (U.S.) universities collected and published career outcomes information on their PhD alumni. They were all using similar data collection methods, and they were also using similar career taxonomies to describe the jobs their alumni have.
To fully implement the recommendation to improve transparency in career outcomes, we had to do two things. First, gather the successful methods for collecting data on PhD career outcomes. Second, harmonize the career taxonomies being used. Universities using the same job definitions allows for direct comparison of career outcomes across institutions.
As more and more universities looked to collect and publish career outcomes data, we convened a working group with members from institutions that already collected and published data. These included members of the U.S. National Institutes of Health's Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training consortium, universities that were in the process of collecting data, and university organizations such as the Association of American Universities and the Association of American Medical Colleges.
A white paper with the outcomes of this meeting can be viewed here, and more detail can be found on the RBR website.
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