TRaCE McGill is a university-wide project that tracks the career outcomes and pathways of McGill PhD alumni who graduated between 2008 and 2018. Led by a team at Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies and graduate student researchers, TRaCE McGill not only gathered statistical information on over 4,500 PhD graduates, but also interviewed over 300 of them across all faculties. TRaCE McGill’s focus on both quantitative and qualitative knowledge shows how a doctoral degree can lead to a multiplicity of successful, socially valuable, and personally fulfilling careers in a variety of sectors both inside and outside academia. As part of its legacy, TRaCE McGill is also building a mentoring community of PhD graduates who are committed to helping doctoral students and recent grads find their own career pathways.
TRaCE McGill’s integration of statistical data, narrative knowledge, and community building is unique in the world among PhD tracking projects.
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Read the TRaCE McGill Project Executive Summary
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Visit the TRaCE McGill Website
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Reports
Where were PhD graduates working after graduation? See the data.
Narratives
How did PhD graduates navigate the job market? What advice do they share for others? Read interviews with over 100 PhD grads.
Videos
PhD grads from each Faculty answer student questions about career paths, work-life balance, and more in a roundtable format
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Background
TRaCE McGill is building on two McGill-led national projects—the TRaCE pilot (2015-2016) and TRaCE 2.0 (2017-2019). The first focused on humanities graduates; the second tracked PhDs (and DMus and MFA grads) in the humanities, social sciences, and fine arts. The pilot tracked 2,800 humanities PhD grads from across Canada and interviewed 300 graduates. TRaCE 2.0 tracked 1,400 grads from across the country and conducted interviews with 150. The interviews have provided the basis for a large archive of stories about PhD grads’ educational and professional careers. The two preliminary projects have been featured in national publications and have enabled the TRaCE team to develop and fine-tune its methodology. Full reports on TRaCE pilot and TRaCE 2.0 are available here.
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