Study: Are PhDs getting Tenure?

A third of graduates with doctoral degrees from Ontario universities are in tenure-track positions somewhere in the world, with half of them working as professors in Canada, research from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario(HECQO) has found. The results, which will be released later this winter. paint a different picture about outcomes for Canada’s PhDs than previously reported.

“The results show that PhDs do well, maybe more than the popular conversation imagines,” Martin Hicks, who led the research project for HEQCO told the Globe and Mail in a recent interview.

Hicks, and principal investigator Linda Jonker, included data reflecting graduates who are working around the world. They found another third of PhD holders have found jobs in engineering, health care, science research or government. Hicks says those job numbers are important because they reflect the economy’s thirst for PhD skills and contributions.