Leading European Union (EU) research universities are adding career development to their doctoral programmes, including schemes to help postgraduates into non-academic careers, finds a 27 January report by the League of European Research Universities (LERU) in Leuven, Belgium. Institutions are increasingly offering options including employer-led career-skills workshops, employment forums and fairs, student consultancies and internships with industry, it found. A LERU report four years ago called for such expansion in the face of declining academic research positions and a tight economic climate. Doctoral students sometimes do not appreciate the rare number of academic posts, and institutions need to offer guidance for alternatives, says Katrien Maes, LERU's chief policy officer.