HASS PhD graduate careers and knowledge transfer: A conduit for enduring,multi-sector networks

Abstract

Rising worldwide scrutiny of the PhD has focused on issues such as return on investment and career outcomes. This article investigates PhD graduate careers and knowledge transfer looking at the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS). Firstly, our extensive literature review of PhD graduate outcomes reveals limited knowledge of HASS careers and a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) bias. Secondly, our case study of graduates suggests HASS PhDs provide a vital conduit for end-user engagement and knowledge transfer. Our findings deepen knowledge about the careers of HASS PhDs by revealing pre-existing professional networks may be harnessed to inform end-user relationships throughout candidature and post-graduation. Contrary to dominant assumptions, these networks may endure even for graduates in the academy. This under-recognized phenomenon demonstrates the multi-sector knowledge transfer capacity of HASS researchers with implications for their research capability and career development needs and perceptions of the value of their research.

Keywords

PhD Humanities Arts and Social Sciences (HASS)researcher careers knowledge transfer industry and end-user engagement

Introduction

Each year the world sees a staggering number of doctoral graduates: combining the most recent estimates by the OECD and China suggests a figure of around 400,000 (China Academic Degrees & Graduate Education Development Center 2017 cited by Gu et al., 2017; OECD.Stat, 2019). It is little wonder, therefore, that understanding the career pathways and other outcomes of doctoral graduates is of interest to governments and research institutions worldwide. For example, in our research for this article, we located numerous studies of PhD graduate career pathways undertaken in the last five years by both individual universities and national organizations in Europe, the US, the UK, Canada, China and Australia. One reason for this interest in graduate careers is clear: career paths confound conventional expectations.

In aggregate, over half of all PhD graduates are employed in non-academic sectors, namely: private, government, not-for-profit or self-employment (ACIC & BCA [Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry & Business Council of Australia], 2002; Borrell-Damian et al., 2010; Cunningham et al., 2016; Cuthbert and Molla, 2015a, 2015b; Evans, 2001; Geiger, 1997; Kendall, 2002; McGagh et al., 2016; Mowbray and Halse, 2010; OECD, 2016; Shin et al., 2018; Walker et al., 2008). As others have observed, this reflects a move from what might be called the ‘traditional’ PhD – with its focus on the preparation of ‘stewards of the discipline’ – to the ‘modern’ PhD, in which knowledge transfer is a key aim (Golde and Walker & Associates, 2006; Lee, 2018; Muller, 2009).

Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) graduates comprise approximately 38% of the worldwide annual total (excluding China), but as we show in this paper, there is less knowledge about what they do compared to STEM graduates (OECD.Stat, 2019). This applies to the issue of career pathways as well as end-user engagement and knowledge transfer practices. Indeed, the two issues may be connected. The propensity of HASS graduates to remain within higher education on graduation may contribute to perceptions regarding the limited ‘usefulness’ of their research to the world beyond the academy. As others have observed, and as we discuss further below, HASS researchers are subjected to persistent yet flawed conceptions of the value of their research compared to those in STEM (Olmos-Peñuela et al., 2014a, 2014b). This is due in part to a lack of data about graduate careers and knowledge transfer related activities.

As is widely known, knowledge transfer and associated practices such as end-user engagement are underpinned by utility-oriented objectives aimed at connecting research to practice and policy imperatives – such as innovation systems (Phipps et al., 2012: 180). Typically, university knowledge transfer objectives focus on so-called ‘external’ or ‘Third Stream’ engagement, with the explicit aim of commercialization of research through partnerships connected to entrepreneurial programs, incubators and new business seed funds, patents and licenses (Bell et al., 2015; Cunningham et al., 2016; Howard, 2015; Hughes et al., 2011; Innovate UK, 2018; Markuerkiaga et al., 2014; University of Cambridge Enterprise, 2015; Watson et al., 2016).

HASS knowledge transfer practices, however, are disproportionally under-represented in the literature and under-recognized by policy makers (Hayden et al., 2018; Olmos-Peñuela et al., 2014a, 2014b; Wutti and Hayden, 2017). There are several reasons for this cited in the literature, and two key factors we highlight here. Firstly, HASS research impact tends to either be hidden or downplayed both in terms of connections to non-academic sectors and contributions to society (Ackers et al., 2014; Hayden et al., 2018; Hughes et al., 2011; Olmos-Peñuela et al., 2014a, 2014b). Two reports, from the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK (Hughes et al., 2011) and the European Commission SHH mapping project, POCARIM (Ackers et al., 2014), have documented these issues in detail, finding that HASS end-user engagement is more likely to be people based and community oriented than connected to patents, licenses or spin-outs. As Hayden et al. (2018: 32) argue, normative, STEM-based, models of knowledge transfer either diminish or render exceptional activities that are not commercially oriented: ‘Achievements in fields characterized as “science-to-professionals” and “science-to-public” knowledge transfer are often not appreciated, but rather evaluated as extraordinary and voluntary contributions’.

As Phipps et al. (2012: 179–181) argue, the social sciences and humanities (SSH) ‘help us understand and address wicked problems’; or, as Olmos-Penuela et al. (2014a: 386) put it, offer ‘intangible, non-economic, benefits’ to society. This raises the second and related issue we wish to highlight about the limited recognition of HASS knowledge transfer practices. HASS collaborations tend to be informal and thus may not be captured by existing metrics or audit practices (Olmos-Peñuela et al., 2014a; Wutti and Hayden, 2017). The net result of these two factors is limited knowledge about HASS research and its societal benefit compared to STEM fields, and by extension, limited understanding of these issues as they relate to PhD candidates in HASS.

This article takes up these issues by looking at the role HASS PhDs play in fostering knowledge transfer and societal benefit. We find that HASS PhDs offer an important and largely overlooked conduit for knowledge transfer and end-user engagement that warrants far greater attention. HASS PhD networks range across sectors, and while they may have their genesis prior to commencement of the PhD, can endure beyond candidature into post-graduation academic careers. That is to say, pre-existing professional networks may be harnessed to inform enduring and productive end-user relationships.

The structure of this paper is as follows. Firstly, we examine the current state of knowledge about PhD graduate outcomes and careers globally. Our review of the literature on studies of PhD graduate outcomes reveals a bias towards STEM with limited knowledge of HASS careers. Secondly, we report on an individual university case study investigating levels of in-candidature and post-graduation non-academic end-user engagement by HASS graduates of PhD programs. We conclude by discussing implications of these insights concerning HASS PhD graduate careers for conventional approaches to university–industry initiatives in doctoral programs and alternative modes of multi-sector engagement leading to contributions to society.

Before we begin, a statement is necessary concerning the disciplinary classifications referred to in this article. It is customary to use broad classifications such as HASS or SSH to denote a collection of cognate disciplines which, by necessity, gloss over far ranging practices, methodologies and ontologies. There is a range of these in the literature, which comprise varying combinations of research fields such as SSH; HASS; Arts and Humanities (AH), and in this article, we use HASS as the broadest classification. Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines may also be expanded to STEMM to include medicine. Cross-over classifications such as STEAM are also in use to denote Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics fields. In our analysis of the literature, we endeavour to provide as much clarity as we can about these multiple and overlapping categories where relevant. For example, a number of the studies and reports examined for this article omitted mathematics from broad category breakdowns, and we identify where this occurs. At institutions such as ours, RMIT University, which has a predominantly applied focus, creative arts and social science-related fields far outweigh those traditionally associated with the humanities, such as history, philosophy and so on. Categorizations such as HASS are useful therefore in so far as they delineate broad disciplinary resemblances; however, they can also obscure more subtle differences, for example in the creative arts, in which PhD candidate numbers have risen exponentially over the past decade, particularly in Australia (Dobson, 2013).

PhD graduate outcomes

What is the current state of knowledge about PhD graduate outcomes and careers globally? In this first section, we examine existing research on PhD graduate career pathways. Our review examines institutional initiatives and independent and non-government reports tracking PhD graduate careers, employment rates and destinations in a number of countries, which include a statistical breakdown for both STEM and HASS disciplines. This is an important caveat because R&D statistical manuals compiled by organizations including OECD, Eurostat and UNESCO provide limited detailed data about HASS. For example, the 1995 OECD “Canberra Manual” analyses the measurement of human resources devoted to science and technology, and although the OECD Careers of Doctorate Holders (Auriol et al., 2013) includes data on the sample populations by broad discipline group, the US data expressly exclude the humanities. This is a significant omission given that the US produced an estimated 23% of global PhD graduates in 2014 (OECD Indicators, 2016). Additionally, in order to ensure the most up-to-date results, our review excludes studies published prior to 2013.

The review method adopted in this study comprised searching library databases; national education and research organizations; publicly available university reports and statistics tracking PhD graduate outcomes published from 2013. We located a total of 10 studies of PhD graduate careers in this time: three in Europe and the UK (Boman et al., 2017; CFE Research, 2014; Vitae: CRAC, 2016); four in Canada (Jonker, 2016; McGill Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, 2015; School of Graduate Studies University of Toronto, 2018; UBC Faculty of Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies, 2017); two in the USA (Duke Graduate School, 2018; Stanford Institutional Research & Decision Support, 2018) and one in China, undertaken with doctoral students at eight universities (Gu et al., 2017).

As Figure 1 shows, the scale of the studies we identified varies considerably in terms of population size and numbers. The largest and most extensive are the following four: University of Toronto’s ‘10,000 PhDs’ project; Duke University 2002–2017 graduates; UBC graduates 2005–2013 and Stanford’s PhD alumni project, undertaken in 2013–2014 for graduates of 5 and 10 years. The University of Toronto study, which tracked 10,000 graduates between 2000 and 2015, is by far the most detailed with an impressive respondent rate of 88% (School of Graduate Studies University of Toronto, 2018). By contrast, the McGill university study, the smallest we identified, had fewer than 500 respondents.

Figure 1.

PhD graduate careers surveys: Population Size.

While these studies share a common subject matter – PhD graduates – they are by no means uniform. Variable factors, in addition to study population size, include age profile of respondents, time since completion and disciplinary mix. Variations in the discipline mix include both the range of disciplines included within a particular study and the composition of disciplinary groupings. As highlighted above, STEM disciplines may comprise engineering and two or three sciences, such as biomedical, biological and physical sciences. HASS, on the other hand, may be separated or combined into a single group. Putting aside for a moment these comparative challenges, the data in aggregate provide a useful snapshot of PhD graduate outcomes generally. This suggests the following:

PhD graduates across all fields enjoy high overall levels of employment (McGill University and CFE UK 89%; Duke University 94%; ESF Europe 95%; UBC Canada 96%).

Over 60% of all PhD candidates initially begin their degree with the aim of an academic career pathway; however, this can change by time of completion (Vitae UK).

Between 40 and 50% of all graduates’ work in non-academic sectors (Duke University; ESF Europe; Ontario Universities; Stanford University; UBC Canada; UK CFE; Vitae UK; University of Toronto).

STEM and Health graduates are the most likely to be employed in non-academic professions (Duke University 2018; ESF Europe 2017; McGill University; CFE UK; Ontario Universities; Stanford University; University of Toronto).

HASS graduates are most likely to be employed in higher education (as per point 4).

By way of summary, therefore, aggregate available data on PhD graduates suggest a cohort both employable and capable of finding employment in non-academic professions. This could be read in different ways: viewed negatively, it could be seen as reflecting the current lack of secure employment within universities; or more positively, as vindication of the capabilities PhD graduates bring to employment in a range of other sectors. But as this summary suggests, career trajectories vary considerably by broad disciplinary group.

PhD graduate outcomes – HASS/STEM

In all the studies we examined, the PhD graduate story differs along broad disciplinary lines. A consistent finding is that HASS-classified PhD graduates are more likely to work in Higher Education than STEM-classified graduates, albeit not necessarily as tenure-track academics. For example, the University of Toronto’s ‘10,000 PhDs’ project found that humanities graduates are predominantly employed in the post-secondary education sector (79%) and social sciences (66%) with a higher proportion of graduates in the public and private sectors in the latter group – see Figure 2. While that study found there are some STEM fields that have a similar pattern, such as astronomy, botany, earth sciences, mathematics and zoology – where over 60% of graduates were employed in the post-secondary education sector – in disciplines such as chemistry, civil engineering, laboratory medicine, pharmaceutical sciences and biomedical engineering, over 50% of graduates work in the private and/or public sector (i.e. beyond the university). In the Stanford University study, 77% of HASS respondents were employed in academic positions. This includes 54% of the 10-year cohort and 46% of the five-year cohort in tenure-track positions. Similarly, 74% of Duke University humanities graduates work in academia or higher education, with 48% in tenure-track positions and 18% tenured.

Figure 2.

University of Toronto HASS Graduate Career Pathways.

Results from the other large study, Duke University, which tracked graduates from 2002 to 2017, found a similar picture: 74% of humanities and 63% of social science graduates employed in higher education. By comparison, 60% of engineering graduates and 41% of biological, biomedical and physical sciences graduates were employed in business and industry – the ‘beyond academia’ category (Figure 3). The ‘further training’ category in this figure includes graduates undertaking a further degree, medical/residency or postdoctoral fellowship. This is also weighted towards STEM graduates, with 25% from sciences and 15% from engineering and only 5% from humanities pursuing this pathway.

Figure 3.

Duke University PhD Graduates Career Outcomes 2002–2017.

Despite the consistency of these findings, there is reason to be cautious about the data pertaining to HASS graduates. In all 10 studies we reviewed, the proportion of STEM respondents is consistently higher than that from HASS disciplines – see Figure 4. This suggests that knowledge of PhD graduate outcomes may be skewed disproportionally toward STEM graduates. Our analysis suggests two factors are the cause of this: firstly, more studies focus on STEM; secondly, STEM graduates often represent a higher proportion of the population and/or sample size in comparative studies of STEM and HASS. For example, the European Union European Science Foundation (ESF) project report includes five of nine partnering institutions that comprise largely STEM disciplines (Technical University of Munich; University of Split; Luxembourg Institute of Science & Technology: The Institute of Science & Technology Austria; The AXA Research Fund). As a result, while 47% of respondents graduated in the natural sciences, only 7% were from the humanities. Similarly, the Vitae: CRAC report (2016: 8) is dominated by science disciplines: 50% biological and biomedical sciences, 29% physical sciences, mathematics and computing and engineering. The imbalance is justified in the report as due to higher numbers of research staff in STEM disciplines.

Figure 4.

PhD graduate careers surveys by STEM and HASS.

The arguably skewed data on PhD graduate careers raise questions to do with the reliability of comparative studies reporting HASS graduate outcomes. For example, some comparative studies suggest that HASS graduates earn slightly less than STEM graduates and have minimally higher rates of unemployment. Worryingly, even when the percentage of humanities graduates in a sample population is low, such as the ESF report (7%), claims are nonetheless made about humanities PhD graduates experiencing higher levels of unemployment by as much as 9% (Boman et al., 2017: 17). As a result, data and reporting suggest that important differences between HASS and STEM outcomes may be obscured. Moreover, such differences are not always evident in the way in which the PhD graduate outcomes and industry engagement debate is framed. It is these issues to which we turn next.

Knowledge transfer – HASS

Engaging PhD candidates with industry is seen globally as a method of broadening skills development for diverse careers and facilitating knowledge transfer between the academy and industry (Bell et al., 2015; Bentley et al., 2017; Cunningham et al., 2016; Howard, 2015; Innovate UK, 2018; McCarthy, 2017; Markuerkiaga et al., 2014; University of Cambridge Enterprise, 2015; Watson et al., 2016). The data on PhD graduate outcomes we have reported here suggest that the cohorts transitioning to careers beyond the academy are more likely to be graduates from STEM disciplines, and according to the CFE report (2014: 67), employers likely to value PhD specialist knowledge are connected to science and technology industries. For example, Jonker (2016: 24) reports that scientific and technical services, manufacturing and health care are among the largest industry employers of PhD graduates in Ontario. In the case of HASS PhD graduates, the University of Toronto study found that the 6% (85) working in the private sector include industries such as arts and culture, marketing and advertising, and media and publishing. This suggests HASS sub-fields such as those aligned to the creative and cultural industries offer one potential avenue of non-university employment, and therefore potential for PhD graduate knowledge transfer. Artificial intelligence is also widely recognised as an emerging source of industry-based employment opportunities for HASS graduates (Aoun, 2015; Carmona, 2019).

The debate in recent years about PhD graduate employability has tended to focus on the issue of diminishing academic employment opportunities and mobilizing PhD graduates out of academia into non-academic sectors. Even for HASS PhD graduates, career pathway planning is increasingly clothed in an ‘inclusive language of options’ with the explicit intention of preparing graduates for ‘careers beyond academia’, including ‘flexible career paths’ and a ‘repertoire of possibilities’ (McCarthy, 2017: 8). As Mewburn et al. (2018: 2) suggest, ‘Ph.D. students represent one of the most potent vehicles for enhanced collaboration and knowledge transfer between academia and industry, yet many remain in the academy.’ Such views imply that academic destinations ‘lock up’ knowledge transfer potential. But is this really the case?

To fully understand HASS graduate outcomes and knowledge transfer potential, granular data are needed on workplace and knowledge transfer activities. Anecdotally, we have observed extensive end-user engagement across a diverse group of humanities, creative arts and social sciences fields within our own university. This phenomenon has recently been confirmed by a national study commissioned by the Australian Council of Graduate Research (ACGR), which found almost three quarters of Australian PhD candidates – across all disciplines – had benefited from external contact or advice of some kind on their PhD from non-university organizations (Bentley et al., 2017). Moreover, and perhaps surprisingly, the study found that HASS candidates were even more likely to engage with external organizations during candidature than those in STEM, although notably this engagement is less likely to be funded than in STEM. Commenting on this finding, then ACGR Convener and article co-author Denise Cuthbert said:

Research focused on challenges faced by community organizations, by schools and in policy settings is more prominent in HASS fields than previously appreciated. This surely is an opportunity for universities and the communities they serve to work together to ensure even deeper levels of engagement and the involvement of individuals from outside the university in both research design and supervision. (Australian Council of Graduate Research, 2017)

Such findings raise numerous questions about the role of HASS PhDs in facilitating end-user engagement and knowledge transfer. For example, to what extent might HASS PhDs function as a fulcrum of multi-sector engagement between universities and industry? We are also interested in the potential impact of end-user engagement post-graduation: the benefits that emerge for candidates, universities and external partners. For example, how might engagement with a non-university organization translate into HASS graduates’ potential for knowledge transfer post-graduation with entities beyond the university? If, as the ACGR study revealed, it is not unusual for HASS candidates to investigate topics of relevance to non-academic organizations and in association with them, how and in what ways might these relationships persist into graduate careers, regardless of destination sector? Given the propensity of HASS graduates to work within universities, this latter question shines the light on how the PhD may be acting as a conduit for end-user networks pre-, during and post-study.

With regard to terminology, these issues highlight the need for a broad definition of what constitutes end-user or non-academic engagement. Discussions of higher degree research and non-university or industry engagement tend to focus on issues of commercialization or an ‘industry-defined research problem’ (Cunningham et al., 2016; Danish Agency for Science Technology and Innovation, 2011: xii; Innovate UK, 2018; Howard, 2015), with examples predominantly located in STEM sectors. The recent ACGR report (2017) sought to redress this issue by expanding the potential industry stakeholders to include: governments, hospitals, schools, community organizations and the not-for-profit sector. In line with this practice, here we use the notion of non-university engagement to include any non-university institution or entity that involves people- and community-based activities, not merely those associated with private enterprise and commercialization activities. Moreover, we also seek to challenge the use of terms like ‘external’ in this context as they perpetuate a rather outdated – in our view – ‘ivory tower’ conception of universities, as if a sharp demarcation exists between what occurs ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ such institutions. Clearly, universities have distinguishing features, but they are undoubtedly more porous than such conceptions suggest, particularly given the now pervasive ‘enterprise’ model of the contemporary university (Marginson, 2016).

HASS PhD graduate case study

Here, we next report on a case study of PhD graduates from our own institution, RMIT University. The two-part study investigates PhD graduate non-university engagement pre-, during and post-candidature, including potential forms of knowledge transfer. The study’s aims align with the shared challenges facing all universities globally about the need to facilitate diverse career options for PhD graduates through engaging strategically with academic and non-academic networks, and developing partnerships with community, business, government, NGOs and other such groups and sectors. As discussed above, while there is limited available data concerning the broad career destinations of HASS graduates, even less is known about the actual workplace activities of such graduates. This is particularly the case with respect to the issue of multi-sector knowledge transfer.

The study is a collaboration between RMIT’s School of Graduate Research, the School of Media and Communication and the Design and Creative Practice Enabling Capability Platform. The study comprises all PhD graduates from within a subset of the university’s HASS disciplines: the creative and visual arts; design and architecture; education and social sciences; and media and communication. Ethics approval was granted by the RMIT Human Research Ethics Committee in 2017.

Part one of the study, reported here, investigates the extent to which HASS graduates engage with non-university institutions or entities during candidature, with a view to finding out how – or if – this had influenced their post-PhD career. Data were collected in early 2018 using the Qualtrics online survey platform. As contact details were unavailable for the study population, a social network analysis (SNA) approach to data collection was adopted (von der Fehr et al., 2016). This approach uses a snowball method to identify the actors involved in a network. In our case, potential respondents were reached via supervisors or advisors forwarding the questionnaire to their graduates. While this approach inevitably skews respondents toward graduates with ongoing relationships with the university, this is consistent with existing research confirming the strong ties between HASS graduates and universities reported above. The survey received a total of 47 valid responses out of a considerably larger population of graduates from over the last two decades (around 2000). Among survey respondents, 60% (28) identified their gender as female and 40% (19) as male.

The questionnaire comprised 17 largely multiple-choice questions with the addition of free-text options for additional information. The items were grouped into three categories: research capabilities, with a focus on activities undertaken with non-university organizations during candidature and whether this led to future work or collaborations; current employment and whether a respondent’s research topic and prior professional experience impacted on their current employment. Of the 47 valid survey responses, over 50% had graduated in the last five years, with the largest group of 15 graduating in 2017. Figure 5 depicts respondents’ field of research. A large proportion of the sample was from creative arts and writing, followed by education and studies in human society.

Figure 5.

RMIT HASS PhD graduate case study: Respondents by field of research.

Consistent with the results of our literature review, such as the University of Toronto, Duke University and Stanford University, we found that the majority of respondents were employed within the higher education/research sector. A total of 31 respondents were employed in a university or public research institute; 12 respondents were working in the private or government sphere and 3 were unemployed. Examples of non-university employment include: consulting business; museum curator; artist and writer and director general of the women’s branch of a public institute in Saudi Arabia.

Our results suggest considerable continuity between pre- and post-PhD careers: 27 said they had worked in their current sector prior to undertaking the PhD; 14 worked in a professional capacity in another sector before commencing their PhD and 10 interacted with their current industry sector during candidature. Only five indicated that they were now working in a new sector. This reinforces existing research on the prevalence of mid-career professionals within HASS PhDs (Cunningham et al., 2016; Robertson, 2017).

As highlighted above, a key question arising from the literature review concerns the extent of non-university engagement that had occurred during PhD candidature, with a view to ascertaining how this might have informed both the research project itself and career post-graduation. The majority of respondents (39 out of 47) had undertaken some kind of non-university activity during candidature – see Figure 6. Note that the survey options included a range of identified activities as well as free-text, and some respondents identified more than one type of activity. The second stage of the study investigates whether these activities were established during candidature or were extensions of pre-candidature relationships.

Figure 6.

RMIT HASS PhD graduate case study: Types of non-university activities undertaken during candidature – All respondents.

As this range of activities suggests, knowledge transfer within HASS PhDs can take many forms, including employment and collaborative opportunities either post-graduation, during candidature or both. Examples of in-candidature modes of engagement included people-based activities such as attending conferences; community-based activities with museums and art galleries and problem-solving activities in the form of joint research projects with government departments and NGOs. Indeed, we found that many of the relationships forged before or nurtured during candidature endured into productive partnerships post-graduation. Significantly, this phenomenon is not restricted to graduates in non-university employment. Of the 31 respondents who remain within higher education, the majority (25) report enduring relationships and partnerships with non-university organizations, particularly the community sector and cultural institutions such as museums – see Figure 7. This might take the form of post-doctoral positions as well as collaborative research partnerships, sometimes with more than one sector. Examples of post-graduation modes of engagement include community-based activities such as curating exhibitions and ongoing collaborative opportunities in the cultural sector and people-based and problem-solving activities such as conducting joint research projects with international government organizations, for example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the USA.

Figure 7.

RMIT HASS PhD graduate case study: Enduring non-university activities – graduates within HE.

There were also, of course, a minority of respondents who neither experienced non-university relationships during candidature nor collaborations leading to future work. It is unclear whether this was an issue due to the choice of PhD topic, a lack of network opportunities or potential collaborators, or another matter altogether. Part two of our study will investigate this issue further via in-depth follow-up interviews.

Discussion and conclusion

The phenomenon of enduring multi-sector engagement of HASS PhDs contrasts with conventional approaches to, and conceptualizations of, knowledge transfer within doctoral research (Ackers et al., 2014; Hughes et al., 2011). Issues such as PhD graduates’ skills development, suitability for diverse employment and the challenges of transitioning into diverse careers are widely recognized (Barnacle et al., 2019). An example of a novel approach to this issue can be found in the work of Mewburn et al. (2018) who use machine learning to examine the advanced research skills sought by non-academic employers. A deficit model tends to persist, however, when it comes to the issue of knowledge transfer (Geuna and Musico, 2009; Laredo, 2007; OECD, 2013). The binary of highly specialized/unemployable (PhDs) versus non-specialist/employable (undergraduates or those without a higher education degree) surfaces regularly, with the argument that ‘although evidence suggests that PhDs can make a valuable contribution to diverse careers it is less clear to what extent a PhD is a prerequisite to making such contributions’ (Edge and Munro, 2015: 40). In response, universities often take an ‘add-on’ type of approach to addressing a perceived lack of preparedness for non-university employment through introducing cadetships, internships and industry-led projects (Cunningham et al., 2016; Danish Agency for Science Technology and Innovation, 2011; Edge and Munro, 2015; Mitacs, 2019). There is also an increased focus on providing PhD candidates with transferable ‘soft’ skills with the intention of preparing them for non-academic employment.

University–industry initiatives are not new, and programs such as the Danish Industrial PhD program (1970), European Commission through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Program, the UK Engineering & Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Australian Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) programs provide opportunities that may lead to careers in both public and private sectors for successful candidates. Despite the fact that these initiatives are open to all disciplines, STEM PhD candidates are overwhelmingly the target group. For example, in a report prepared by the Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) for the Danish Agency of Science Technology and Innovation (2011), analysing the Industrial PhD Programme, the breakdown by field of research is weighted towards the sciences. Technical sciences accounted for 60%; medical sciences 14%; natural sciences 11%; with only 3% social sciences and 3% ‘other disciplines’ – unspecified – which may or may not include HASS graduates. Additionally, strategies to increase industry–university collaborations are consistently couched in terms of innovation and science policy with a focus on productivity and competitiveness (Bell et al., 2015; Cunningham et al., 2016; EPSRC, 2014; Danish Agency for Science Technology and Innovation, 2011; Howard, 2015). The resulting initiatives, such as industry linkage grant programs, seed funds and incubators, tend to focus on ‘key enabling technologies’ such as biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and advanced materials’ (Howard, 2015: 4).

This contrasts with the variety of partnerships and modes of non-university engagement by HASS PhDs identified by Ackers et al. (2014); Hughes et al. (2011); Levitt et al. (2010); and Smith (2012); and the preliminary findings from our case study. Consistent with other studies, the external partnerships and collaborative projects we identified tend to occur with community groups, cultural institutions and/or NGO organizations, as opposed to commercial private organizations. Moreover, our case study provides an additional layer of insight by revealing deep, enduring end-user networks in HASS PhDs rather than one-off, add-on top-up types of arrangement typical of the candidate/graduate internship model. In the second stage of our study, we will examine the end-user outcomes and impact of these networks in more detail. It follows, however, that the outcomes may not be immediate or even entirely tangible. For example, respondent 5 from our study commented that ‘the benefits of engaging with community sector organizations are not always in the form of research collaborations in the short term’. Commenting on the benefits of their PhD experience, which included non-university engagement, respondent 12 stated: ‘the agility, problem solving, creativity and theoretical structures explored in the PhD have contributed to the meta-skills or the “learning how to learn” that makes this up-skilling in whatever is required, whenever it is needed, possible’.

These sentiments are consistent with a recent Deloitte Access Economics report looking specifically at the value of the humanities, which argues that although the majority of higher education graduates remain in education, they possess ‘the right mix of skills to help solve complex policy problems, often called “wicked problems”’, and that ‘they make meaningful contributions to their communities and societies’ (2018: 6). However, while Humanities and Arts and SSH-specific reports (Ackers et al., 2014; British Academy, 2010; Hughes et al., 2011; Levitt et al., 2010; Phipps et al., 2012) recognize and identify the value of contributions and modes of multi-sector engagement made by academics from this broad discipline group, there is a widespread tendency for this contribution to be overlooked.

The numerous international studies reviewed for this article consistently report that PhD graduates are highly employable, with 50% used as a general marker for the proportion of graduates who leave the academy for the public, private, charitable sectors or who are self-employed. However, as our research shows, destinations are not evenly distributed across disciplines, with STEM graduates, particularly in engineering, more likely than HASS graduates to be employed in the private and public sectors. By comparison, over 70% of HASS graduates are employed in post-secondary education. This reinforces that “one size does not fit all” when it comes to PhD graduate careers. As our case study reveals, a focus on career destination rather than activity can obscure knowledge transfer in HASS PhDs.

Modes of multi-sector engagement prior to and during HASS PhDs can lead to ongoing collaborations and cross-sectoral exchange, including paid consultancies, creative collaborations, the building of contacts and networks and careers in diverse fields. It therefore appears that despite university employment being the norm for HASS PhD graduates, potential for knowledge transfer with entities beyond the university – either during candidature or post-graduation – is not necessarily diminished. Indeed, it appears that HASS PhDs may be an important and hitherto largely overlooked fulcrum of multi-sector knowledge transfer. This under-recognized phenomenon provides insight into the multi-sector knowledge transfer capacity of HASS researchers with implications for the research capability and career development needs of this cohort, as well as the social and economic value of research outcomes. We take this as our focus for the second stage of our work, which comprises in-depth interviews with HASS PhD graduates to investigate further the impact and social and cultural benefits arising from their doctoral research.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Author biographies

Robyn Barnacle is a Research Education Specialist in the School of Graduate Research at RMIT University, Melbourne Australia. Her research into graduate education, policy and practice appears in leading international journals. This includes Studies in Higher Education, Educational Philosophy and Theory and Higher Education Research and Development.

Denise Cuthbert is Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research Training and Development in the School of Graduate Research at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia and is former convenor of the Australian Council of Graduate Research. She has published extensively on higher education, with a focus on policy and graduate research education. Her work appears in leading international journals including Gender and Education, Higher Education, Studies in Higher Education, and Higher Education Research and Development.

Christine Schmidt is a Research Fellow at the School of Graduate Research, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. She has also worked on media and communication projects focused on digital media in the Pacific region. Schmidt has extensive professional experience as a fashion designer in Australia and internationally. Her publications include: 'The Swimsuit: Fashion from Poolside to Catwalk', Berg UK, 2012 and 'Against the Grain: Australia and the Swimsuit' in 'Australian Fashion Unstitched: The Last Sixty Years', Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, 2010.

Craig Batty is Head of Creative Writing at the University of Technology Sydney. He has published widely on screenwriting practice and theory, creative practice research and doctoral supervision, including the 2019 edited collection, ‘The Doctoral Experience: Student Stories from the Creative Arts and Humanities’. He has won university awards and a national citation for excellence in PhD supervision.

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