An NTNU export: PhDs

A continuing trend: The number of Norwegians recruited to conduct research in engineering and the sciences is decreasing, while the share of foreign students is on the increase.

Concerned about exporting knowledge

In the past several years, the Department of Chemical Engineering has announced the availability of 20 PhD positions, and has received about 15 qualified applicants for each. Rarely are there more than 1-2 Norwegian among those who apply.

That the proportion of foreign students is high is not a problem in and of itself, emphasizes Professor and Head of Department Øyvind Weiby Gregersen.

“This is only a concern if the students we educate leave the country afterwards,” he says.

With a staff from 27 nations, the department represents one of the most international workplaces at NTNU. The department’s current crop of 78 PhD candidates is 80 per cent foreign nationals.

Nine out of ten applicants are non-Norwegian

The same situation is found in a number of other departments. When NTNU’s Department of Civil and Transport Engineering announced a PhD position in February, the department received six applications. None of the applicants were Norwegian citizens. The Research Centre on Zero Emission Buildings (ZEB) advertised two PhD positions with a deadline of 20 February and had 52 applicants. Three of them were Norwegian.

A total of 78 PhD positions and 16 postdoctoral positions were announced by the Faculty of Information Technology, Mathematics and Electrical Engineering last year. The faculty does not have precise overview of the applicants’ nationality, citizenship or last residence. But UA has been told that it appears the proportion of foreign applicants is well over 90 per cent for both PhD and postdoc positions. In the fall of 2008, the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Technology announced the availability of 42 research positions. Seventeen per cent of the applicants were Norwegian.

Negative spiral

In Professor Øyvind Weiby Gregersen’s group, biorefinery and fibre technology, there are eight students and three postdocs. None of them are Norwegian. It has been a year-and-a-half since the group had a Norwegian PhD candidate defend a dissertation.

Gregersen believes the department is in a negative spiral that starts with a low applicant numbers from which the department must recruit. Master’s students come from Industrial Chemistry and Biotechnology, in particular, where student numbers have remained around one hundred.

“The numbers should be almost twice that,” according to Gregersen.

In addition, three other departments compete for master's candidates from these disciplines. There are more than 30 students annually who take their master's degree in Chemical Engineering. “There is a need for twice that number here as well,” according to Gregersen.

Hijacked by industry

Many master's graduates are lured away by the process industry, where the starting salary can be NOK 100 000 higher than the salary of a PhD candidate at NTNU. For the oil and gas industry, the wage gap is even higher.

“You have to be pretty idealistic not to find that attractive,” says Gregersen.

The department’s mission is to produce master’s students, PhDs and scientists with knowledge that will benefit industry. At the same time the department must compete with industry for these same heads.

Applications down

Both the department and faculty have worked hard to increase recruitment. After several years of sluggish growth, this year's first round of applications shows a 10 per cent decline.

“It looks bad,” says Gregersen.

The increase in the number of master’s programmes offered at NTNU also plays a role in this trend. With competition from newer fields such as industrial ecology, nanotechnology, industrial economics and industrial design, there are simply fewer students left to choose the traditional engineering and technology programs.

“In addition, there are more universities competing for students. The old Norwegian Institute of Technology (one of NTNU’s predecessors) was in a much more unique position than NTNU is today,” said the professor.

Concerned about recruitment

NTNU has as its goal to become an international leading university. The increased influx of foreign students and researchers is a desired development in line with this ambition, but it can also mean the university devotes its resources to educating expertise that then disappears.

“Whether or not you see this as worrisome depends on what kind of glasses you are wearing,” says Per Jostein Hovde, Professor at the Department of Civil and Transport Engineering.

He has been member and chairman of the central doctoral committee and at the faculty level. Now he's worried about the long-term recruitment of scientific personnel for both research and academic areas.

Exporting knowledge

“In the short term, we have one advantage: Quality and character are what count when we hire someone, so the different disciplines are getting the best candidates. We get someone who does good job, writes a dissertation and produces some publications. The core of the problem is that many of our PhDs disappear after their disputation. It has turned into a kind of export of expertise and knowledge,” says Hovde, who works in the construction and materials engineering group.

At the moment he is supervising six PhDs. One of them is Norwegian. The professor sees this situation as a double-edged sword.

“NTNU has ambitions to be among the leading international universities. At the same time we are a small country. If we are to fulfil our goals, we need to recruit the best. This means that we need to bring in foreign expertise,” Hovde says.

A career in Norway?

When potential candidates are interviewed at the Department of Chemical Engineering, they are always asked if they are interested in a career in Norway. An affirmative answer is not decisive, but will count positively in the candidate’s evaluation. Employees are also encouraged to learn Norwegian. While the working language is English, the social and administrative language at NTNU is Norwegian.

“If you want to participate in the ‘inner life’ here, it is important to master the language. It's also crucial later, when you apply for a job. We make this clear to people who come here,” says Gregersen.

Norwegian classes are yet another stumbling block. Many will not be offered a place in the university’s Norwegian courses, and the professor would like NTNU’s central administration to create additional spaces. Gregersen also believes that the way we welcome foreign researchers is discouraging. The long lines and difficult conditions at the Trondheim Immigration Office are an example.

“On top of all of this is the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration bureaucracy and its infinitely long processing times. It is pathetic when the authorities do not see a difference between asylum seekers and highly educated faculty who come here to work,” says Gregersen.

NTNU must send a clear message

Twenty-four of the 34 foreign PhD candidates who were trained at Gregersen’s department over the past decade have gotten their first job in Norway. Consequently, Gregersen is not very worried about the situation on behalf of his own academic area.

“But it is important that NTNU, as a Norwegian university, clearly states that it is desirable for PhD candidates who are educated here to focus on pursuing a career in the Norwegian labour market,” he said.

The weak recruitment of Norwegian candidates is beginning to have implications for teaching at the department. The first three years of instruction in the department are only in Norwegian. PhD candidates who are recruited for research assistant positions must master Norwegian, and those who do so are become increasingly scarce.