Bringing efficiency in?: The effect of training conditions on the time to the doctorate in research training groups and traditional forms of doctoral training in Germany during the 1990s

Abstract

The implementation of Research Training Groups (RTG) by the German Research Foundation at the beginning of the 1990 was one of the major steps towards a reform of doctoral education in Germany. A main intention of the RTG was to increase the efficiency of doctoral training. RTG aimed at a lowering of time-to-degree and age-at-graduation, also at achieving a higher degree of transparency as regards the supervision and training of doctoral students. To achieve these goals RTGs were implemented as temporary research units with a focused (interdisciplinary) research and study program at universities. Given this background the paper will compare processes, training conditions of the RTG along the following lines: As regards efficiency we will have a closer look at the time to the doctorate.Regards the conditions of doctoral training the RTG will be compared to other forms of doctoral training for those aspects that the RTG tried to change.Finally, the paper will investigate in the question to what extent different conditions of training and other determinants have contributed to achieve more efficiency in terms of shortening the time to the doctorate. To answer these questions a comparative analysis will be done. The paper will be based on a survey among former doctoral students who pursued their doctorate in Germany during the 1990s. In this survey former members of RTG as well as former doctoral students who were graduating in a different, traditional setting had been integrated. These two groups will be compared. In total individual data from 1,424 doctorates from a wide range of different academic disciplines graduating from their doctoral studies between 1995 and 2000 will be analyzed.