Doctoral Student Attrition and Persistence: A Meta-Synthesis of Research

Abstract

In the United States, 40 to 60 per cent of students who begin doctoral studies in selective colleges and universities do not persist to graduation (Berelson, 1960; Bowen & Rudenstine, 1992). This strikingly high dropout rate seems incongruous, given the tremendous importance of doctoral education to research, education, leadership, and professional practice. Numerous research studies have focused on doctoral attrition and persistence in higher education. The purpose of this study was to synthesize the findings of much of the research that has been conducted since 1970 and to present findings and conclusions drawn from the synthesis. An emerging methodology, meta-synthesis, was used. Central findings are summarized: doctoral student attrition and persistence rates vary widely depending on the field of study and even more widely depending on program of study; departmental culture affects doctoral student persistence; the degree and quality of the relationship between doctoral student and advisor or faculty has a strong, positive relationship to successful completion of the doctorate; student involvement in various programmatic, departmental, institutional and professional activities and opportunities contributes favorably to doctoral student retention and completion; student satisfaction with their academic programs contributes favorably to degree completion; peer interaction is related to persistence; the financial support offered to doctoral students by colleges and universities is related to attrition and persistence; difficulty with various aspects of the dissertation relates to attrition; academic achievement indicators have not generally been found to be effective predictors of doctoral degree completion, with the exception of GRE Advanced scores; the findings are mixed with respect to employment and financial factors; personal and psychological variables represent a relatively new direction in the study of doctoral student attrition and persistence but have been found to relate to attrition and persistence; demographic variables of age, children and family, full time/part time enrollment status, race, and sex do not clearly distinguish between doctoral students who persist and those who do not persist; data on doctoral student retention are not systematically collected at the national level nor by most colleges and universities; retention rates for 13 universities in this study ranged from a high of 68.8% to a low of 29%; attrition rates for four colleges and universities in this study ranged from a high of 61% to a low of 18%; as much as two-thirds of attrition occurs prior to achievement of ABD status; time-to-degree is related to doctoral student attrition and persistence; the longer the time spent in graduate school, the greater are the chances that the student will not persist to the degree; doctoral programs that are smaller in terms of the entering cohort size have consistently lower time-to-degree and consistently higher completion rates than those programs with larger entering cohorts.