Institute for Academic Development, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2022 Sep 9;17(9):e0274486. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274486. eCollection 2022.
The career stage between PhD and lectureship, conventionally called "postdoctoral", has traditionally been seen as transitional. However, with an estimated one third of university researchers in the United Kingdom having been employed on temporary contracts for more than 10 years, the transitional nature of this career stage is questionable. Despite so many research staff being in long-term employment on short-term contracts, the lack of visibility of this population, which does not have a legitimate place within the current academic career structure, means that we do not know how deliberate or accidental their career choices are. Based on semi-structured interviews with long-term researchers (LTRS) at one university in the United Kingdom, this is the first study to investigate the personal and professional circumstances behind the career path of long-term researchers on temporary contracts. Three categories of LTRS were identified: 1) the candidate, who wants to follow the traditional academic career pathway and to secure a lectureship 2) the accidental long-term researcher, who did not or could not plan their career path 3) the career researcher, who sustains a research-only career despite the precarity of such positions. Most participants had belonged successively to two categories. Some obstacles to career progression transcended the categories: inequal access to opportunities for developing one's teaching portfolio, poor or lack of managerial support, the perceived prestige or lack thereof of one's field, and bullying and discrimination. We argue that short-termism and lack of visibility play down considerably the contribution of long-term researchers to the financial and academic success of research institutions. We also argue that traditional-but still in place-structures in academia are ill adapted to the contemporary demographics and practices of the research community; we recommend that future studies involve HE sector stakeholders to review and to reform the academic career structure.
博士毕业后到讲师这一阶段，传统上称为“博士后”，通常被视为过渡阶段。然而，据估计，英国三分之一的大学研究人员是通过临时合同聘用的，且合同期限超过 10 年，因此这种职业阶段的过渡性质值得怀疑。尽管如此多的研究人员长期从事短期合同工作，但由于这部分人群缺乏可见度，他们没有在当前学术职业结构中合法的地位，这意味着我们不知道他们的职业选择是有意还是无意的。基于对英国一所大学的长期研究人员（LTRS）的半结构化访谈，这是第一项研究，旨在调查长期临时合同研究人员职业道路背后的个人和职业情况。确定了三类 LTRS：1）候选人，他们希望遵循传统的学术职业道路，并获得讲师职位；2）意外的长期研究人员，他们没有或无法规划自己的职业道路；3）职业研究人员，尽管这些职位不稳定，但他们仍维持着只从事研究的职业。大多数参与者相继属于前两类。一些职业发展障碍跨越了这些类别：获得发展教学组合的机会不平等、缺乏或缺乏管理支持、所在领域的声望或缺乏声望，以及欺凌和歧视。我们认为，短期主义和缺乏可见度大大低估了长期研究人员对研究机构财务和学术成功的贡献。我们还认为，学术界传统但仍然存在的结构不适应研究界当代的人口结构和实践；我们建议未来的研究让高等教育部门的利益相关者参与，以审查和改革学术职业结构。
