Transcript Heading style for title slide

Improving completion rates
and times
Dr Stan Taylor
Supporting students to complete and on time
Historically…
as long as [doctoral students] paid
their fees and fulfilled the minimum
∂
residence requirements, no one
worried too much about how long
they took. (Simpson 2009: 458)
…
In 1980s…
• Governments across the globe began
collecting statistics on completion rates
and times
∂
• Studies in Western Europe, the US,
Australia and New Zealand found that only
around half completed, and of them few
completed on time;
Governments across the globe
adopted tough measures:
• Sweden – in 1998 four year legal limit introduced;
• Netherlands – in 2000 entitlement to unemployment benefit
in fourth year when writing up terminated;
• UK – in 1980s and 1990s some research funders introduce
target completion rates and ∂
penalties for institutions/
departments which did not meet them;
• Australia – state funding for research studentships linked
to completion rates;
• New Zealand – 25% of all state research funding made
dependent on meeting completion targets.
Pressures for timely completion
on:
• Institutions;
• Departments;
• Supervisors.
∂
Aim and objectives
The purpose or aim of the workshop is to see
how we might go about supporting students to
complete within four years. The objectives are:
• to review the causes of∂ why students might not
complete on time;
• to consider how supervisors can improve time to
degree.
Task
You should spend a few minutes
considering why students might be unable
to complete within a∂four year period. You
should discuss these with colleagues, and
be prepared to report back to the
workshop as a whole.
Why students might not complete on time –
individual personalities
•
•
•
•
•
Over-perfectionist;
Expect far too much of their research projects;
∂
Suffer performance anxiety;
Lower self-esteem;
Response of procrastination.
Why students might not complete on
time – individual motivations
• Initial motivation as students failed:
..to understand the amount of effort and
rigour required in doctoral study, such
∂
that their encounter with research
constituted a shock from which they
never recovered in terms of motivation
or effort (Hockey, 1996: 361).
Why students might not complete on
time – individual motivations (cont.)
• Later motivation as the initial impetus was:
…considerably diminished over the relatively
long and arduous passage of time required for
∂
completion. Initial enthusiasm
sometimes
dissipated to such an extent that boredom,
frustration and resentment of the situation, and of
the supervisor, became apparent. (Hockey, 1996:
361).
Why students might not complete
on time – individual lack of skills
Students are:
…often reluctant to discuss their inability to
complete some research
∂ tasks with their
supervisors for fear of ‘not looking
professional’…As a result, many students not
want to admit…that they did not understand how
to do a literature review, start writing or perform
other research tasks…
Ahern and Manathunga (2004: 243)
Why students might not complete on time –
individual changes in circumstances
•
•
•
•
•
Pregancy;
Mental or physical ill-health;
∂
Relationships;
Families;
Employment.
Why students might not complete on time –
social/gender
• Many (but not all) studies find
women take longer than men;
• Largely due to family
circumstances;
∂
• But evidence of discrimination and
exclusion as well.
Why students might not complete on time –
social/race-ethnicity
Completion times shortest among Asians and
whites, longest among black doctoral
candidates
∂
Why students might not complete on time –
social/disability
Very little evidence, but what there is
suggests that completion takes slightly longer
among students with declared disabilities.
∂
Why students might not complete
on time – cultural
Evidence disparate with some (in fact
the bulk of) studies suggesting that
international students
have shorter
∂
completion times than domestic
students, others about the same, and
a few slightly longer.
Why students might not complete
on time - economic/financial
Key finding that students who are fully
funded to study have much higher
completion rates and shorter completion
∂
times than students who are partiallyand/or self-funding, and underpins much
lower completion rates and times among
part-time students.
Why students might not complete
on time - supervisory
• Expertise in the area of the research project
• Interest in the research project
• Supervisory relationships
∂
Some supervisors:
…had rough edges to their personalities; …were remote,
hard to approach, difficult to talk to and work with; …had
been intimidating or made students feel intimidated.
Lovitts (2001: 162).
Why students might not complete
on time – supervisory (cont.)
• Regularity of supervision;
∂
• Continuity of supervision.
Why students might not
complete on time – disciplines
• Research shows that completion rates are higher
and completion times lower in the natural
sciences than the social sciences, with the arts
and humanities usually ∂bringing up the rear;
• Reasons include:
• Designated/self-selected topic
• Student profile
• Research support
Why students might not complete
on time - projects
•
•
•
•
Inherent risk in a PhD because:
…it is impossible to be sure…that a given piece of research
will produce results, until [it] has been done. But if it has
been done already, the research is not original. Rudd (1985:
∂
65)
Can try to minimise but:
Unable to acquire raw materials for experiments;
Non-cooperation by research subjects;
Natural disasters;
Failure to get results acceptable to research community.
Why students might not complete on time –
lack of academic and social integration
• Academic integration - research students need to
be integrated within the discipline and within the
research culture ;
• Social integration – research
students need to to
∂
interact with staff and peers;
• Numerous studies showing lack of academic and
social integration a major cause of non- and
delayed completion.
Why students might not complete
on time – producing the thesis
Quote from supervisor:
Some [students] have a genuine inability to
see how it all fits together. They have done the
reading, they know the
∂ subject, they also know
how to analyse all their data, then they come to
a stop. The frustration they have then is
tangible. Most struggle on and get there. A few
give up. Trafford and Lesham (2009: 313).
Why students might not complete on
time – producing the thesis (cont.)
Quotes from students
Nobody actually explained to me the principles of how to write a
doctoral thesis. Reading one gave me useful pointers, but I still
have this constant worry that I might be wrong.
I get confused when my supervisor
∂ returns my chapters
suggesting that I relate them to other parts of my thesis. Equally I
do now know how to ‘integrate theories’ or make my text ‘more
interesting’. My topic is described, my fieldwork is complete, and
the analysis shows what I had hoped to discover. Once this is
written up it should surely just speak for itself’ [Italics added]
Trafford and Lesham (2009: 314)
Why students might not complete on
time – producing the thesis (cont.)
• Recently identified by Kiley (2010) as a
‘threshold concept’ for research students;
∂
• Evidence that problems in producing the
thesis is a major cause of delay.
Supporting timely completion
Bearing in mind the possible causes of delay, you
should think about how supervisors can go about
supporting students to ∂complete as far as
possible within the designated time limit. You
should discuss these with colleagues and report
back to the workshop as a whole.
1)
Awareness of the signs of procrastination
 constantly changing the topic or planned
work;
 avoiding communication
with their supervisor;
∂
 isolating themselves from their department
and other students;
 avoiding submitting work for review.
Manathunga (2002), Kearns et al (2008)
2 supporting students suffering
from over-perfectionism
 reminding research students that, as Mullins
and Kiley (2002) have put it, ‘It’s a PhD thesis,
not a Nobel prize’ or, as the facilitator used to
remind his own students,
‘It is a big step for
∂
you but a small one for mankind’
 by asking them to read successful theses to
indicate the limited magnitude of the
contribution made by them to the discipline.
2 supporting students suffering
from over-perfectionism (cont.)
 as Ahern and Manathunga (2004) have
suggested, supporting students to re-plan the
research as a series of smaller steps which
students will find more
∂ manageable.
 as Murray (2002) has argued, to encourage
them to get things down, supervisors can give
students given permission to present
imperfect ‘work in progress’ rather than
polished final drafts.
3 Motivating students who are stalling
•
•
•
•
praising them;
negotiating stepping stones;
re-focusing the research;
∂
providing incentives for students to make
progress;
• encouraging them to take a break.
4 Supporting students to acquire
the skills to do their projects
• Training needs analyses as part of
induction;
∂
• Regular reviews over the course of the
studentship.
5 Supporting students in the face of
changing personal circumstances
•
•
•
Issue about how far supervisors should become involved in
personal matters;
One argument have to in order to advise students and support
completion;
Other that it is inappropriate and
∂ can lead to problems e.g.
supervisor who said:
I was sucked right into the black hole of this thing…she had all
kinds of family problems and, of course, health problems, and all
the time she was
having these problems, her schedule was
slipping, you know…I mean I was in the water there with here and
I needed somebody on the bank shouting instructions and I didn’t
have it. (quoted Hockey 2995:205)
6 Responding effectively to social diversity in the
student population
• Be aware of possibility of indirect
discrimination;
∂
• Ensure do not practice
direct
discrimination.
7 Responding effectively to cultural
diversity in the student population
• Aligning expectations;
• Supporting the development of new
learning styles;
∂
• Auditing research skills;
• Reviewing communication;
• Supporting the development of academic
writing.
8 Responding effectively to the
needs of part-time students
• negotiating formal agreements covering the supervisory
relationship and including the submission of work;
• having a clear policy for contacting students on a regular
∂
basis;
• understanding and being sympathetic to problems outside
the research;
• providing opportunities for academic and social
networking;
• to support them with their writing.
9 Selective in agreeing to supervise
I think basically we are encouraged to take as many PhD students
as possible…everybody from the department head down has been
saying we must have more PhD students. I mean its almost like a
mantra.
∂
I’m really wary of that push, because I think that it does have
implications on resources and I don’t really want to take on
someone who is not going to be
good…
I mean one thing that happened recently was that last year we had
quite a number of students who withdrew quite early in the first
year, and this alarmed us.
Neumann 2003:28
9 Selective in agreeing to supervise
 Have the expertise to supervise the topic;
∂
 Are intellectually interested in the topic.
10 Establishing and maintaining a professional
relationship with the research student.
Supervisory styles model of Gatfield (2005)

structure – who is responsible for organising and
managing the research project
∂


support – who is responsible for supporting the
candidate personally through the slings and arrows of
life as a researcher
‘low’ and ‘high’
10 Establishing
and maintaining
a professional
Gatfield’s
Paradigm
of
relationship
with the research
student (cont.)
Supervisory
Styles
High
Pastoral
Contractual/
neo-parental
∂
Support
Laisser-faire
Directorial
Low
High
Structure
Supervisory styles and student needs




laisser-faire – assumes student capable of
managing both project and themselves
pastoral – assumes student capable of
managing project but ∂needs personal support
directorial – assumes student not capable of
managing research project but can manage
themselves
neo-parental – assumes student needs high
levels of both academic and pastoral support.
Congruence between preferred styles and
student needs
In the beginning, I was not very confident of my
scholarly abilities. However, I had years of life
experience and was an established mature professional
capable of taking control of ∂my actions…I did not want
a supervisor who directed, inspected or controlled my
doctoral process…I wanted my supervisor to be a
‘critical friend’…I deliberately chose my supervisor for
this capacity…and found this both an effective and
appropriate form of supervision’ (Chapman 2002)
Possible discongruence between
preferred styles and student needs
‘[Chinese] students’ expectations of the student/
supervisory relationship were based on previous cultural
and educational expectations and their perceptions of
∂
whether or not those expectations
were fulfilled.
Accustomed to undertaking joint research with their
supervisors and developing very close emotional bonds,
the majority of students felt unprepared for the
expectations of supervisors that they undertake
independent research’.
McClure (2007: 204)
Dynamics of supervisory styles over
time
…the supervisory style needs to be adjusted
to a more hands-off approach to allow
competent autonomy to be developed....
Unfortunately, in some
∂ cases, supervisors
adopt a static supervisory approach, or if it is
altered, this may not be done in alignment
with the growth and emerging needs of the
student but on the basis of a teacher-centred
("I know what is best for this student")
dogma. Gurr (2001: 86-87)
11 Providing regular opportunities
for supervisory meetings
• Institutional minima;
∂
• Departmental policies.
12 Providing continuity of
supervision
• Move from single to team supervision;
∂
• Institutional policies defining maximum period in
which student can be without main supervisor.
13 Minimising the element of
risk in research projects
Supervisors are under pressure:
…to afford well-organised, almost manicured research
projects that are clearly defined and pursued in step with a
∂ The opportunities for
tight but achievable deadline.
curiosity-driven research, where outcomes are not known
in advance, and developed at a leisurely pace, have little
place in this new landscape.
Green and Usher (2003: 47)
14 Supporting academic and social
integration
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Joint supervisions;
Peer support groups;
Writing groups;
∂
Internal seminars and conferences;
External seminars and conferences;
Supporting publication;
Supporting teaching.
15 Supporting production of the thesis
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Thesis
Content
Structure
Planning
Presentation
Audience
Timetable
∂
Conclusions
• Historically, doctorates ‘took as long as it took’;
• Now pressures from research sponsors for candidates to
complete within 4 years;
• Supervisors cannot guarantee this because many factors
∂
are outside their control;
• But they need to be aware of the signs and, where possible
and appropriate, ready to intervene;
• Such intervention may not only be for the benefit of
research funders, but also of students themselves.