The PhD track: Who succeeds, who drops out?

Groenvynck, Hans; Vandevelde, Karen; Rossem, Ronan Van

doi:10.1093/reseval/rvt010

Cited by 52 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Several authors found that men are (slightly) more likely to complete their doctorate than women, sometimes even when other factors are taken into account such as the scientific discipline (Groenvynck, Vandevelde, & Van Rossem, 2013;Van Ours & Ridder, 2003;Visser, Luwel, & Moed, 2007). Other authors found no effect of gender on doctoral completion (Mastekaasa, 2005;Van der Haert, Arias Ortiz, Emplit, Halloin, & Dehon, 2013;Wright & Cochrane, 2000;Spronken-Smith, Cameron, & Quigg, 2018).…”

Section: Factors Related To Doctoral Completionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Are the Doctoral Students Who Drop Out? Factors Associated with the Rate of Doctoral Degree Completion in Universities

Wollast¹,

Boudrenghien²,

Linden³

et al. 2018

IJHE

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The issue of considerable dropout rate in doctoral programs is well documented across a large number of countries. However, few studies address the factors associated with doctoral completion among Non-U.S. countries, multiple universities and fields of research. Nor do they investigate the interactions between these factors. The present paper aimed to overcome these limitations and analyzed the population of doctoral students in all disciplines of the two largest universities of the French-speaking Community of Belgium (N = 1509). Specifically, we focused on several factors: gender, nationality, marital status, master grade, whether students continued at the same university when transitioning to the doctoral degree, whether they continued in the same field, age at registration, research field and funding (i.e., type of funding and associated job requirements). Findings indicate that four factors (marital status, master grade, research field and funding) are directly associated with dropout rate when all factors are considered jointly in the same model. Furthermore, results indicate that some of these factors, such as the marital status and gender, interact. In addition, we found that an accumulation of risk factors leads to a massive increase in dropout rates. Finally, a time course analysis revealed that the highest dropout rate occurs during the first two years and is related to the absence of funding or scholarship. The results, limits and futures perspectives are discussed.

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Section: Factors Related To Doctoral Completionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Are the Doctoral Students Who Drop Out? Factors Associated with the Rate of Doctoral Degree Completion in Universities

Wollast¹,

Boudrenghien²,

Linden³

et al. 2018

IJHE

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“…The PhD student's relationship with the faculty, particularly with his or her advisor, can determine success in the student's academic program as well as in the student's professional career. For example, studies show that positive student qualities (Ho et al, 2010), their commitment to research and writing research articles (Humphrey, Marshall, & Leonardo, 2012), involvement in academic conferences (Bolli, Agasisti, & Johnes, 2015), having good scientific discipline (Groenvynck, Vandevelde, & Van Rossem, 2013), and having good interpersonal working relationships with advisors (Ives & Rowley, 2005) can determine success in their academic program as well as in their professional career. Also, gender and language proficiency levels are sometimes ÜNİVERSİTEPARK Bülten | Bulletin • Volume 6 • Issue 1 • 2017 mentioned as reasons (Lebcir, Wells, & Bond, 2008;Rodwell & Neumann, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors Influencing the Degree Progress of International PhD Students from Africa: An Exploratory Study

Soumana¹,

Uddin²

2017

unibulletin

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In recent decades some countries of the Middle East have offered facilities to attract international students to pursue their higher education within their higher education institutions. The purpose of this study is to understand the difficulties faced by these students while conducting their studies abroad, and in doing so, to broaden the awareness of the challenges they face to complete their research. The participants of this qualitative study are international PhD students studying at a Middle Eastern public university. The university has reported increasing enrollment of international students, particularly from Africa in the last few years. Data were collected using a set of semi-structured interviews that drew out information on critical incidents that characterized the kind of difficulties students had faced in their studies. The data collected was further analyzed using a qualitative software package, NVivo (QSR International, 11). Six main themes came out from the content analysis of the interviews, which are the role of the adviser, student features, funding issues, family engagement, research and psychological obstacles which provide a holistic picture of student perspectives on the factors that influence degree progress. While these students might have faced difficulties mentioned in existing literature, this study argues that the participants have indicated experiencing psychological obstacles that were not described in earlier studies, such as the state of mind they were in as a result of being worried for family members due to war or violence in their home countries, and drop in currency exchange rates and difficulties in acquiring money due to international sanctions imposed against their countries. This study provides important thoughts on the factors that impact the degree progress of international PhD students from Africa, while at the same time revealing a serious gap in the advisers' role which can contribute to the problems experience during the study progress of doctoral students.

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“…For example, studies show that positive student qualities (Ho et al, 2010), their engagement with research training (Humphrey et al, 2012), participation in graduate conferences (Bolli et al, 2013) having good scientific discipline (Groenvynck et al, 2013), having good interpersonal working relationships with supervisors (Ives and Rowley, 2005) play key roles in their academic success. Other reasons that are often quoted include language proficiency levels (Lebcir et al, 2008;Rodwell and Neumann, 2008) and gender.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An exploratory study of factors that affect the research progress of international PhD students from the Middle East

Khozaei

Naidu

Khozaei

et al. 2015

Education + Training

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Purpose -Despite the critical issues involving Middle East countries such as war and a drop in currency exchange rates, a large number of students leave their country to pursue a higher education abroad, every year. The purpose of this paper is to understand the difficulties that these students face while conducting their research in a foreign country and in doing so hopes to enhance a greater awareness of the kind of hindrances they face to complete their studies. Design/methodology/approach -The respondents of this qualitative study are PhD students from the Middle East who were studying in a public university in Southeast Asia. This university has recorded an increasing enrollment of international students, particularly from the Middle East in the last few years. Data were collected using a series of unstructured interviews that elicited information on critical incidents that characterized the kind of difficulties students had to face in their research. The data obtained was further analyzed using a qualitative software package -NVivo (QSR International, 10). Findings -Six main themes emerged from the content analysis of the interviews, which are the role of the supervisor, student characteristics, family commitments, financial problems, psychological and research barriers which provide a holistic picture of student perspectives on the factors that affect research progress. While these students might have faced difficulties that might have been cited in existing literature, this paper argues that the respondents have indicated experiencing psychological barriers that were not described in earlier studies, such as the state of mind they were in as a result of being worried for family members due to war or violence in their home countries, drop in currency exchange rates and difficulties in acquiring money due to international sanctions imposed against their countries. Originality/value -This study provides important insights on the factors that affect the progress of PhD students from the Middle East, while at the same time revealing a serious gap in supervisors' role which can contribute to the delay in the research progress of PhD students.

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The PhD track: Who succeeds, who drops out?

Cited by 52 publications

References 15 publications

Who Are the Doctoral Students Who Drop Out? Factors Associated with the Rate of Doctoral Degree Completion in Universities

Who Are the Doctoral Students Who Drop Out? Factors Associated with the Rate of Doctoral Degree Completion in Universities

Factors Influencing the Degree Progress of International PhD Students from Africa: An Exploratory Study

An exploratory study of factors that affect the research progress of international PhD students from the Middle East

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