For the first time, Statistics Norway has examined the educational level of the parents of researchers/academic personnel employed in Norwegian higher education institutions and in the institute sector (academia) for the years 2012–2022. Excluding individuals were data on parent’s level of education is unknown, we find that 66 per cent of the researchers/academic personnel had parents with education on tertiary level in 2022. Among the students, this applied to 60 per cent, while the same was true for 46 per cent of the population with higher education and 32 per cent of the general population.
– We have filled a knowledge gap about the social background of researchers. The data show that not just everyone becomes a researcher in Norwegian academia. Among recruitment staff, for example, more than three out of four have at least one parent with education on tertiary level, says senior advisor Bjørn Magne Olsen at Division for R&D, technology and business dynamics statistics at Statistics Norway.
The parent’s level of education is a measure of social background. The value is determined by the highest level of education completed by either mother, father or both when the person is 16 years old.
Data on parent's level of education is missing for one third of the researchers
The share of researchers where information about parent’s level of education is unknown has clearly increased over the last 10 years, from 25 per cent in 2012 to 33 per cent in 2022. This relates almost exclusively to international researchers, as the country background of the researchers where information on parent’s level of education is unknown, is almost exclusively non-Norwegian. Research fellows and post doctors have the highest share where information on parent’s level of education is unknown; these are also the positions with the largest number of internationally mobile researchers. Natural sciences and engineering and technology have a high share of international researchers, and thus also a high proportion of researchers where information on parent’s level of education is unknown.
What is the proportion of “first-generation academics”?
“First-generation academics” relates to individuals with education on tertiary level, where the parents have education on upper secondary education or primary and lower secondary education. The share of researchers whose parents had upper secondary level education has decreased from 36 per cent in 2012 to 30 per cent in 2022. At the same time, the share of researchers whose parents had primary and lower secondary level education has decreased from 7 to 4 per cent. The overall share of researchers whose parents have short or long higher education has increased from 34 to 43 per cent in the same period. The general level of education in the total population has also increased in the same period, so a certain growth is to be expected.
At top academic level 40 per cent of researchers have parents without tertiary level education
Among full professors and research professors in Norwegian academia, 40 per cent had parents with education on upper secondary or primary and lower secondary education. Those holding top academic positions are on older than the average researcher/academic personnel and grew up in a period where the level of education was somewhat lower than today. The number of researchers whose parents have tertiary level education increased more than those whose parents have upper secondary level education. Of the 7 100 researchers in top academic positions in 2022, only 250 had parents with primary and lower secondary education and, 1 700 had parents with upper secondary education.
Is social mobility easier outside the large university towns?
The share of researchers whose parents had tertiary level education increased from 57 per cent in 2012 to 66 per cent in 2022, excluding those where data on parent’s level of education is unknown. In the institute sector, the share of researchers whose parents have education on tertiary level is somewhat higher than in the higher education sector. The percentage has increased from 58 per cent in 2012 to 68 per cent in 2022 in the institute sector, while the corresponding share in the higher education sector has increased from 57 to 65 per cent.
The share of researchers whose parents have education on tertiary level varies among the Norwegian higher education institutions. Researchers at the University of Oslo and the university hospitals had the highest share of parents with tertiary education in 2022, 76 per cent. Social mobility seems more probable at e.g. Nord University and the University of Stavanger, with 51 and 55 per cent respectably of their researchers/academic personnel with parents that had tertiary level education.
Parent’s level of education is highest for young researchers
There is a noticeable pattern by age group for the researcher’s social background in the period 2012 to 2022. The youngest researchers, under 30 years of age, or between 30 and 39, had the highest share of parents with tertiary level education (excluding those where parent’s level of education is unknown). In 2022, 82 per cent of the researchers under 30 years of age had parents with education on tertiary level, while this applied to 49 per cent of researchers who were 60 years or older. At the time, we see the highest increase in the share of researchers whose parents have education on tertiary level from 2012 to 2022 for the oldest age groups.
Are there gender differences and differences related to field of R&D when it comes to social background?
The share of researchers whose parents had tertiary level education was 66 per cent for both sexes in 2022 (excluding those where parent’s level of education is unknown.) In 2012, 55 per cent of the male researchers and 59 per cent of the female researchers had parents with tertiary level education. The alteration during the period is influenced by differences in age profile for men and women, but there is also a perceptible higher share of female researchers in 2022 (51 per cent of the population of researchers) than it was in 2012 (44 per cent).
Researchers within medical and health sciences had the highest share of parents with tertiary level education, both in 2012 and 2022. This is not surprising, as the proportion of researchers/academic personnel whose parent’s had education on tertiary level is high at the university hospitals.
