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  • CAREER FEATURE

‘I don’t want this kind of life’: graduate students question career options

As interest in academia fades, scholars in PhD and master’s programmes are dubious about the value of their degree in advancing their professional lives, finds Nature survey.
  1. Chris Woolston

    1. Chris Woolston is a freelance writer in Billings, Montana.

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Cartoon of a student climbing a ladder.

Illustration by Cathal Duane

One-third of respondents to Nature’s 2022 global graduate-student survey are lukewarm about the value of their current programme. Sixty-six per cent of the PhD and masters’ students who responded think that their degree will “substantially” or “dramatically” improve their job prospects, but the rest see little or no benefit. Less than one-third agree that they expect to find a permanent job within one year of graduating, or that their programme is leaving them well prepared to eventually find a satisfying career.

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Nature 611, 413-416 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03586-8

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