New study finds majority of TDR postgraduate grantees return home
TDR’s postgraduate training support sometimes requires grantees to move to another country for their degree, but a new study has found that they return home and find productive jobs at a much higher rate than other grant-funding organizations in Europe.
The European Science Foundation developed the study as a pilot to track the careers of doctorate holders. Five organizations joined the project: TDR, the AXA Research Fund in France, the Fonds National de la Recherche of Luxembourg, the Goethe Graduate Academy in Germany, and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. In 2014, they provided names of alumni, resulting in 499 respondents (of which 77 had received TDR support).
The study found that geographic mobility is usually a one-way path – from peripheral economic areas, such as low- and middle-income countries, to European centres. The authors say that this undermines development and they recommend policies support more balanced regional inflows/retention of doctorate holders.
“We were very pleased to see confirmation in this study of TDR’s success in helping researchers from low- and middle-income countries return home after study abroad,” said TDR Director John Reeder. “Strengthening and retaining research capacity is a critical goal of ours, and this pilot study helps us in our continuing evaluation of what has the strongest impact.”
“We were very pleased to see confirmation in this study of TDR’s success in helping researchers from low- and middle-income countries return home after study abroad.”
John Reeder, TDR Director
There was only a 1% unemployment rate, with most working as academic researchers in public sector institutions. When people had permanent contracts, they were found to be more productive than those on temporary contracts. They were twice as likely to produce patents, nearly 3 times as likely to have had a significant impact on policy or practice, more likely to have been awarded an academic prize, and were nearly twice as likely to have undertaken public engagement activities.
However, the report cites changes underway, with temporary contracts far more prevalent among those who received their degree less than 5 years ago, and it recommended to grant institutions that they should help graduates find employment outside academia and make necessary improvements/adjustments to training.
TDR has recently launched a new postgraduate scheme that provides funding to universities in low- and middle-income countries to increase the numbers of regional students. It also provides short-term support for customized training not found in university degrees.
The career tracking pilot was supported by TDR as part of its development of an alumni and stakeholder network called TDR Global. The goal is to track the impact of the support on careers and adjust where necessary.
For more information, contact Pascal Launois (launoisp@who.int).