Nuestra NEBRIJA 32 - enero 2020

47 However, obtaining a predoctoral scholarship is not the end, but rather the beginning of a career. Once the doctor's degree is obtained, the next step is to try to enter the academic world. When the goal is a position at a university, young doctors have two choices, teaching or research. Although they are two different options, it is not possible to have an academic career by separating one from the other. There are three positions that correspond to the figures of the young, intermediate and senior researcher, each of them limited to 2, 3 and 5 years. Each of the contracts belong to an independent call, which means that they must compete again to qualify for each of the contracts. The number of contracts is very small, therefore there is a lot of competition, and every year the level of researchers who opt for contracts increases. After finishing the last of them, the senior researcher can be retained by the university as an employee. However, for the university to do this, the researcher must be accredited by the National Agency for Quality Evaluation and Accreditation (ANECA), so if during his research career he has not taught enough, he will not pass the accreditation process and the university will not be able to employ him. Through the teaching option, one can access the university as an assistant professor, for which one must be accredited as such by ANECA. The criteria for accreditation not only refer to teaching, but it places an increasingly important weight on research. In a young person, the evaluation of research mainly values the number and quality of scientific publications, so it imposes a pressure to publish that is often opposed to the educational interests of the doctoral student. Currently, the reality faced by PhD students is "publish or perish", which refers to the fact that no matter how bright you are or how hard you work, if you do not achieve high scientific productivity, the future of your academic career is in danger. C urrently , if you do not achieve high scientific productivity , the future of your academic career is in danger Having an academic career is getting increasingly more complicated for PhD students. Candidates face very strict requirements for obtaining predoctoral scholarships, the competition for the few positions at the university is very high, and getting accredited by ANECA can be counterproductive for the training of the doctoral candidate. In addition, the pressure to publish in scientific journals has increased.