Educational transitions are part of everyone’s life and, for that reason, they can be studied from a biographical point of view as itineraries influenced by family or close environment conditions, structural conditions of the wider context and conditions of a cultural and symbolic nature (Casal et al., 2011). In these conditions gender acts as a key factor that inclines decisions on learning and work environments.

The research that we are presenting is fuelled by the sociological biographical perspective and tries to answer the interest of knowing how gender affects, as one of the basic sociological variables, transitions at university. Previous studies and researches on choice of studies and educational transitions have stated that men and women carry out different transition processes (Dausien, 1996; Frutos, 1997; Alheit, Dausien, 2009; Villar, Hernàndez, 2010), with regards to the choice of studies and the incorporation into university as students. Also, university statistics show differences in the presence and position of both genders (Fernández-Coronado, González, 2009). These statements have led us to design a research that focuses on the training-work transition, particularly in the case of people who had had a research fellowship and have the prospect of continuing their academic career. So, we refer to the transition from training research fellowships to research and teaching staff contracts, through a case study of the University of Valencia.

We have enunciated two working hypotheses: a) The fellowship holders live the pathway of the academic career as a time of a high uncertainty; b) Although it is an uncertain time for the fellowship holders, gender marks differences during the transition from training research fellowships to research and teaching staff contracts. 

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