How can we better understand what happens to PhD graduates after completing their doctorate – particularly when they pursue careers outside academia? 

This question was at the centre of a presentation by Benedetto Lepori, Scientific Director of the European Higher Education Sector Observatory (EHESO), at the 4th OECD Blue Sky Forum, an international conference on science, technology and innovation indicators. The presentation formed part of a panel on methods for analysing researchers’ careers, organised by the European Commission’s Research and Innovation Careers Observatory (ReICO) and the OECD. 

More than 100 000 individuals receive a PhD each year in the EU-27. While PhD graduates play an important role in research, innovation and the wider economy, systematic evidence on their careers outside academia remains limited. Existing studies often focus on specific fields or research occupations, while comparable information on employment outcomes by destination and field is still scarce. This makes it difficult to assess how far the competences acquired through doctoral education are used and valued across the wider labour market.

Benedetto Lepori, EHESO Scientific Director, speaking at the 4th OECD Blue Sky Forum in Paris.

Combining different sources to improve graduate tracking 

 EHESO is exploring how different national data sources can contribute to closing these information gaps. One approach is to link national student and graduate databases with social security data. This makes it possible to cover the full graduate population – an important advantage when studying PhD graduates, whose numbers are comparatively small – and to examine outcomes such as employment, sector of activity and income. 

At the same time, administrative data have important limitations. In particular, they may not capture graduates who move abroad and generally provide less information on job content, skills and the match between qualifications and employment. 

EHESO is therefore piloting the collection of aggregated administrative data on graduate outcomes with different breakdowns in five countries: Finland, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Sweden. 

A complementary approach is offered by national graduate surveys. These can provide more detailed information on aspects such as competences, tasks and qualification matching. Preliminary work using the Swiss graduate survey, for example, explores how research positions outside academia can be identified by combining information on occupations, economic sectors and self-reported research tasks.  

Preliminary findings from this work also provide insights into employment outcomes five years after graduation. PhD graduates who move outside academia tend to have higher incomes than Master’s graduates and generally find jobs that match their competences well. At the same time, those who remain in research tend to experience substantially greater job insecurity.  

Importantly, these patterns are also observed among graduates in the social sciences and among those working in non-research positions. This suggests that the competences developed through doctoral education can be valuable across a broad range of occupations, including jobs that do not involve research directly. The findings therefore also point to the broader importance of doctoral education for European societies and economies, in line with arguments put forward in the Draghi report. 

Towards a more comprehensive picture of PhD careers 

The work presented at the OECD Blue Sky Forum underlines that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for tracking PhD graduates. Different policy and research questions require different sources. 

Combining national administrative data, national and ad hoc graduate surveys, and other sources such as publication data can provide a more comprehensive picture of graduates’ careers. Improving data access, documentation and interoperability will be essential to making these sources more useful for research and policymaking. 

This work complements EHESO’s broader activities on graduate tracking, including the EUROGRADUATE 2026 survey and work on the use of national administrative data in cooperation with the European Network of Graduate Tracking. 

By bringing together institutional and graduate-level evidence, EHESO aims to strengthen the European evidence base on higher education and support a better understanding of how doctoral education contributes to research, innovation, the wider labour market, and European economies and societies more broadly.