In recent years, the doctorate degree has been subject to a seeming loss of value (e.g., Cyranoski et al. 2011; Economist 2010; Guldner 2019). One striking indicator is the decline in number of top executives with doctorates: while 58% of board members of German companies held a doctorate in 2007, this number has shrunk to 44% in 2017 (Guldner 2019). Other indicators of labor market success have also deteriorated for doctorate holders over the last 20 years: incomes have fallen and fewer doctorate holders than before are working full-time – at a time when the labor market has otherwise developed well (e.g., Economist 2010). Yet, the need for highly qualified employees for example with respect to digitization has been growing. Just recently, for example, companies’ demand for experts on Artificial Intelligence (AI) has seen a stark increase (Fasse and Kerkmann 2018). This makes it all the more surprising that the growing number of doctoral students (an average growth of...
