Academic Careers: Examining the Significance of Socio-Economic Background (ACCESS)

How do socio-economic factors affect the recruitment and career trajectories of academic professionals?

The objective of ACCESS is to significantly advance our understanding of the relationship between socio-economic background and the recruitment and careers of academic professionals. A central motivation is to understand the interplay between social background, recruitment and professional success in the academic system, how this is related to various measures of academic abilities, and how this relationship has developed over time in a comparative perspective. 

The project will:

1. Investigate the patterns of social recruitment for higher academic positions over time with population-wide register data in four Nordic countries.
2. Examine how social background factors relate to academic career patterns.
3. Examine bias in academic hiring based on the interplay between social class and other background factors, such as gender, immigrant background and disability.

Method

The project utilizes high-quality administrative register data from Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden to conduct comparative analyses of recruitment to academic positions. It also examines the association between socio-economic background and career trajectories, alongside a more quasi-experimental methods to uncover potential biases in hiring processes.

Relevance

The project provides critical insights into how social inequalities are reproduced in academia, a sector that plays a key role in knowledge production and the recruitment of future experts. The findings will contribute to the research field on social mobility and intergenerational inequality.