A scientific career in Italy: a difficult journey

There have been numerous alarm calls about a science vocation crisis among young people, and these have come from the most varied of quarters: newspapers, the trade press, the academic world, politicians. A number of people have clear ideas about why this is happening. There is the lack of desire among young people to take on difficult and arduous study courses, then there is the school system that does not give students a good foundation in the sciences. Some say that the government does not pay enough attention to scientific research policies; others criticize the business world for the types of salaries and careers it offers science graduates. These considerations are certainly plausible, but the fact that fingers have been pointed does not necessarily mean that this complex and varied phenomenon has been carefully analysed. In the following pages, we present the reader with a variety of judgment criteria and interpretative keys, examining the subject in more detail than is typically common in the public domain. In this context, we have tried to supply information and data that should help elucidate this phenomenon. We have also asked ourselves what it means today, in Italy, to undertake a scientific profession. To this end we have carried out an enquiry into the occupational opportunities for PhDs in scientific disciplines. This survey could only be exploratory, since this topic has been studied very little as of yet. It is quite revealing, actually, that there are no official statistics about the number of PhDs distributed among the various disciplinary areas. Up till now, PhDs were considered, even at the ministerial level, to be a private matter for single universities and, above all, single departments, the assumption being that they serve almost exclusively for academic reproduction. And if a PhD wants instead to join a private company or a non-university structure? What he/she finds is not very encouraging.