More than 600,000 students were enrolled in PhD programmes in China in 2023.Credit: ChinaImages/Sipa USA via AlamyThe number of doctoral graduates globally has been growing steadily over the past few decades. And in countries such as China and India, those numbers are exploding.Conventionally, the doctorate was a stepping stone to a lifelong career in academia. But today, the number of PhD graduates vastly exceeds the number of job openings at universities and research institutions. Researchers ...