The Dynamics of Doctoral Candidates and Post-doctorates in Life Sciences in Europe and the United States

This paper studies the origin and destination of doctoral candidates and post-doctorates in life sciences in Europe, and gives some elements of comparison for the United States, with a combination of three data sources (Eurostat and NetReAct data for Europe, NSF data for the U.S.). We find that the number of doctoral graduates in life sciences in the EU is higher than in the U.S. (9,000 against 6,000) but the proportion of foreigners is lower in the EU (17% against 29%). The number of postdoctorates in life sciences is more or less the same in the EU and the U.S. (19,000 against 18,000) but the EU attracts less foreign postdoctorates than the U.S. (25% against 57%). 76% of doctoral graduates in life sciences from EU universities continue to work in the EU after graduation whereas 12% go to the U.S. or Canada, and another 12% go to another country. For postdoctorates from EU universities, percentages are more or less the same (76% stay in the EU, 8% go to the U.S. or Canada and 16% to another country).

MOGUEROU Philippe;  DI PIETROGIACOMO Maria Paola;  DA COSTA Olivier;  LAGET Patrice;  BARJAK Franz;  ROBINSON Simon;  MENTRUP Alexander; 

2007-11-22

University of Lugano

JRC36272

http://www.enid-europe.org/papers/pdf/moguerou_lugano.pdf,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC36272,