Aarresaari (Career Services Network of Finnish Universities) has been conducting doctoral degree career monitoring since 2007. The target audience for career monitoring are PhDs who have graduated three years earlier. The aim of the national career monitoring is to obtain information on placement in the labour market and its quality and appropriateness, satisfaction with the degree completed and the skills required in working life.
Sectors of employment
Based on the data collected in years 2015-2020, 36% of the UEF doctoral graduates (from years 2012-2017) remain in the university sector three years after the graduation. Universities are important employers specifically among the graduates from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies with 51% of them working in this sector. Municipalities employ 27% of all doctoral graduates, with 39% of the graduates from the Faculty of Health Sciences. Private enterprises are the third most important employer with 23%, and specifically for graduates from the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Forestry with 20%. Government and governmental institutes employ 12% of the doctoral graduates. Universities of applied sciences, associations and foundations employ altogether 8%, whereas 3% of the doctoral graduates are self-employed. The employment rate of doctoral graduates was 96% in total.
Benefits of the doctoral degree
Based on the data from the years 2012-2017, 56% of the doctoral graduates had received a higher salary, 61% more demanding professional duties and 55% more interesting professional duties. Less than a half (39%) reported that their chances of success had improved in the labour market: 30% had landed in a new job with a new employer and 42% had received a better position in the present workplace.
Satisfaction with the doctoral degree
Even though the doctoral degree was not necessarily associated with financial benefits, 96% of the respondents reported to be partly or fully satisfied with the direction of their career. The majority (76%) was satisfied with the doctoral degree, and 90% reported being able to apply the gained knowledge in their work. The doctoral degree had been a prerequisite for the job only for one third (29%) of the respondents but 90% considered it useful, and 77% thought the job requirements corresponded with their doctoral degrees (2012-2017).