Trained and retained? International doctoral students on the German labour market
The number and share of non-German doctoral students at German universities have more than tripled over the last three decades. This increase has the potential to improve human capital and alleviate the shortage of highly qualified employees. However, the implications of training international doctoral students for the labour market have not yet been sufficiently researched. We know too little about their retention rate in the German labour market after completing their PhD and about the factors that influence this retention and their subsequent employment. Based on a novel approach to identifying international doctoral students in process-generated data, the planned project will provide new insights into how international doctoral students are integrated into the German labour market.
The project aims to address three research questions by building on own previous work of the research team and using doctorate holders with German citizenship as a reference group:
- How has the participation of international doctorate recipients in the German labor market developed since 1995?
- Is there evidence of “glass ceiling effects” in the labor market outcomes of international doctorate recipients?
- How is the retention of international doctorate recipients in the German labor market affected by immigration laws and popular sentiment toward immigration?