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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Études scientifiques et marché du travail : éléments de réflexion sur la crise des formations en sciences

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Student disaffection towards sciences, most evident in pure science undergraduates, is causing increasing concern for the future of scientific training in France. If access to employment deteriorates more for science graduates than for graduates in other disciplines, science graduates will have a distinct advantage in terms of earnings and employment status, when the economic situation becomes less favourable. Within sciences, graduates of pure sciences have a more difficult transition from education to employment than those from applied sciences. Yet graduates from both disciplines compete for the same job in the private sector with pure science graduates receiving lower wages. The “crisis of sciences” thus seems to be the result of the paradoxical nature of the studies of pure sciences: to prepare the “elite” for the prestigious teaching and research positions and to provide an education for the others.