Universities Rely Increasingly on Postdoctoral Positions

Academe, Nov/Dec 2004 by Bradley, Gwendolyn

Both the number of PhDs accepting postdoctoral positions and the average length of postdoctoral work are increasing, according to Jennifer Ma of the TIAA-CREF Research Institute and Paula Stephan of Georgia State University, who presented findings from their study at an April conference, "Recruitment, Retention, and Retirement: The Three Rs of Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century." The TIAACREF Research Institute, the research arm of TIAA-CREF, convened the conference, which brought together researchers and academic administrators to discuss changes in faculty careers and institutional policies for dealing with those changes.

Ma and Stephan reported that the number of postdoctoral positions in science, engineering, and health had a combined increase of 87 percent between 1987 and 2001. In addition, postdoctoral positions are now likely to extend to five or six years, compared with a norm of about two years several decades ago. Pointing out that postdoctoral positions occupy a "gray area" in which compensation and academic status are often not subject to normal university policies, the institute notes that some people have raised the issue of whether "PhDs are being trained and recruited specifically to provide, as postdoctoral fellows, a source of low-cost labor for research projects."

"Although not all postdoctoral positions can be classified as contingent faculty positions, it does appear that postdoctoral fellows are increasingly expected to teach. Thus, the expansion of postdoctoral positions, in terms of both the length of time spent in such positions and their increasing use in more disciplines, is part of a broader trend toward more faculty positions off the tenure track," comments John Curtis, the AAUP's director of research.

-G.B.