Academic precarity is a wide-ranging threat to the quality of research globally, with the brightest students now eschewing a career in academia because of poor working conditions, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has warned.

While the problem of short-term, high-pressure and insecure jobs for early career researchers is well known, the Paris-based thinktank, which recently conducted interviews with some 100 policymakers and scientists, has concluded that it is one of the most serious problems facing the research enterprise.

¡°It clearly is the case that the best people aren¡¯t going into academia any more,¡± said Carthage Smith, a senior policy analyst at the OECD who contributed to a report on the issue. This conclusion came through ¡°no?matter what type of stakeholder we spoke?to¡±, he added.

¡°It¡¯s really serious for science if many of these brightest young people are choosing not to go into science or are dropping out early,¡± he?said. ¡°It¡¯s a fundamental issue.¡±

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The OECD report, , characterises academia as a ¡°shrinking protected research elite and a large precarious research class that now represents the majority in most academic systems¡±.

Several factors have contributed to precarious working conditions. A switch away from core funding to competitive grant systems has meant more pressure for ¡°flexibility in staffing¡±. Meanwhile, there has been a ¡°staggering¡± increase in the number of PhD holders, growing by 25?per cent among the working-age population in OECD countries in the five years to 2019.

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Just 52 per cent of corresponding authors have a permanent contract, the report warns. For authors under?34, three-quarters are in fixed-term positions.

According to interviewees, ¡°many positions are filled with what they consider as less able national students and/or international students. They are concerned that this will ultimately affect the quality of the research being produced.¡±

¡°Bright people see what happens in an academic career, and they can go elsewhere,¡± said Dr Smith.

While differences between countries exist, the problem is now globally endemic, the report makes clear.

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¡°It¡¯s almost as though the precarity is viral; it¡¯s spread from country to country,¡± Dr Smith said. Countries need precarious, flexible academic labour to remain competitive in research, and what results is a global race to the bottom, he explained.

¡°There¡¯s a bit of passing the buck to some extent,¡± with universities blaming research funders, and vice?versa, Dr Smith added. Precarious researchers were hidden ¡°off the books¡±, meaning some university authorities ¡°are?not even aware they are there¡±, he said.

As for solutions, ¡°I?actually don¡¯t think money is the issue,¡± he said, and added that interviewees had backed this up.

The problem is that with a glut of new funding, universities tend to recruit a handful of ¡°overseas top professors¡± who in turn hire an army of temporary PhDs and postdocs below them. ¡°The net effect is that the university gets more people on precarious positions,¡± he said.

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Instead, precarity would be better eased by an end to the ¡°almost complete dependence¡± on bibliometric indicators and ¡°obsession with lots of short-term outputs that have a high profile¡±, which encourages short-term, insecure working conditions, Dr Smith said.

Training early career researchers for jobs outside academia would also ease job market pressure, he said, as fewer scholars would apply for limited early-stage jobs.

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david.matthews@timeshighereducation.com