From 1975 to 1995, the number of postdoctoral appointees in science, engineering, and health-related disciplines more than doubled, from 16,829 to 35,379. Moreover, the proportion of Ph.D.s accepting or seeking postdoctoral appointments in these disciplines increased from 25 percent in 1975 to over 37 percent in 1995. Despite the increasingly prominent role played by postdoctoral education in the national research enterprise, there is reason to question how well this particular form of education has been incorporated into the overall academic enterprise. In many respects, postdoctoral education at the end of the twentieth century appears to resemble Ph.D. education at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1890, Ph.D. programs were a relatively new form of education in this country, lacking a consistent set of standards and expectations.
Today there is cause for concern over the similarly ad hoc evolution of postdoctoral education.
The increasing number of postdoctoral appointees in their second, third, and even fourth appointment The widely held perception that the postdoctoral appointment is being used as an employment holding pattern The apparent transition, at least in some disciplines, of the postdoctoral appointment from an elective activity to a required credential The growing number of reports of dissatisfaction expressed by postdocs. To address these concerns, the Association of American Universities formed the Committee on Postdoctoral Education in 1994. The Committee was charged to examine postdoctoral education and develop recommendations for the future management of this activity. The Committee conducted three informal surveys of selected major research universities to gain insight into campus policies and practices governing postdoctoral education and to sample the views of postdocs. Given the varying conceptions of postdoctoral education, the Committee recognized the need to establish a working definition of a postdoctoral appointment for its surveys.