Reciprocal commitment in academic careers? : Finnish implications and international trends

This study explores the nature of reciprocal commitment in academic careers. The article is based on a survey conducted in autumn 2013 among fixed-term employees at eight major universities in Finland (N = 810). The analysis is focusing on researchers who have a doctoral degree and who are working on a fixed-term contract at their university (n = 308). According to our study, researchers experience their working conditions are insecure and many of them have considered leaving their universities. Despite the fact that they find their work meaningful their uncertain and poor working conditions are related to their thoughts of leaving the university. In addition in many of the cases leaving th…

Working outside academia? : perceptions of early-career, fixed-term researchers on changing careers

This article examines the perceptions of early-career, fixed-term researchers in Finnish universities towards changing careers. It maps out the reasons this group has considered the change and where they see themselves in five years. As a theoretical framework, a synthesisation of variables related to career change, created by Ryan, Healy, and Sullivan [2012. “Oh, Won’t You Stay? Predictors of Faculty Intent to Leave a Public University.” Higher Education 63: 421–437.], was used. The results show that the most common reasons for early-career researchers to change careers are job-security related stress, job-related dissatisfaction, and salary. Over half of the respondents would like to work…

The EU Human Resource Strategy for Researchers and the working conditions of Finnish fixed-term re-searchers

The Charter and Code incorporating the Human Resource Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) is a European Commissions initiative to make researchers’ careers more attractive, and increase, and support the mobility of researchers by standardizing the researchers’ careers in EU area. The reputation of the quality of the working life in Finland has been fairly good. However, the university employees’ working conditions are often very precarious. In this article, we study the discrepancy between HRS4R action plans of ten Finnish universities and the survey data dealing the fixed term -researchers working conditions. peerReviewed

Nuorten tutkijoiden eteneminen yliopistoissa : sattumaa vai suunnitelmallisuutta?