International researchers leave Denmark after PhD

19/05-11 kl. 12:03 Politics

Photo: Photos.com Denmark is runner up in research and innovation in the 2011 Innovation Union Scoreboard. To reach first place, Danish universities need more non European Phds.

Denmark has doubled its number of new PhD researchers in the past years, but many of them travel home again once they are finished, concludes a just released report

by Afton Halloran

The number of international researchers coming to Denmark to do research has increased. But even more of them go back home after they are finished their PhDs, according to a Danish National Audit Office report cited on b.dk.

The report has looked into the Danish parliament’s investment in research from 2005 to 2012.

Danish universities have doubled the admission of PhDs from abroad since 2003, mostly into the natural sciences, health and technology areas.

Need more humanities, social sciences

Politicians now fear that the doubled PhD intake from abroad has not adequately contributed to growth and prosperity of Denmark.

Social Democrat research spokesman Rasmus Prehn calls it a mistake that the government hasn't given priority to the Social Sciences and Humanities instead.

»To fill up the spaces, they have had to fill them up with internationals. It is a good thing to get the best and brightest to Denmark, but when these internationals want to go home again, you could consider whether more of them in the future should be within the Social Sciences and Humanities,« he says.

The auditors' report is on a Danish government research investment totalling DKK 4.8 billion.

afton.halloran@adm.ku.dk

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3 comments

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25/05-11 kl. 10:54 sasan:

Considering the current

Considering the current financial situations and everyday budget cutbacks! I cannot see the bright future for academia level. I think it would be better to invest more in creating jobs outside the universities if Danish government really wants to keep the ones they already have.

25/05-11 kl. 09:00 Davide Giacalone:

The reason is simple:

The huge mistake of the Danish government in the last year has been to invest too much on PhD positions, neglecting completely intermediate positions (such as Post Doc).

This imbalance has been really unfortunate, mainly because the job market did not have such a demand for people with a PhD (of course the market needs high educated people, but if a person at the end of the PhD gets the same kind of job as a person with a Master degree, then the state has just wasted money on his/her PhD education).

So, the situation is bad for those who genuinely aim at a career in the industry, and it is also bad for those who would like to stay in academia (continuous struggle to get post doc positions, very remote or no perspective of permanent employment).

The solution would improve if the government finally stopped to blindly fund so many PhDs and concentrated on intermediate positions instead.

Concerning the claim that we should spend more in the humanities and social sciences...that's plain bullshit...those areas are already strongly overfunded for the societal needs, especially because in general their ability to interact with and attract funding from the private sector is very limited at best.

Make no mistake: all areas are important and deserve (basic) funding, but in general the main focus should be to what areas (or department, or research groups) actually reach out to and make a difference for companies or the society as whole, and not just to who has the best lobbying group.

19/05-11 kl. 14:43 Sina Safayi:

of course

Most of us will stay IF Danish system: helps us to find jobs there or at least increases the number of postdocs or...
Where in the world is better to live/work in than Denmark?

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