ERIC Number: EJ1181262
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Aug
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0361-0365
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Available Date: N/A
How to Increase PhD Completion Rates? An Impact Evaluation of Two Reforms in a Selective Graduate School, 1976-2012
Geven, Koen; Skopek, Jan; Triventi, Moris
Research in Higher Education, v59 n5 p529-552 Aug 2018
Graduate and doctoral schools around the world struggle to shorten the long time to degree and to prevent high dropout rates. While most of previous research studied individual determinants of PhD completion, we analyze the impact of two structural reforms of the doctoral program on thesis completion at a selective European graduate school. Exploiting a unique PhD dataset covering 30 entry cohorts, we identify reform effects on PhD outcomes using an interrupted time-series regression design. We find that the first reform improved timely completion rates by between 10 and 15 percentage points (according to the specific outcome), whereas the second reform increased completion rates by between 9 and 20 percentage points. Additionally, each reform reduced dropout rates by 7 percentage points. The results are robust to various sensitivity checks. At the end, we discuss lessons learned for those in charge of graduate schools and/or PhD programs.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Doctoral Degrees, Educational Change, Doctoral Dissertations, Graduate Students, Regression (Statistics), Student Records, Time to Degree, Graduation Rate, Dropout Rate, Correlation
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Europe
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