The core competencies of PhDs

In our knowledge society and economy, doctoral education is increasingly considered as a means to produce knowledge workers to feed the needs of the global employment market. This raises concerns about the competencies developed through doctoral training. Surprisingly, only a few studies have addressed this question and most of them are restricted to very limited populations or lack empirical evidences. In this context, we performed a national survey answered by 2794 PhDs. From the data collected, we built a reference framework containing 111 competencies organized in 6 main categories. From statistical analysis, we identified a set of ‘core’ competencies that are shared by doctorate holders (Microsoft Excel spreadsheet Chi squared goodness-of-fit test, alpha level .05). This study therefore demonstrates that PhDs develop a set of common competencies and delineate its boundaries.