Postdoctoral Lives in the Entrepreneurial University: Irish Experiences
Author(s):
Aidan Seery (presenting / submitting) Andrew Loxley (presenting) Walsh John
Conference:
ECER 2013
Network:
22. Research in Higher Education
Format:
Paper

Session Information

22 SES 07 C, Employability and Transition to Work of Higher Education Graduates

Paper Session

Time:
2013-09-11
17:15-18:45
Room:
STD-401
Chair:
Chris Kubiak
Discussant:
Ilya Kukulin

Contribution

Policy statements on the importance of the link between research and innovation abound. Within these the postdoctoral researcher can be regarded as a particular category of ‘knowledge worker’, occupying a key role as part of policy on national innovation systems. However, despite a considerable range of constructive policy development at EU level, the actual initiation and implementation of policy at national level regarding postdoctoral career structures is often far removed from the lofty aspirations of the European Union. For example, the European Council, in February 2011 approved a proposed framework for the European Research Area (ERA), which set out to ‘to improve the mobility and career prospects of researchers, the mobility of graduate students and the attractiveness of Europe for foreign researchers’.[1]The ERA framework aimed to secure a common approach across member states to achieve attractive employment conditions for researchers and gender balance in researcher careers. The central concern of the ERA was facilitating mobility of researchers across countries and sectors, including open recruitment in public research institutions and comparable research career structures. Also, the report of the Higher Education Research Group in Ireland (DETE, 2009) set out a draft national framework for researcher careers, but this was shelved due to the economic crisis and it is widely acknowledged that progress in the matter of researcher careers has been tentative, fragmented and incoherent.  

Research in the area of postdoctoral researcher lives is relatively sparse despite the role attributed to these ‘knowledge workers’ in European and Irish national policy on innovation. This paper reports on an exploratory project which it is hoped will be developed into a national and international study. Within this project, we examined the work-lives and interactions of a small group of postdoctoral researchers in different disciplines, in the arts and humanities as well as the natural sciences, in two of Ireland’s seven universities over the first two years of their careers after graduation. The reported experiences are analysed against the background of recent statements in European and national higher education and research policy documents that point specifically to the importance of developing research mobility and career development among Europe’s researchers (European Commission, 2007, 2008).

[1] European Council 4 February 2011 Conclusions, Brussels, 8 March 2011, http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/119175.pdf.

Method

The research was conducted with a group of 15 postdoctoral researchers and data were generated by means of focus groups and semi-structured interviews. The research methods were informed by the literature which suggested that themes such as insecurity, self-doubt, gender differences, future goals and perceptions of family and friends, are dominant in the narratives of early career postdoctoral researchers’ lives. Such themes in turn are informed by central issues within the working lives of postdoctoral researchers, such as relationships to Principal Investigators and peers, distinctive forms of discipline socialisation, short-term employment contracts and frequently inferior working conditions. Data collection was conducted during the academic year 2012-13 and the participants were purposively selected from disciplines in both the arts and humanities and the natural sciences.

Expected Outcomes

Analysis of the data suggests that current experiences of postdoctoral researchers in Ireland are marked by high levels of professional and even personal insecurity and the embracing of mobility out of frustration with working conditions and lack of policy direction rather than professional advancement. The results suggest that the experiences in the Irish higher education sector might be regarded as an exemplar of how postdoctoral researchers may react to the demands that they become innovative, creative and even entrepreneurial, especially in times of economic austerity, while operating in a climate characterised by a lack of policy implementation, minimal career prospects within academia and constant employment insecurity.

References

Ackers, L., & Gill, B. (2005). Attracting and retaining ‘early career’ researchers in English higher education institutions. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Sciences, 18(3), 277-299. Åkerlind , G. S. (2005). Postdoctoral researchers: roles, functions and career prospects. Higher Education Research & Development, 24(1), 21-40. Allen‐Collinson, J., & Hockey, J. (1998). Capturing Contracts: informal activity among contract researchers. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 19(4), 497-515. Archer, L. (2008). Younger academics’ constructions of ‘authenticity’, ‘success’ and professional identity. Studies in Higher Education, 33(4), 385-403. Bromley, T., Evans, L., & Baxter, J. (2008). Professionality, a career in research and fixed term contract culture: Are the three compatible? Paper presented at the conference for the Society for Research into Higher Education.December9–11, Liverpool, United Kingdom. Collinson, J. A. (2003). Working at a marginal ‘career’: the case of UK social science contract researchers. Sociological Review, 51(3), 405-422. Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals (CVCP).(1996). A Concordat to Provide a Framework for the Career Management of Contract Research Staff in Universities and Colleges. London: CVCP. Murray, R., & Cunningham, E. (2011). Managing researcher development: ‘drastic transition’? Studies in Higher Education, 36(7), 831-845. RCUK (2008) ‘Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers’ http://www.researchconcordat.ac.uk/ (Accessed 4th November 2008) Smith, M. J. (2011). Transforming traditions: a study of researchers in higher education. Journal of Further and Higher Education 36(2), 187-203. Williams, K. (2008). Troubling the concept of the ‘academic profession’ in 21st century higher education, Higher Education, 56, 533-544

Author Information

Aidan Seery (presenting / submitting)
Trinity College Dublin
School of Education
Dublin
Andrew Loxley (presenting)
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Walsh John
Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Update Modus of this Database

The current conference programme can be browsed in the conference management system (conftool) and, closer to the conference, in the conference app.
This database will be updated with the conference data after ECER. 

Search the ECER Programme

  • Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
  • Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
  • Search for authors and in the respective field.
  • For planning your conference attendance, please use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference and the conference agenda provided in conftool.
  • If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.