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

博士论文研究：有助于延长博士学位授予时间的机构特征分析

• 批准号: 1247112
• 负责人: Jeffery Gibeling
• 金额: $ 1.14万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-10-01 至 2014-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1247112&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Analysis; Institutional

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.

本研究的目的是确定影响博士生完成学业和毕业时间最长的制度因素。 比较是相对于他们的学科同行，在全国代表性的样本，没有透露任何机构或学生的身份。 这项研究合并了两个全国收集的数据来源：（1）获得博士学位（SED）的调查;和（2）补充数据（非排名）从国家研究理事会（NRC）的基于数据的评估研究博士学位课程在美国。合并SED和NRC数据，以确定使用NRC分类法的每个学科内的学位时间和学位时间延长点的模式。然后，分析寻找不同层次的数据之间的相互作用-学生素质，社会人口因素和制度因素-以确定哪些因素影响延长时间的程度。我们知道，获得博士学位的时间长短在学科内部和学科之间差异很大。虽然其他研究已经评估了各种个人和计划因素之间的相互作用的时间到博士学位，制度因素的影响，延长时间到学位还没有具体调查。此外，以前没有进行统计分析合并SED和NRC数据，以评估延长时间博士学位。这项研究旨在填补这一空白，并为知识体系增添新的信息。 更广泛的影响：这项研究的一个重要成果将是基于研究的识别与延长时间的程度相关的制度因素。机构，博士生和研究人员都将能够识别不同的领域和人群受延长时间的现象，从而作出更明智的决策，有效的战略，以促进及时完成博士学位。 该项目还将培训一名新的研究人员使用多个大型国家数据集。