Doctoral Dissertation Research: Analysis of Institutional Characteristics that Contribute to Extended Time to Doctoral Degree

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The purpose of this research is to identify institutional factors that impact time to degree for the doctoral students who take the longest to complete their studies and graduate. Comparisons are made relative to their disciplinary peers, across nationally representative samples, without disclosing the identity of any institution or student. This study merges data from two nationally collected sources: (1) The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED); and (2) The supplemental data (not rankings) from the National Research Council's (NRC) A Data-based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States. The SED and NRC data are merged to determine the patterns of time to degree and the point of extended time to degree within each discipline using the NRC taxonomy. The analysis then looks for interactions between the different levels of data--student qualities, socio-demographic factors, and institutional factors--to identify which factors influence extended time to degree.The driving force behind the research is a void in the current literature. We know that the length of time to doctoral degree varies widely within and across disciplines. While other research has evaluated interactions between various individual and program factors on time to doctoral degree, the impact of institutional factors on extended time to degree has not been specifically investigated. Furthermore, a statistical analysis has not previously been conducted using merged SED and NRC data to evaluate extended time to doctoral degree. This research seeks to fill that void and to add new information to the body of knowledge. Broader impacts: One significant outcome from this study will be the research-based identification of institutional factors associated with extended time to degree. Institutions, doctoral students, and researchers will all be able to identify different fields and populations impacted by the phenomenon of extended time to degree and thereby make more informed decisions about effective strategies to promote timely doctoral degree completion. This project will also train a new researcher in the use of multiple large-scale national datasets.