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Improving Part-time Doctoral Student Success


Sara Spear, Ph.D. Student, Higher Education, Rutgers University

Doctoral student success, despite its importance in preserving the academic profession, shows up very little in the literature even when attrition rates hover around fifty percent (Bair & Haworth, 2004; Gardner & Gopaul, 2012). Why are students starting doctorate programs but not finishing? Students may leave for a variety of reasons, but faculty perceptions tend to pinpoint “student failure as lying within the students themselves” (Gilmore, Wofford, & Maher, 2016, p. 433). This is surprising because if we flip the question around and look at what makes doctoral students successful, faculty emphasize personal attributes like intellectual curiosity and grit in addition to the positive role mentors and institutional supports play. With only fifty percent of students completing their doctoral programs, more careful attention needs to be paid to the role programs and institutions play in doctoral student success.


As a research training ground, Ph.D. programs are tailored to fit the traditional profile of a full-time student funded through fellowships and assistantships. Full-time students have the advantage of exposure to academia (i.e. teaching and research responsibilities) that part-time students do not. In reality, approximately half of doctoral students are part-time students (Offerman, 2011) and yet they are mistakenly perceived by faculty as “less committed than their full-time counterparts” (Gardner & Gopaul, 2012, p. 65). Since many part-time students are juggling multiple responsibilities, they will always lose in an all-or-nothing training approach. How can graduate programs adequately train all students while adapting to their different needs?


Support through the student-advisor relationship is a key feature in doctoral training programs. In fact, a mismatch between student and advisor is one of the most common reasons doctoral students provide for leaving their programs (Devos et al., 2017; Golde, 2005). While full-time students refer to their graduate advisors as being a key source of support and validation, part-time students rarely do, more often referring to their partners, children, and employers (Gardner & Gopaul, 2012). In addition to the advising relationship, research shows that students who complete their programs are more likely to have been engaged with their peers along the way than those who did not persist (Bair & Haworth, 2004). So, while full-time students are able to “immerse themselves in the graduate school lifestyle” (Gilmore, Wofford, & Maher, 2016, p. 433), how are doctoral programs facilitating this integration for part-time students?

Effective graduate student socialization is hindered by a sense of otherness, lack of belonging, or isolation (Gardner & Gopaul, 2012). While many programs host events in the first semester or year, most doctoral students leave between the second and third years (Bair and Haworth, 2004), often citing how they felt stuck or lost rather than having some sense of a plan to move forward (Devos et al., 2017). Many of these students are part-time students who make progress by completing coursework but have no research experience, leading them to be doubtful of their research capabilities (Golde, 2005; Lovitts, 2008). If we imagine a football game, part-timers can feel like they are sitting on the bench watching the full-time students play, unsure of how to get involved. As time goes on and no one calls them off the bench, they increasingly doubt their own abilities to play, when suddenly they are called in to win the game (i.e. finish their dissertation). By setting strategic milestones and check-in posts throughout the doctoral process, programs can ensure students continue to make incremental progress and persist to the end.

Since the last game play of a doctoral program is a research project, research should be embedded into doctoral training so all students have access. But telling students these opportunities exist is not enough. New doctoral students cannot be expected to know how to navigate academic hierarchies, research communities, or publishing processes on their own. With limited time and know-how, part-time students especially can benefit from more active guidance where advisors invite students off the bench to serve as co-authors and conference presenters (Gilmore, Wofford, & Maher, 2016). This individualized support early on can help to both empower students and help them formulate a sense of direction to prevent feeling lost down the road. It is important to remember that while doctoral programs train emerging scholars, educational experiences are contextualized by individual identities, experiences, and backgrounds, some of which might be in tension with doctoral study. Educators can consider student development theory regarding challenge and support, transition, mattering, and others as a framework for the types of support initiatives to implement. By involving students in research and also providing support scaffolding, programs can help more part-time doctoral students succeed.

The success of doctoral students matters for several reasons. Institutions and departments invest time and resources toward the preparation of students, and their reputations rely on the success of their graduates who become future academics, industry leaders, and policy makers. While understanding that research may look different for each of these aspirant pathways, doctoral programs have a responsibility to the success of each of their students. As programs continue to enroll part-time students, doctoral education needs to evolve their programs to reflect the needs of this new student population. Instilling a culture of student success has traditionally been focused solely on undergraduate education, but ought to be applied to doctoral programs facing high rates of attrition. Doctoral programs can support their part-time students by moving beyond the sink-or-swim and take an active role in implementing student success initiatives. And, while some of the existing student success research can inform doctoral education, there is room for much more study of doctoral student success.

References

Bair, C.R., & Haworth, J.G. (2004). Doctoral student attrition and persistence: A meta-synthesis of research.Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, (19), 481-534.

Devos, C., Boudrenghien, G., Van der Linden, N., Azzi, A., Frenay, M., Galand, B., & Klein, O. (2017). Doctoral students’ experiences leading to completion or attrition: A matter of sense, progress, and distress. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 32, 61-77.

Gardner, S.K., & Gopaul, Bryan. (2012). The part-time doctoral student experience. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, (7), 63-78.

Gilmore, J., Wofford, A.M., & Maher, M.A. (2016). The flip side of the attrition coin: Faculty perceptions offactors supporting graduate student success. International Journal of Doctoral Studies, 11, 419-439.

Golde, C.M. (2005). The role of the department and discipline in doctoral student attrition: Lessons from four departments. The Journal of Higher Education, 76(6), 669-700.

Lovitts, B.E. (2008). The transition to independent research: Who makes it, who doesn’t, and why. The Journal of Higher Education, 79(3), 296-325. 

Offerman, M. (2011). Profile of the nontraditional doctoral degree student. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, no. 129, 21-30.

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