The careers of PhDs in Hungary: in the social sciences and humanities

Abstract

In the 21st century, a highly skilled workforce has become one of the resources seen as essential to support the knowledge economies. This paper attempts to draw a picture of the career and mobility of PhD graduates in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (SSH). International trends can be seen in the Hungarian job market for SSH PhDs, and the non-academic sector has also appeared, but its demand for SSH graduates is very limited. According to our findings, the demand for knowledge is slowly changing in the non-academic spheres of society. A strong feature of the current PhD education process is that the majority of students enter their courses with no work experience after their Masters degree. However, for non-academic jobs it would be more useful if they have some years of experience. Our empirical analysis has combined quantitative and qualitative information for discussing individual careers.