Career destinations of STFC / PPARC PhD Students QUESTIONNAIRE

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The survey is in two main parts. Your route through the first part of the survey will depend on some of the answers you give. Therefore, the questions may not follow an uninterrupted numerical sequence and, depending on your answers, new questions will appear. Once you have submitted the first part of the survey it is not possible to go back and change your answers. Many of the questions can be answered by selecting items from drop down menus or by selecting radio buttons or check boxes.

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All mandatory fields are marked with *.

The Science and Technology Facilities Council is contacting people who completed PhD awards after 2004 to ask them to take part in a career path survey. This will help us to understand better what happens to postgraduate students after they finish their PhD and the use that they make of the skills that they developed during their PhD.

We will use the information to inform future policy and funding decisions and to help current PhD students better understand the range of careers open to them.

The basic survey will take about 15 minutes to complete. There is also an option to provide content for a short career profile. You can do this either on-line through the survey, by email or by telephone interview.

The survey is in two main parts. Your route through the first part of the survey will depend on some of the answers you give. Therefore, the questions may not follow an uninterrupted numerical sequence and, depending on your answers, new questions will appear. Many of the questions can be answered by selecting items from drop down menus or by selecting radio buttons or check boxes.

The information you provide (with the exception of career profiles) will be treated in confidence and will not be attributed to you personally. We will not pass any contact details you provide to anyone else without your permission.

If you have any queries or comments about the survey please contact Dr. Katharine Hollinshead

Section A: Your Phd

1. In which year did your PhD funding end?

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Other

If ‘Other’ please enter year  

2. Was your PhD theoretical or experimental?

1. Theoretically based 2. Experimentally based-Observation/experiment 3. Experimentally based-Technology/instrumentation 4. Equal mix of theory and experiment

3. What was the main subject area of your PhD?

1. Particle Physics 2. Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology 3. Planetary Science and Solar Research including Space Physics 4. Nuclear Physics 5. Other

If ‘Other’ please specify

4. Why did you decide to undertake a PhD?

All Reasons– please tick all that apply

1. A love of the subject/research
2. Wanted to pursue a career in academia/research
3. To enhance general career prospects
4. Did not know what else to do
5. No suitable alternative employment
6. Friends/peers were taking PhDs
7. Encouraged by university staff or parents/family to do it
8. Enjoyed university life
9. Other

Please identify the single most important reason

1. A love of the subject/research
2. Wanted to pursue a career in academia/research
3. To enhance general career prospects
4. Did not know what else to do
5. No suitable alternative employment
6. Friends/peers were taking PhDs
7. Encouraged by university staff or parents/family to do it
8. Enjoyed university life
9. Other

If ‘Other’ please provide details

5. What is the current position with your PhD?

1. PhD awarded
2. Submitted thesis but PhD was not awarded
3. Still working towards submitting thesis
4. Decided not to submit thesis (please explain why not below)
5. Other (please provide details below)

Please provide more details if you have decided not to submit your thesis or selected ‘Other’

Section B: Your Current Situation

* 6. Which of the following best describes your current situation?

If you are working and studying at the same time please tick one of the employment categories. There are further questions about study / training later in the questionnaire.

1. Employed full-time in paid work (30 hours a week or more)
2. Employed part-time in paid work (less than 30 hours a week)
3. Self employed
4. Freelance
5. Undertaking further study / training
6. Unemployed / looking for work
7. Taking time out and not actively looking for work, e.g. travelling
8. Looking after home / family and not actively looking for work
9. Other (please provide details in the space below)

If ‘Other’ please provide details

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