Who is Happy in Doctoral Programs: The Connection between Employment and Learning Outcomes of PhD Students

Abstract

Doctoral education in Rus-sia has high dropout rates. Many experts have attributed this to the generally low amounts of financial aid afforded to PhD students, which prompts them to seek out employment while pursuing a doctorate. However, current discussion is largely anecdotal in nature as it is mostly based on expert conjectures that only reflect limited statistics or rather cursory evidence from individual cases. Drawing upon findings from a 2016 survey of PhD students at leading Russian universities , we assess the extent and types of employment of postgraduates, as well as the experiences of those PhD students who balance work and study and the main challenges that confront them. We explore how such factors as one's area of employment, the type of contract worked, and the nature of the job performed affect how PhD hopefuls conceive of the educational process alongside their specific learning outcomes and career prospects. We conclude that balancing work and study can benefit both the academic performance and professional experiences of PhD students, but only insofar as the topic of one's PhD thesis research is closely aligned with what they do in the workplace. The results of the study can be used when developing measures to reform doctoral education both at the institutional and nation-state levels. Doctoral education in Russia has high dropout rates: Only about 60% of PhD students complete their track and only 13% defend their thesis during the expected period of study1. These levels are compara

Full text

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow. 2019. No 1. P. 87–108
Who is Happy in Doctoral
Programs:
The Connection between Employment and
Learning Outcomes of PhD Students
S. Bekova, Z. Dzhafarova
1 http://www.gks.ru/free_

Saule Bekova
  -


  
 


Zibeyda Dzhafarova
  -
   -
 
  
 
 -

Abstract.  -

  

  
  -
 
   -

  -
-
  
 -


  

  -
 


   -
  -
  -

   -
 -
   


 
  
-

Keywords: doctoral education in Rus-
sia, PhD students, employment, dropout
rate, balancing work and study.
DOI:

 -
sis during the expected period of study
1
. These levels are compara-
Received in
May 2018
Translated from Russian
by I. Zhuchkova.

http://vo.hse.ru/en/
S. Bekova, Z. Dzhafarova
Who is Happy in Doctoral Programs
ble with data recorded in a number of other nations. For example, the


  -
ly sets these countries apart from Russia is that they have increas-
 
-
ies on the subject in Russia, so that the conceptions and judgements
 -
cation in this country have this far basically resided on expert conjec-
tures rather than hard fact.
It is frequently the case for the public discourse to point out the
need to juggle work and study as a major factor that harms the com-


assumed correlation between a student’s employment and wheth-

true insofar as a success with a doctorate inevitably implies ploughing
 
a thesis to complete the degree, while how much public scholarship
is paid to Russian PhD students is reported to never exceed the min-
imum subsistence level in the country2. Furthermore, we should fac-
tor in that the vast majority of doctoral programs in Russia are full-time.

income and does not need to provide for themselves, a PhD student
  
work and study may arise.
 -
ment and dropout rates in programs of doctoral education seems to
be obvious enough to be taken for granted, it does not always hold
  
 
week to be able to successfully handle their doctoral thesis research.
This may be viewed as evidence to further attest to the Warren the-
   
labor becomes a factor material for the student’s doctoral perfor-
mance only insofar as it transpires in conjunction with one’s gener-
 -
ings for the link between working while studying for a PhD degree and
 
shown that doctoral hopefuls who dropped out from the track would
typically indicate combining work and study as a factor that preclud-
ed their academic success, whereas those informants who made it

2 , http

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow. 2019. No 1. P. 87–108
THEORETICAL AND APPLIED RESEARCH
their progress with the doctorate. The authors point out that it is fair-

  -
posures to underpin the theoretical groundwork they build while do-
  
should note that a comparison of systems of doctoral education in

overall organization of training, available public scholarships and oth-

From what Russia’s rather scarce body of research on the subject


proportion of PhD students choose to work while pursuing their de-

no studies to thoroughly look into how the factors of where Russian
doctoral students are employed, what exactly they do for a living and
 -
ences and learning outcomes. Exploring these correlations is specif-
ically relevant given the changes that doctoral schools in Russia and
elsewhere across the globe have seen in terms of how PhD programs
are structured and delivered, where more emphasis is placed on both
the quality of independent research and how well one is able to mas-
ter individual assignments, modules and dimensions of the mandato-


  -
dents enrolled in PhD programs at leading Russian universities to
gauge the extent to which they combine work and study as well as
-
   
their experience in a doctoral track.
-
 -
ademic Excellence Project and two more are federal universities) that
    
the survey, which translates into about a quarter of all doctoral enroll-



remark on the limitations of this study that must be considered while

Our survey was limited solely to the stated cohort of students who
at the time of this survey were enrolled in PhD programs at leading
1. Data sources
2. Limitations

http://vo.hse.ru/en/
S. Bekova, Z. Dzhafarova
Who is Happy in Doctoral Programs
Russian universities, as detailed in Section One above. Postgraduates
at any other higher education institutions were beyond the scope of
-

Our study was framed as a one-time survey among PhD students
across certain leading Russian universities. The respondents were
asked for their motives to enter a doctoral program, a posteriori, and
how they conceived of their prospective PhD defense and employ-
ment plans, a priori. It should be noted that the sourced recollections
and anticipations of life events are evaluative in nature and therefore
  
were impossible to be obtained given the design framework chosen
for this study. Carrying out a longitudinal panel could provide more
plausible and representative results.
   
been designed, we believe that the data we have obtained about stu-
dents’ plans for PhD defense are reliable and suitable for making rea-
  
some of the respondents who at the time of this study were in senior
years of their doctoral training already completed their programs by
the moment this paper was being drafted. Insofar as there were per-
sonal survey links available, this has allowed us to supplement the
data sourced for PhD students at one of the participating universi-
ties by factual information about what academic outcomes they ul-

The main characteristics of the PhD student sample
Item
Sample
split,%
Year of study
First 39
Second 32
Third 20
Fourth 9
Major
Mathematics and Science 30
Humanities 9
Engineering and Technology 30
Social Sciences 26
Education and Pedagogy 4
Item
Sample
split,%
Gender
Male 55
Female 45
Mode of study
Full-time 88
Part-time 12
Mode of funding
Public scholarship 85
Tuition-paying 15

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow. 2019. No 1. P. 87–108
THEORETICAL AND APPLIED RESEARCH

university database, which limits our ability to come up with fully jus-
   -
it a correlation between one’s reported plans regarding PhD defense
and whether they have actually made it to the PhD hooding: There

those who previously indicated they were inclined to go for PhD de-
 2p 
enables us to assume that the data we have obtained on whether and
when one is looking to defend their PhD thesis can be reasonably
deemed as valid and suitable to plausibly judge about the outcomes
of doctoral training.
-
al students are employed. The most common mode of employment


Those who are employed at the higher education institution ()
    
-
ing) as well as administrative positions (about a quarter of the inform-
ants)3. We have found the nature of the work that one is into to exhibit
-


   -

 -
trative positions.
Of the PhD students who are employed outside their university,
the largest share hold non-academic positions with corporate enti-

research jobs outside the academia.
In the course of our study, we found the status/type of employ-
ment to be correlated with a number of socio-demographic attributes

In what follows, we focus on how factors of employment of PhD
students are related to their choices and experiences along the
course of doctoral study, from the moment they enter a PhD program
and through how they conceive of their prospects for thesis defense
and future career.
3 

3. Results
Figure. The PhD student sample broken down by
type of employment (%)
Full-time job off-campus
Full-time job on-campus
More than one job
Unemployed
Part-time job on-campus
Part-time job off-campus
Temp work
33,6
17,1
16,6
10,1
8,6
7, 2
6,8

http://vo.hse.ru/en/
S. Bekova, Z. Dzhafarova
Who is Happy in Doctoral Programs
Our survey has found that a major proportion of PhD students choose
to stay at their alma mater as they decide to continue into doctoral ed-

of academic inbreeding, which is a practice whereby graduates are re-

3.1. Entering
a PhD program
Figure. The PhD student sample broken down by
type of employment (%)
Full-time job off-campus
Full-time job on-campus
More than one job
Unemployed
Part-time job on-campus
Part-time job off-campus
Temp work
33,6
17,1
16,6
10,1
8,6
7, 2
6,8
How socio-demographic features of the PhD student sample
are related to the type of employment
Full-time job
on-campus
Full-time job
off-campus
Part-time job
on-campus Temp work
More than
one job Unemployed
Major 36%
Engineering
22%
Math
46%
Math
17%
Engineering
43%
Engineering
18%
Engineering
22%
Social
36%
Social
24% Engi-
neering
32% Social 15%
Social
17%
Humanities
16%
Social
4%
Humanities
Gender 55% Female 68% Male
Income level 30% Low 50% Low 47% Low
70% high 50% High 53% High
Year of study 33% First 49% First 34% First 46% First
3% Fourth 24% Third
Mode of study 21% Part-time
Mode of funding 92%
State-funded
76%
State-funded
93%
State-funded
90%
State-funded
Note: The table provides only statistically signicant correlations, where a positive correlation is shad-
ed and a negative correlation is no shaded.

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow. 2019. No 1. P. 87–108
THEORETICAL AND APPLIED RESEARCH
employment at the university where they earned their undergraduate

When we analyze how the rates of inbreeding are distributed across
our sample of PhD students as related to their status/type of employ-

inbred doctoral students among those who are employed at the uni-
-
ed that they completed their previous degree at another . Of those
who at the time of the survey were solely into their doctoral studies and
had no employment, the proportion of inbound students was more

working at the university. Finally, among those who indicated that they
were employed outside the university, about slightly less than a quarter
-
ent . The correlation between the rates of inbred students among
doctoral pursuers and their status/type of employment is likely to be
shaped by various factors including, inter alia: whether there are any
barriers confronting those non-alumni who seek out employment at

    
they have chosen to continue into doctoral training at their alma mater

one thing, there is reason to expect doctoral inbreds to enjoy exten-
sive social and professional contacts at their alma mater, so that they
are arguably better informed about their academic environment, job
opportunities, etc., which should all bolster their chance of securing

-
  -
vor hiring among its own graduates as a vehicle whereby recruitment
challenges and risks can be alleviated, which in turn restrains employ-
ment opportunities for inbound doctoral corps.

PhD students to land a position at the  they are enrolled in, doctor-
al pursuers may choose to take up a job outside the university as feel-
ing more inclined for a non-academic career. We can obtain a glimpse
of how students’ professional aspirations are shaped by looking at
their motives for entering a program of doctoral education. Figure
   
-
dents chose to go for a doctorate and their status/type of employment.
-
-
ing an academic career as the main reason why they chose to study for
-
toral degree mostly as an added asset to help leverage their career in
a non-academic environment, there is a substantially greater propor-
tion of PhD students working outside the university.

http://vo.hse.ru/en/
S. Bekova, Z. Dzhafarova
Who is Happy in Doctoral Programs

that resulted from analyzing what essentially propelled the students to
pursue a doctoral degree and how these motivations are linked with
their status/type of employment and conceptions about future career.
The vast majority of Russian PhD students opt to study for doctoral
credentials at the  where they completed their previous degree.
 
and study at the same university, and these students report they are

doctoral pursuers who are the university’s alumni and those who hold
 
go for a doctorate and the type of employment they have may speak
to various entry barriers facing inbound student corps, the overall low
rates of mobility and a hierarchical nature of the Russian academic
environment.
Russian doctoral schools have been actively transitioning to a mod-
el where much more weight is attached to how a candidate performs
across various study modules and dimensions of the core course-


diligence to handle the program as the role and scope of curriculum
 
  
PhD environment where one is required to successfully juggle more
in-person course load as well as their commitments for independent
thesis research, writing papers, presenting at conferences, etc. Let us
now take a closer look at how students’ experiences of progressing
along the PhD course of study under these new and often more de-
manding academic conditions are linked with their employment.
3.2. Studying
for PhD degree
Figure. How student motivations to pursue a doctorate are related
to the type of employment (%)
Education will help in a recearcher
career development at a univercity
or recearch institute
Education will help in a professor
career development in a univercity
or recearch institute
Postgraduate study will help in my
career development outside the
academic sphere
Education will help in a professor
career development in a
commercial organisation
68
48
51
50
42
50
28
43
30
22
30
25
At univercity
Outside the
univercity
Unemployed

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow. 2019. No 1. P. 87–108
THEORETICAL AND APPLIED RESEARCH


  -
    -
 
   
2
p    
  -
lum, of whom those who were employed full-time outside the universi-
2p

work and doctoral pursuit exhibits a correlation with to what extent the
area and exact topic of their thesis project are in sync with the nature
of their job. We have found those students whose work is barely re-
lated in its nature to the subject of their PhD research to be more fre-
quent to report they were literally struggling to co-handle their work-
place duties and doing a doctorate. Of this cohort, the PhD students
who at the time of the survey were employed outside the university

2p
2p
     at which they
are enrolled in a PhD program, it was primarily the holders of positions
in administrative support and instruction who reported they were sore-
ly lacking time and personal resource to manage it through their doc-
-
2p
have noted only a scarce connection between what they do in the
workplace and the topic they are researching into, while the proportion
of those reporting so among their peers who are university instructors
2p

have indicated that the subject of their PhD thesis is directly related to
the nature of their work. Of the cohort of PhD pursuers who work and
study at the same university, the share of those who found themselves
 
2p
2p

2
p

Our analysis has found that those PhD students who pursue em-
ployment outside the  where they study for a doctorate are like-
ly to be confronted with even more acute challenges of successful-
2
p -
ject had almost nothing to do with their work. Those who are con-

http://vo.hse.ru/en/
S. Bekova, Z. Dzhafarova
Who is Happy in Doctoral Programs
  
nature or alike were the most inclined to report a very poor connec-
tion between what they were doing for a living and what they were re-
  2  p-

who found themselves into major problems co-handling their work
and study among those who at the time of the survey were employed

the 2 p-
fuls who are employed at their university
—

are holders of research-centric positions
—
are less vulnerable to pres-
sures of combining work and academics than their peers who pursue
careers outside their university.
The respondents who study for a PhD and pursue a job at the same
university are likely to report more positive experiences and assess-
ments of their doctoral education. There was a greater proportion of

 where they
2p-
ing experience as of utility in their job.
-

of the survey did not have permanent employment were the most like-
-
as their peers who worked full-time outside the university were the

2
p
sub-group, the majority have responded that the salary they received
under their full-time contract accounted for the bulk in their total earn-
ings, while the remainder of the sample would most typically report a
 
    
more than one source of income would still note that they found them-


   -
it often to the detriment of how well they are able to handle their PhD
curriculum. Contrariwise, those students who work at the universi-
 -
-
nancial pressure.

student to interact with their supervisor is another important dimen-
sion in exploring the learning experiences and outcomes of doctoral
pursuers. Despite the aforementioned departure of modern doctoral
programs from the supervision-centric model, we can still hardly over-
estimate the role that the academic supervisor plays in steering a can-
didate toward a PhD degree. There have been multiple studies to sug-

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow. 2019. No 1. P. 87–108
THEORETICAL AND APPLIED RESEARCH

-
 
  
only that the PhD supervisor guides a hopeful along the research and
thesis writing process, but he or she also plays a pivotal role in facili-
tating important networking conduits whereby the doctoral candidate
gradually becomes an integral part of the ’s academic environ-

   -
tions with the academic supervisor on topics pertinent to their thesis
research at least once a month. Those who work and study for a doc-
torate at the same university have reported they typically had aca-
Figure. Main sources of income by type of employment (%)
Full-time job on-campus
Full-time job off-campus
Part-time job on-campus
Part-time job off-campus
Temp work
More than one job
Unemployed
93
68
12
22
14
98
40
3
15
4
79
84
12
40
21
88
67
3
29
11
44
68
4
60
10
89
66
11
22
19
0
71
8
54
8
Salary
State stipend
Other stipends
Family’s earnings
or savings
Grants

http://vo.hse.ru/en/
S. Bekova, Z. Dzhafarova
Who is Happy in Doctoral Programs
-
more, nine in every ten doctoral students who worked at the university

on topics other than those directly related to the PhD project, where-
as the share of students who reported so among the sub-group of
doctoral pursuers employed outside the university was only rough-
ly half as large.
Provided that holding regular consultations with the academic su-
-
ish line, there is reason to assume that students who fall short of op-
portunity to interact with their PhD project lead may be exposed to
greater risks of academic failure.
Within the framework of this study, we have considered students’
plans regarding PhD thesis defense and how they conceive of their
   
academic work and any challenges likely to confront them in build-


they expected to defend their doctoral thesis within the policy term of
study or within a timeframe of up to one year following the comple-

 
    
half of the students who at the time of the survey had no employment
and were entirely focused on their PhD pursuit have indicated that they
expected to proceed to their thesis defense within the regular term of
3.3. Outcomes
of PhD education
3.3.1. Prospects for
thesis defense
Figure. How frequently PhD students with different types of
employment are able to interact with their academic supervisor (%)
On-campus
Off-campus
Unemployed
39
23
19
12
6
24
24
25
16
11
33
24
21
11
10
Few times a week
Once a week
2-3 times
a month
Once a month
Less than once
a month

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow. 2019. No 1. P. 87–108
THEORETICAL AND APPLIED RESEARCH
study. Insofar as PhD freshmen account for as much as almost half
    
with any kind of employment, it is perhaps no surprise that more op-
timistic perceptions about the likely timing of their doctoral defense


expect to take their PhD defense.
Those PhD hopefuls who at the time of the survey were employed
at the university have indicated that they were going to take a doctor-
al defense a year after completion of study or later. This assessment

this sub-group are involved in their academic environment.
  -
tion of those to report that they were uncertain of whether they would
be able to make it to the PhD defense or that they were not going to
  -
tract outside the university were by a wide margin the most likely to

  

on the survey questionnaire, students are willy-nilly exposed to signif-
-
gree the results that we are able to obtain. Since the student is in fact
prompted to admit their academic failure when he or she chooses to
-
son to deem the resulting indication for how many students of the en-
tire sample will ultimately fail to make it to the PhD defense to be bi-
Figure. When PhD students in different years of study expect to
proceed to thesis defense
55
1
4
6
41
7
8
51
46 As scheduled + 1
More than 1 year after graduation
Not sure not going to defend
As scheduled
Before graduation
1 2 3 Year of study
32
11
36
6

http://vo.hse.ru/en/
S. Bekova, Z. Dzhafarova
Who is Happy in Doctoral Programs
ased downwards. These considerations also suggest that working a
full-time contract outside the university while studying for a doctorate
is a factor that can materially harm one’s prospects for PhD success.
The career path that a student is looking to embark on after com-
pleting their PhD credentials is an important aspect of exploring the
learning experiences and outcomes of doctoral students. When a PhD
graduate is found to be disposed to continue into academic work, this
 -
tion insofar as one of its main institutional and economic goals, which
   
 -
ate may be also considered as a period when one’s professional con-
 
take this angle of view, we can note that the vast heterogeneity in pro-
spective career choices of doctoral students may be an indication that
the essential imperatives and the content of PhD education need to
be revised in many cases.
Where PhD students work while studying for doctoral credentials
   -
reer plans. Those students who at the time of the survey had full-time
or part-time employment at the university have been found to be the
most inclined for a future career in academia. Overall, among the en-
    
have reported that they would like to continue into a university career
after the PhD hooding, irrespective of their type/status of employment


with employment outside the university, there was a much lower share
of those to indicate intent for taking up an academic career. This ob-
-
ered when analyzing students’ motivations for enrolling in a doctoral
course: There was a substantially greater proportion of PhD pursuers
employed outside academia than of their counterparts working at the
university to report that they viewed a doctoral degree as primarily an
added asset to bolster their prospects for a good job in a non-aca-

of the survey were employed outside the university have indicated
no plans of seeking out academic employment at any time in future.
Of this sub-cohort, those who worked a full-time contract have been


What exactly a PhD student does for a living (i. e., the nature of the
job that one performs while pursuing a doctorate) is yet another fac-
tor that plays a major part in shaping orientations for a future career.
The vast bulk of PhD hopefuls who at the time of the survey worked at
the  where they were studying for a doctorate have expressed no
3.3.2. Career prefer-
ences

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow. 2019. No 1. P. 87–108
THEORETICAL AND APPLIED RESEARCH
plans of changing their employer after they complete their program

 

-
uted depending on the nature of the job one is into while studying for
a PhD is arguably attributable to the fact that those students who are
holders of research positions may opt to continue their career in R&D
along a relatively wide spectrum of pathways with either another insti-
tution, a business organization, etc.
-
vey were holders of instructional positions at the university have indi-
Figure. How students’ career preferences are distributed
depending on the type/status of employment
Empoyed at univercity
Unemployed
Empoyed outside the univercity
84,7
75,3
67,0
15,3
I want to work
at univercity
I do not want
to work
at univercity
24,7
33,0
Figure. How students’ career preferences are distributed
depending on the type of employment and contract worked
Full-time at univercity
Full-time outside the univercity
74
37
26
I want to build an
academic career
I want to build an
non-academic career
63
Figure 8. How career preferences of the students that are
employed at the university are distributed depending on
the nature of their job
Research staff
Teaching staff
Administrative staff
OtherRecearcher
at commercial
organisation
Teacher at
univercity
Non-recearch
position
outside the
univercity
Recearcher
at scientifi c
organisation
Recearcher
at univercity
31 30 13 9 411
13 10 18 45 8 5
13 10 21 41 10 5

http://vo.hse.ru/en/
S. Bekova, Z. Dzhafarova
Who is Happy in Doctoral Programs
cated that they were likely to stay in teaching upon completing their

  
  
up a research career at the  where they were enrolled in a PhD
program.
There was a greater percentage of PhD students among those into
instruction or administrative support than among their peers who at
the time of the survey were holders of research positions to indicate
that they may be quitting the university following their PhD defense to

Thus, our analysis has revealed the following patterns in how the
reported career preferences are distributed among the PhD students
employed at the university depending on what kind of job they were
into while pursuing a doctorate. For one thing, those working in re-
search positions have exhibited strong determination to continue their
   

 
to be generally inclined to continue working at the university, however
many of them would like to change what exactly they do in the work-
place.
Those PhD students who at the time of the survey were employed
outside the university have mostly reported that they were unlikely
to change their sector of employment or the nature of the work per-

Figure. How career preferences of the students working outside the university are
distributed depending on the type of employment and the nature of the job performed
Non-recearch
position in
non-academic
sphere
Recearch activities
in non-academic
sphere
Recearch activities
in academic sphere
Teaching
Teacher at other univercity
Teacher at other educational organisation
Freelance
In the public administration
At commercial organisation (non-recearch pos.)
Recearcher at other univercity
Recearcher at commercial organisation
Recearcher at scientifi c organisation
Employment
preferences
54 27 5
320
3512
724
5519
1014
2451
168
14
2552
3419
18 6
15
67
71
11
10
619
6

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow. 2019. No 1. P. 87–108
THEORETICAL AND APPLIED RESEARCH
Finally, those PhD students who at the time of the survey were
contingent employees doing casual jobs or had no employment have


2p
yet settled upon their career path, which, in their opinion, represented
a serious challenge. For comparison, the PhD students who worked
a full-time contract either at or outside the university were by a signif-
 

career. This may suggest that what the PhD students in this latter sub-
group have opted to do for a living during the term of their doctoral
pursuit can be viewed as a conscious choice that is largely in line with
the professional conceptions and mindsets that they have developed.
Thus, we can conclude that those students who choose to work
while being enrolled in a program of doctoral education are likely to

the cohorts of PhD hopefuls who are employed at and outside the uni-
versity tend to report starkly polarized career plans.
  
combine study with work

 -
  -
tions of the study process and their career plans.

postgraduates’ career prospects. There are more PhD students pur-
suing an academic career among those who have a full or part time
job at a university. These students’ initial motivation for postgradu-
-

might indicate the doctoral education in Russia at its current state bet-
ter corresponds to the interest of academically oriented postgradu-
ates, since the doctoral education is still perceived as a place to train
   
education and its focus on academically oriented postgraduates can
-

-
ited academic labor market which should inevitably push out special-
ists with a PhD degree to other markets. Researches have shown that
the distribution of postgraduates between academic and non-aca-
  -
  -


4. Discussion

http://vo.hse.ru/en/
S. Bekova, Z. Dzhafarova
Who is Happy in Doctoral Programs

employment outside the university often prevails. To illustrate, among

half whose initial motivation for a postgraduate study was to work in a
  -
ademic career is not a priority for graduates with a doctorate in Engi-
neering and exact sciences in the -
uates are employed in permanent positions in academia [Lee et al.
   

Social Sciences doctoral graduates at one university are employed in
the non-academic sphere.
On one hand, the predominant employment of postgraduates out-
-
 
—
is a PhD degree necessary
  
  -
ate employment challenges the value of doctoral education in its cur-
rent state. Does the doctoral education really provide the unique skills
necessary for research jobs outside the academic sphere or does
the PhD degree rather have a symbolic value for its holders and rep-
   -
graduate education towards careers in academia is reasonable only
if it corresponds to the labor market demand. If there are more grad-

some of PhD students initially intend to pursue a non-academic ca-
reer, it may be worth revising the postgraduate training system, tak-
ing into account the global trend of expanding career opportunities
for PhD graduates.
The doctoral study is the most comfortable for full-time universi-
ty employees. Regardless of their overall workload, they do not con-
sider as a challenge neither the need to combine work and study, nor
the study load, nor the forthcoming employment. This group of re-
spondents continued to study at the same university where they ob-
tained their previous level of education and they not consider other
-
cording our research, the percentage of academic inbreds is higher
among those employed at university and they do not intend to change
the place of employment after graduation. The closed nature of doc-
toral education conditioned by the low academic mobility and hierar-
chical structure of academic society in Russia becomes apparent al-
ready during the study period. The consequences of inbreeding are
-
 
  

they are more focused on communication within the university which

Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow. 2019. No 1. P. 87–108
THEORETICAL AND APPLIED RESEARCH
 
negative consequences go beyond personal and institutional losses
and reach the national level. Of course, the presence of academical-
ly oriented postgraduates who successfully combine study with full-
   -
tional structure can be considered as strength of doctoral education,

The most common type of postgraduate’s employment is full-time
work outside the university. Usually there is little connection between

doctoral education outcomes. This group of postgraduates report dif-

pursue a non-academic career.
  
   -
ademic success (usually measured by the fact of thesis defense or

postgraduates who receive full funding or are employed as research
fellows generally complete doctoral programs more often. They also
receive the degree faster in comparison to those who do not have
-
 
 -
    -
ation when a postgraduate works and studies at the same institution.
 -
pus jobs are less involved in the life of their departments and are less
likely to become a part of the research and teaching team as com-
        

employed full time outside the university are the most at risk. Univer-
sities usually lose this group of students, as they are already less fo-
cused on studying than on theirs job, planning to work in a non-aca-
demic sphere, less involved in the education process, experiencing
    
not planning to defend their thesis among this group. Of course, the
cross-sectional study design limits the use of the data, which could
be solved by using long-term studies showing the connection of type
 
-
-
   
existing data analysis.
Of course, the mode of funding is a complex characteristic that

of training or academic motivation. In any case, the absence or insuf-
  -

http://vo.hse.ru/en/
S. Bekova, Z. Dzhafarova
Who is Happy in Doctoral Programs
-
side the university, when his or her work duties do not correspond to
the thesis topic. The survey was conducted at the leading Russian
  
  -
culties here, then the scale of this problem in other universities may
be even greater.
-
   Research in Higher Educa-
tion
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
   Doctoral Programs.
International Journal of Doctoral Studies
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
      -
Asia Pacic Education Review
pp.
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
    
 Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and
Research      

, pp.



-
Research in High-
er Education
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
    
-
-
Journal University Management: Practice
and Analysis
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
         
  Soci-
ological Journal, 
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
-
   Studies in Higher Education 

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

Higher Education in Russia
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
-
   
Vestnik of Lobachevsky University of Nizhni Novgorod, 
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


-
Sovremennaya analitika obrazovaniya, -

-
  AARE Annual Conference (Melbourne),
https://www.researchgate.net/pb-
s_of_PhD_
 



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References

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

 -
The Jour-
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
    -
  -
  
Pedagogical Education in Russia
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
   
-
ble at: https://papers.ss-

-
gree Progress. The Journal of Higher Education
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
Learning Experiences that Make a Difference:
Findings from a National Study of Doctoral Education in the Professions. Pa-
per presented at 
Studies in Higher
Education
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
-
Wenner Gren International Series
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

-
uates from a Research Policy
pp.
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

Practice. New Directions for Institutional Research
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
Leaving the Ivory Tower: The Causes and Consequences of
Departure from Doctoral Study

Higher Education
pp.
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
           -
Education for Chemical Engineers
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

during the Ph D. Research Policy
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

     
    
   Dissertation Abstracts Inter-
national
     
     Quality in
Postgraduate Research: Knowledge Creation in Testing Times
, pp.
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
   
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     
School
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Journal University Management: Prac-
tice and Analysis, 
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
 

 Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 
pp.
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

American Economic Review
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

http://vo.hse.ru/en/
S. Bekova, Z. Dzhafarova
Who is Happy in Doctoral Programs
 -
    
Studies in Higher Educa-
tion
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
   -
Youth & So-
ciety
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
  
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 Journal Univer-
sity Management: Practice and Analysis, 
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
    

Journal of Further and Higher Education
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