Dr Sally Hancock

Senior Lecturer in Education at the Department of Education, University of York

Biography:

Dr Sally Hancock is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of York. Her research sits at the intersection of higher education, science policy, and the sociology of education, with a particular focus on the career trajectories and experiences of doctoral graduates. She examines how doctoral training systems and policy frameworks shape PhD careers across academic and non-academic sectors. Her recent work includes analyses of doctoral employment outcomes in the UK and a national review of doctoral training in the social sciences. Her research has been featured in Nature and Times Higher Education and cited by organisations including the British Academy and the UK Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee.

Title and Abstract: PhD career paths reconsidered: reflections on empirical research and a new model of PhD employability

As doctoral education expands globally, PhD graduates are increasingly positioned as key contributors to knowledge economies. Yet persistent concerns remain about their employment prospects outside academia. Much of the existing literature explains these challenges in terms of transferable skills deficits or labour-market mismatch, overlooking how doctoral expertise is recognised and valued differently across professional fields.

Drawing on over a decade of empirical research on PhD career paths, this keynote highlights the wide range of employment trajectories open to doctoral graduates and introduces a new framework for understanding the value of the PhD across professional contexts. In doing so, it challenges prevailing discourses of ‘PhD oversupply’. Doctoral education is structured to produce forms of cultural, social, and symbolic capital that are readily recognised within the academic field. Beyond academia, however, the recognition of this capital varies considerably and depends on the rules and hierarchies of different professional environments.

The analysis identifies recurring patterns in how doctoral capital is mobilised across occupations, disciplines, and national systems, revealing forms of misalignment that have not previously been articulated in the literature. By reframing post-PhD careers as a question of capital recognition rather than skills deficits, this keynote proposes a sociologically grounded model of PhD employability. The framework offers theoretical insights for research on doctoral education, policy implications for institutions and governments, and practical guidance for doctoral and early-career researchers seeking to communicate the value of their expertise to a broad range of employers.