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Roger V.
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It depends on the interpretation of academia:

  • Academia could include only those with permanent positions in universities, involved in research, teaching, etc. - a somewhat restricted category in the US, although it could imply a much broader range of people in other places - e.g., in Europe, where non-senior university positions are also often permanent.
  • Academia could include anyone conducting research or other scientific activities in academia - this would include postdocs and PhD students. I am not aware of the exact statistics here, but I suspect many (if not most) of these eventually find employment outside of the academia. Finding an employment and perspectives of professional development outside of the academia are of interest to this category, which sometimes turn out to be very poorly informed about their options.
  • Finally, academia could apply to anyone who has ever done studies (or is currently doing studies) in a university, which then include pretty much anyone with a job requiring college education. Their future career path is a part of the reasons for undertaking the studies, and of great interest throughout.

As already mentioned above, the attitudes may also vary depending on the country and culture. In my experience, in the US both professors and graduate students tend to be poorly informed about the options outside of academia, and the graduate studies are usually undertaken under the assumption that aims at a career in academia (although for good students such studies might be the path of least resistance - these students are typically invited to do research by one of their professors in undergraduate courses, while looking for a job elsewhere requires extra effort.) On the other hand, in Europe graduate studies are often undertaken with the explicit goal of securing a job in a prestigious company (which may also imply doing high-end industrial research) - this also affects the teaching approach, which focuses more on teaching a greatest possible range of skills, rather than an independent research in a specialized area. This choice of pedagogical approach, as well as appropriately informing and helping students in their career choice, should be then of interest even to those included in the narrowest definition of academia.

Roger V.
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