About

Cathelijn Waaijer is a researcher at the Center for Innovation in Medical Education of the Leiden University Medical Center. Her research focuses on the effects of research education and on course completion in medical school. Specific studies will include the predictive validity of publishing scientific papers during the bachelor or master phase for later publication and the prediction of pre-clinical performance using pre-university grades.

Before, she has been a doctoral researcher at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies. There, her research focused on academic career systems. In particular, she studied how they originated, how they have been changing and what their effects have been on the way science is conducted. Specific projects included the quantitative historical study of the German, American and Dutch academic career systems and a survey among recent PhD graduates on their perception of career perspectives in various sectors and the extent to which these perspectives have influenced their job choice. She has also published on science policy in general by analyzing the content of Nature and Science editorials using bibliometric mapping methods.

Next to her research work, she has been involved in PhD representation as a board member of the PhD Network of the Netherlands (PNN). As such, she dealt with the appointment and employment conditions of PhD candidates in the Netherlands. She has also been a board member of the Leiden PhD Association. While in this positions, she has analyzed the results of a survey among Leiden PhD candidates and published a report on these findings.