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text｜ ma yinqi and li saipei

in recent years, my country has attached great importance to the construction of postdoctoral teams and has issued a number of relevant policy documents. for example, the "opinions of the cpc central committee and the state council on carrying forward the spirit of educators and strengthening the construction of high-quality professional teachers in the new era" was recently issued, which clearly proposed to promote universities to use postdoctoral fellows as an important source of teachers.

with the support of relevant systems, the number of postdoctoral fellows in my country is growing exponentially, and postdoctoral experience has increasingly become an "accelerator" for young scientific and technological talents to transform into high-level innovative leaders. however, at the same time, under the background of changes in the supply and demand structure and the employment market environment, problems such as "difficulty in assessment during the appointment period" and "difficulty in finding employment after leaving the postdoctoral position" have gradually become the "hidden pain" of the postdoctoral group, making doctoral students wait and see about choosing postdoctoral research work, and have a certain degree of hesitation.

phd students and young phd students are the pool of candidates for postdoctoral research. the motivation of applicants is considered to be a key factor affecting the quality of postdoctoral training. therefore, it is necessary to conduct an in-depth study on their willingness to engage in postdoctoral research and the influencing factors.

to this end, the author's team searched the official websites of universities, personnel offices, colleges or departments one by one, distributed questionnaires to 1,985 valid email addresses that met the requirements of the subjects, and finally, based on the questionnaire survey results of 479 doctoral students, conducted an empirical analysis of their willingness to engage in postdoctoral research.

multiple representations of willingness to engage in postdoctoral work

in the study, my team found that the academic career development intentions of doctoral students are becoming increasingly differentiated, and the degree of willingness varies significantly among some groups. among them, more than 30% of doctoral students are willing to engage in postdoctoral research, nearly 40% of doctoral students have a negative attitude, and a considerable number of groups are in a state of indecision. this complexity and diversity reveals the complex emotions and decision-making process of doctoral students towards engaging in postdoctoral research.

specifically, there are significant differences in the willingness of doctoral students to engage in postdoctoral research in terms of gender, age, subject type, university attended/graduated from, and supervisor title; there are no significant differences in marriage, academic stage, and overseas experience. for example, the willingness of doctoral students who attended or graduated from local universities is significantly higher than that of "double first-class" universities, which is closely related to their desire to engage in postdoctoral research to achieve the symbolic transition of "top universities".

for example, if a doctoral student's supervisor has a talent title, his or her willingness to engage in postdoctoral research is significantly higher than that of a supervisor without a talent title, which means that the supervisor's title and reputation may serve as an invisible "social capital" and have a positive impact on the doctoral student's willingness. from a psychological perspective, the talent title, as a kind of social recognition, will have a positive psychological suggestion effect on both the supervisor and the student. this sense of honor and belonging will motivate doctoral students to pursue higher academic achievements and self-realization.

in addition, the survey results show that entering a world-class university to engage in short-term teaching postdoctoral work is the direction and type of work that doctoral students prefer. from the perspective of job stability, teaching postdoctoral work is a relatively preferred "safe card" for doctoral students. its preferred status shows that doctoral students attach great importance to positions that combine teaching and research, and such positions have more potential value in their academic development and career advancement.

at the same time, doctoral students are more inclined to choose to enter world-class universities, which highlights their pursuit of high-quality research resources, academic environment and personal brand building.

however, this precisely reflects the urgent need of doctoral students to quickly complete the postdoctoral stage and enter formal academic positions, or the concern about the career uncertainty that may come with long-term postdoctoral status.

the “two-way effect” brought about by differentiated influencing factors

the significant differences in doctoral students' willingness to work as postdoctoral fellows may be due to their different assessments of future career prospects, the trade-off between their expectations of the academic environment and actual possibilities, and the diversity of their personal career plans. for doctoral students and young doctoral students, engaging in postdoctoral research is a "game" of self-selection, which has both potential opportunities for academic development and many risks and challenges.

postdoctoral career decision-making is a complex process that requires consideration of the combined effects of personal beliefs, career goals, risk assessment, and social impact. among them, confidence in one's own scientific research ability, pursuit of academics, and expectations of career benefits prompt doctoral students to choose postdoctoral research. simply put, when doctoral students are confident in their scientific research ability, they are more willing to engage in postdoctoral research to gain further development in their academic careers.

however, the vast majority of doctoral students consider the actual benefits slightly more than the academic needs. from this perspective, the experience of postdoctoral research has increasingly become a "hard lever" for seeking positions and a "buffer" for delaying employment, and has a strong "gilded" color, while the training function of the "reservoir" of high-level talents has been relatively weakened.

this also once again emphasizes the "dual value" of postdoctoral positions in satisfying doctoral students' personal academic pursuits and practical benefits.

it is worth mentioning that among the various factors that influence doctoral students to engage in postdoctoral research, the contribution of subjective norms is significantly higher than other factors.

the so-called "subjective norm" refers to the social expectations and norms perceived by individuals when making behavioral decisions, including the views and expectations of others on their behavior. the high contribution of this factor highlights the strong influence of society and academia on the selection of doctoral students. in this regard, the talent policies issued by the country in recent years are all beneficial to postdoctoral students. this is undoubtedly a "boost" for young doctoral students and the biggest motivation to increase their willingness to engage in postdoctoral studies.

on the contrary, the negative effect of cost risk perception reflects the doctoral students' concerns and doubts about potential future losses. specifically, they are worried about being treated as "temporary academic workers" and facing the risk of being unemployed again due to "age card" in the context of the increasingly saturated academic labor market; secondly, they are unable to bear the huge pressure of scientific research performance during the postdoctoral period. the "involution" under peer competition forces doctoral students to speed up the pace of scientific research output when they are engaged in postdoctoral research.

taking multiple measures to forge high-quality "postdoctoral force"

with the continuous expansion of the enrollment scale, it is particularly important to clarify the current doctoral students' behavioral willingness to engage in postdoctoral research and its key influencing factors. this will not only help doctoral students to correctly face career choices and employment, and help young doctors to correctly establish a career development perspective, but also effectively prevent postdoctoral students from becoming "doctoral candidates" and improve the quality of postdoctoral training in my country.

based on the survey and analysis results, the research team believes that the following aspects can be used as an approach.

first, we need to reasonably expand the number of postdoctoral fellows in various disciplines, especially in the fields of natural sciences, engineering technology, etc., and optimize and improve the talent incentive and support mechanism. at this stage, some disciplines in top research universities have gradually taken postdoctoral experience as a basic threshold for employment, and stimulating the "upward mobility" of doctoral students has forward-looking value for strengthening the high-level talent team.

while encouraging colleges and universities to expand the number of postdoctoral students recruited and trained, on the one hand, we should improve the postdoctoral recruitment mechanism and appropriately relax the age limit for recruitment; on the other hand, we should increase corresponding supporting support, such as focusing on promoting the diversification of postdoctoral salary sources, and to a certain extent reduce the perceived costs and risks considered by the doctoral group, so as to provide solid guarantees for fully exerting their scientific research and innovation capabilities.

second, we should attach importance to the academic career guidance and career planning of doctoral students, strengthen the educational foundation, guide them to give full play to their scientific research self-efficacy, and rationally examine their own academic interests. encouraged by national policies, the team of high-level postdoctoral students is gradually expanding, and the group of young teachers in universities is also tending to be "postdoctoral". however, not all doctoral students are suitable for postdoctoral research. the external environment and "miscalculation" of individual efficacy may cause this group to form unreasonable academic career planning, resulting in the phenomenon of blindly following the crowd.

the study found that most doctoral students have a certain intention to engage in postdoctoral research, but are still vague in formulating specific action plans. therefore, universities and relevant institutions should strengthen the academic career guidance and career planning support for doctoral students, and help them establish a reasonable employment and career outlook. at the same time, doctoral students themselves should also actively exert their subjective initiative, rationally evaluate their academic interests, stress resistance and scientific research resilience, and clarify their employment preferences and future aspirations.

third, we should give play to the subjective normative effect of policy guidance, focus on teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, and create a "fast track" for postdoctoral talents. specifically, we should establish and improve the classification system based on the subject background, academic needs and other factors of postdoctoral students, actively implement the diversion and exit mechanism, improve the assessment system of postdoctoral mobile stations, and take measures such as station retention and withdrawal for postdoctoral students who are not suitable for continuing to engage in research work, so that the training function of the "reservoir" of high-level talents can return to its original purpose.

fourth, "broaden the road" on the basis of "selecting good seedlings". for example, for female postdoctoral students, the state should provide a more flexible working environment and family support policies; formulate special scientific research projects and funding support policies based on the characteristics of different disciplines; provide customized career planning and development guidance for graduating doctoral students and young doctoral students, especially provide more scientific research and employment opportunities for unemployed doctoral students, and do not let "young peppers" become "academic temporary workers".

(author’s unit: school of education, zhejiang normal university)