Does employment during doctoral training reduce the PhD completion rate?

Three challenges to Russian system of doctoral education: Why only one out of ten doctoral students defends thesis?

“…Thus, survey results showed that the place of employment is more important than the workload: doctoral students who work full-time on-campus experience fewer problems than those, who are employed off-campus, even part-time (Bekova & Dzhafarova, 2019). Studies also showed that place of employment not only shapes doctoral students' experience during their study but also is significantly related to chances to defend the thesis (Bekova, 2019). In order to support and keep doctoral students, universities often employ them at administrative or teaching positions, but this is not always helpful for their results.…”

“…The scholarships for doctoral students are 5–10 times less than the average income, while there are practically no other sources of funding (Martynova & Ratai, 2019). Despite the fact that the majority of the PhD positions are funded by the state budget (67.3% at universities and 84.8% at scientific institutes) (Berezina, Vasilyeva, Lebedev, Pluzhnova, Prokhorova, Fedin, 2018), support for PhD students is insufficient and many of them are forced to work (Bekova, 2019).…”

“…According to the official statistics, in 2019 only 10% of doctoral graduates defended their theses during the expected period. Moreover, during the last 7 years there is a prominent trend related to the decrease in the percentage and numbers of doctoral graduates who defend their theses (Bekova, 2019). Such a situation produces a significant risk for the sustainable national development in the era of knowledge-based economy, when critical mass of highly qualified workers plays essential role in social and economic processes (Nerad, 2006).…”

“…The reformation of Russian doctoral education has been discussed in scientific literature (Bedny, 2017; Bedny et al., 2017; Kobzar & Roshchin, 2020; Maloshonok & Terentev, 2019b). In particular, scholars raise questions about the falling (since 2013) completion rates (Bekova, 2019), legal differentiation between defending a thesis and earning a certificate of the completion of a doctoral program (Bedny et al., 2017), increased doctoral student workload (Bekova & Dzhafarova, 2019), ineffective procedures of doctoral students enrollment and problems of transition to the model of structured doctoral programs (Maloshonok & Terentev, 2019a), ambiguity of goals and content of doctoral training (Kobzar & Roshchin, 2020). It should be admitted that many of the existing doctoral education issues - such as high attrition rates, challenges associated with academic writing and ensuring research productivity, financial support, and the match between doctoral graduates’ skills and employers’ requirements - occurred before the transition period.…”

Благополучие Аспирантов: Обзор Исследований И Практик

“…В России ситуация усугубляется неразвитостью академического рынка, формальным отбо ром в аспирантуру и теневым рынком академических услуг [Калимуллин, 2005; Терентьев, Бекова, Малошонок, 2018]. Отечественные исследования показывают, что аспиранты испытывают двой ную нагрузку во время учебы, так как чаще всего совмещают ее с работой, нередко с работой полный рабочий день [Bekova, 2019]. При этом требования к аспирантам постоянно ужесточаются, увеличивается коли чество статей, необходимых для защиты, повышаются и требования к журналам, где они могут быть опубликованы 8 .…”