JMAC
Presentation of “Survey of Japanese Companies’ Attitudes Regarding Recruitment of Doctoral Graduates”
More doctoral human resources in industry!
Japan Management Association Consulting Co., Ltd. (hereafter, JMAC / Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Isao Ozawa) is pleased to announce that Tohoku University, Advanced Graduate School
Organization, Graduate School Reform Promotion Center, Doctoral Human Resource Development Unit (hereafter, PhDC) Since September 2022, we have conducted a survey on what kind of issues companies have regarding the qualities and abilities that companies want in doctoral graduates, and what they expect from doctoral human resources. Industry is starting to become an important career option for post-doctoral students. Until now, there has been a discrepancy in the awareness of companies and university officials (doctoral students, faculty and staff) regarding the qualities and abilities that companies want in doctoral graduates. One of the reasons for this is that the survey results of companies that have been published in the past did not clearly distinguish between undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees. This time, we conducted a questionnaire survey of companies, focusing on doctoral graduates.
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This survey was conducted in September 2022 at the request of Pacific Star Communications and Japan Management Association Consulting Co., Ltd. by Tohoku University, Institute for Advanced Studies, Graduate School Reform Promotion Center, and Doctoral Human Resource
Development Unit (PhDC).
Purpose of the survey
Until now, when hiring, not only bachelor’s degree students but also master’s and doctoral course graduates were all lumped together as “university graduates”, and the requirements for hiring doctoral course graduates were not clear. .
In addition, in the job hunting of doctoral course graduates, it is considered that they are capable of job-type employment with skills that can be declared, such as “possessed skills”, but during the job hunting period, There is a current situation in which the conditions under which
In recent years, more and more companies are hiring doctoral course graduates, and not only research institutes but also companies have come to play a major role as employers for doctoral course graduates. Against this background, in addition to the “Qualities, Abilities, and Knowledge Expected of Doctoral Program Graduates,” we have added “Insufficient Qualities, Abilities, and Knowledge,” “Recruiting Doctoral Program Graduates,” We investigated the Japanese language level required of doctoral course graduates and the lecture subjects directly linked to the jobs expected of universities, and clarified the expectations of doctoral course graduates in a broader sense. [Survey overview]
Survey name: Questionnaire survey on recruitment of doctoral course graduates Purpose: To clarify what companies that employ doctoral course graduates want from doctoral students
Survey method: Combined use of web survey method and Word file survey method Survey period: September 28 to December 27, 2022
Survey target: Research and development departments, personnel departments, corporate planning departments, etc. of Japanese companies
Number of responses: 123 valid responses
Investigator: Japan Management Association Co., Ltd. Consulting R&D Consulting Division
Survey points (excerpt)
Expectations (Qualities) of PhD Graduates
As expected qualities, there were many answers for three items: “independence to promote research and development autonomously”, “challenging spirit to tackle new things without fear of failure”, and “ability to continue learning”. It can be seen that students are expected to take the initiative in pioneering and promoting research in new fields, based on the qualities they have cultivated in the process of advancing to and completing the doctoral course.
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Expectations (Qualities) for Completion of a Doctoral Course Gap between Expectations and Insufficiency of Ph.D. Graduates (Qualities) “Teamwork, leadership, and cooperation” are listed as items that are expected but lacking. In companies, teamwork is required even in research work, so it is thought that there is a gap.
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Gap between Expectations and Lack of Completion of Doctoral Courses (Qualities) [Explanation]
The qualities expected of doctoral course graduates are related to the ability to proactively open up and promote research in new fields. It is considered.
On the other hand, nearly half of the companies also expect “teamwork, leadership, and cooperativeness”, and they recognize that they are lacking in the doctoral course graduates they are currently hiring. It is thought that they feel inadequate in terms of how they can carry out their duties as a member of the organization while being actively involved with their surroundings. In addition to demonstrating high performance as individuals with expertise, we believe that we are expected to maintain and improve the ability of the organization to achieve its goals.
Expectations (knowledge) for doctoral course graduates
As for expected knowledge, there were many answers for three items: “high expertise in research field”, “expert knowledge in major field”, and “wide knowledge of multiple technologies”. We can see that they are expected to understand not only the specialized research fields cultivated in the process of advancing to and completing the doctoral course, but also broader fields of specialization and peripheral technologies.
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Expectations for Completion of a Doctoral Course (Knowledge)
Expectations and Insufficient Gap (Knowledge) for Graduates of Doctoral Courses One item that is expected but lacking is “wide knowledge of multiple technologies”. In order to create new technology from research, it is necessary to have knowledge of multiple technical fields that are the source of ideas, but the current situation is thought to be biased towards specific fields.
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Expectations and Insufficient Gap (Knowledge) for Graduates of Doctoral Courses [Explanation]
In general, doctoral course graduates are considered to have expertise in specific fields at the research level and major level, and in that respect, it is thought that there are very high expectations. On the other hand, it was found that about half of the companies also expect “a wide range of knowledge on multiple technologies” and recognize that the doctoral course graduates currently employed are lacking.
For this reason, companies should encourage doctoral course graduates not only to carry out basic research in their own specialties, but also to become familiar with multiple technologies and combine them to create new research themes, technologies and products. It is conceivable that they are expecting the role of
For other survey results, please see the URL below.
https://pgd.tohoku.ac.jp/phdc/top/survey/
About the survey
This survey was conducted by the following companies.
[Contractor] Tohoku University, Institute for Advanced Studies, Graduate School Reform Promotion Center, Doctoral Human Resource Development Unit
[Research company] Japan Management Association Consulting Co., Ltd. / Pacific Star Communications
【reference】
This survey will be exhibited and announced at the 26th R&D Innovation Forum, a management forum in the R&D field for front-line R&D professionals to be held on July 14, 2023.
⇒ Click here for the press release on the 26th R&D Innovation Forum https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000013.000080217.html