Prospects for the future

In this section we concentrate on the actions proposed by interviewees in the two Departments to improve their quality of life and work. The focus will be on two aspects: (i) the measures which, at national level, could improve the employment situation of those with temporary posts at university; (ii) actions that could be implemented at the organizational level.

4.5.1. Summary for STEM

The problematic factors and the elements in which to invest from the beginning of the career were cited in a similar way by the interviewees, both men and women, both postdocs and assistant professors. Whilst most of the proposals concerning the national level were made in similar manner by the postdocs and assistant professors, some differences were apparent in the measures proposed at the organizational level.

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Postdocs and assistant professors

As regards national-level policies that could improve the quality of postdocs’ work, one

of the elements recurrent during the interviews concerned the type of contract for these figures in Italy, which does not recognize research as work:

“Well, I think the first thing is social security. The first thing of all, because it’s absurd that if you finish a work contract, which is not an employment contract but a grant – which is another absurdity –it happens that you no longer have a job from one day to the next” (Male postdoc, DISI).

The fact that in Italy a postdoctoral fellowship does not correspond to a job, but to a grant, and therefore does not give entitlement to social benefits of any kind, means that many of the critical issues raised by the interviewees referred to the lack of rights such as sickness leave, social security, or even the possibility of a mortgage:

“There’s this thing about mortgages. For example, the fact that with your contract you can’t go to the bank and get a mortgage is a problematic issue. The bank won’t grant me a mortgage. They told me that they were sorry because my income was good, but they couldn’t give me a mortgage because they had no guarantees” (Female postdoc DISI).

Also some of the assistant professors said – even though they had more stable jobs than

the postdocs – that they did not have the same rights as granted to tenured researchers.

However, the factor most frequently cited in their interviews concerned scant professional independence:

“The problem is that we can’t be the PIs of projects. In these years I’ve had a PRIN – actually, not as PI because I couldn’t be, but I was mostly responsible for it. Not being able to sign the projects that you write is a recurrent issue for RTD-as. It’s not a mechanism that has to do with the individual. It’s the system that means youcan’t be PI in these projects” (Male assistant professor, DISI).

Regarding the policies to be implemented at organizational level, the postdocs and assistant professors agreed on the inadequacy of the services provided by the Department to guide young researchers in career development, and the lack of services giving clear information on how to be competitive in the academic jobs market:

“A sort of career advisor: when I was preparing for interviews for the assistant professorship, I sought suggestions on how to write the letter of presentation, the research statement, and description of teaching activity. And these things I found by myself. There was no one to help me” (Female postdoc, DISI).

During the interviews, however, some differences emerged in regard to the organizational policies deemed necessary. In fact, whilst the postdocs wanted to acquire skills related to everyday research practice, such as abilities related to writing scientific papers or projects, the assistant professors preferred to improve and increase skills useful for teaching activities:

“It would be useful to have courses on how to write articles, or also on how to work on projects, such as writing projects or applications for funding, and things like that” (Female postdoc, DISI)

“I know people who’d never taught before. No one had told them how to behave in the classroom. Obviously, the comments by their students on the first courses weren’t very

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nice, and the assessment is included in your portfolio for promotion. I think it would be much better if you already knew how to deal with these things through training given by the department” (Male assistant professor, DISI)

Comparison between postdocs and assistant professorsin STEM

As is apparent from the interviewees’ words, the postdocs and assistant professors –

both women and men – expressed similar ideas on how policies, both at national and

organizational level, could improve their working conditions.

As regards national policies, most postdocs focused on the inadequacy of the contract, which took the form of a scholarship and did not give entitlement to welfare benefits. The assistant professors instead placed greater emphasis on the impossibility of appearing as Principal Investigator of a project, with the result that their work went largely unrecognized.

As regards the actions to be proposed at university level, both postdocs and assistant professors cited interventions such as a career advisory service providing information on opportunities for career development, and skills seminars. But on this latter aspect there were differences between the two groups of interviewees related to academic experience. In fact, whilst the postdocs felt the need for training to improve the writing of scientific papers and projects, the assistant professors wanted to develop soft skills, especially ones to do with student management.

With respect to work/family conciliation, no particular requests were addressed to the University. This was probably also due to the fact that only few interviewees had children, and the majority of these could make use of family networks.

4.5.2 Summary for SSH

The arguments of the interviewees at the Department of Sociology and Social Research on policies to be implemented partly mirrored those of the interviewees at the STEM department. Once again, they were similar for men and women, both postdocs and assistant professors.