ESTIMATING THE NEED FOR PhDs IN THE ACADEMIC SECTOR VIA A SURVEY OF EMPLOYERS

The aim of the current paper is to estimate the need for new PhDs in the Estonian academic sector for the 5-year period 2007–2012 using a survey of employers, such as universities, institutions of applied higher education and research institutes. The doctoral workforce in all countries around the world constitutes a rather small segment of the labour market; however, PhDs provide a crucial input for educational and R&D activities not only through their employment in the academic sector, but nowadays also increasingly in the public and private sector. Our results show that academic institutions would prefer to hire a rather high proportion of new PhDs – almost 100% of the current number. On the one hand total demand is high due to a high replacement demand brought on by retirements in the next years as a result of the