Study title

Doctoral Graduates of Year 2016: Career and Employment Survey 2019

Dataset ID Number

FSD3451

Persistent identifier

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3451

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Aarresaari network of the Academic Career Services in Finland

Other Identification/Acknowledgements

• Ollikainen, Jyrki (Tampere University. Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences. Statistics)

Abstract

The survey charted the careers and employment situations of Finnish doctoral graduates three years after they had obtained their degree in 2016. Themes of the survey included impact of a doctoral degree on employment, job satisfaction and development suggestions for doctoral education.

The respondents were first asked to what extent different reasons had impacted their decision to take up a doctoral degree, and how they had financed their studies. They were asked to estimate the share of time they had spent on their doctoral dissertation alongside other work. Relating to employment situation and quality of work, questions charted how the degree had affected the respondents' status in the job market and what their occupational status was at the time of the survey and what it had been 6 months before starting the degree and 6 months after finishing it. The respondents were asked if they had been unemployed after finishing their degree, and reasons were charted that potentially had hindered their employment. The respondents who were in paid work were asked the type of their current work tasks and the competences needed in their work. It was also examined whether a doctoral degree was a prerequisite for their current job, how well the respondents' work corresponded to their qualifications, and whether their work was related to the topic of their doctoral dissertation. Gross monthly income was also charted.

With regard to the significance of a doctoral degree in occupational life, general satisfaction with the degree was charted along with opinions on whether doctoral education was useful when it came to different types of competences needed in occupational life. Relating to developing and improving doctoral education, views were probed on things that should be emphasised in the education (e.g. skills related to teaching, entrepreneurship, management, popularisation of research results, career planning, presentation skills).

Background variables included the respondent's gender, field of study, and age at the time of graduation (dichotomised "under 36"/"36 and over").

Keywords

appointment to job; career development; educational certificates; employment opportunities; higher education institutions; labour and employment; labour force; post-graduates; tertiary education (second stage)

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Higher and further education (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Employment (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Career and Employment Survey of Finnish University Graduates

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (C) available only for research including master's theses.

Data Collector

• Aarresaari network of the Academic Career Services in Finland

Time Period Covered

2016 – 2019

Collection Dates

2019-10 – 2019-11

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Doctoral graduates of 2016 from Finnish universities (excluding National Defence University)

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Total universe/Complete enumeration

The graduates were contacted by SMS or post. In addition, alumni in the universities' alumn register were reached by e-mail.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

44.7

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

To prevent identification of respondents, the following variables were categorised during archiving: bv3 (age), q11 (income) and bv8 (field of study).

The data do not include variables q3 (municipality where job is located), q5 (name of employer), q6 (job title), q15 (open-ended question on future occupational competences). In addition, open-ended responses are not included.

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Aarresaari network of the Academic Career Services in Finland: Doctoral Graduates of Year 2016: Career and Employment Survey 2019 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2020-07-14). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3451

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Materials

News release on the survey 30 September 2019 [web]. https://www.aarresaari.net/tiedote_3092019 [cited 11 August 2020].

FSD has not been informed of any publications related to the data.