Delays in doctoral studies need urgent attention

Delayed graduation is a common theme in doctoral education around the world and an increasing cause of concern for governments, universities and candidates. Amid an ongoing global debate about best practices in doctoral education, the study of this phenomenon deserves more attention.

Completing a PhD programme in the required time frame is dependent on many interacting factors that include institutional or environmental and supervision-related aspects, as well as matters related to the individual characteristics of PhD students.

Addressing these challenges in an integrated manner is key to resolving the many obstacles to doctoral education.

Despite its importance, the issue of PhD delays receives little attention from researchers and policy-makers. One major explanation for this gap is the lack of well-organised data collection systems at national and institutional levels.

In line with global and regional trends, in particular in countries with expanding education systems, the Ethiopian government’s policy directives include a call for more education on a doctoral level. As a result the number of universities and of PhD programmes is on the rise.

However, anecdotal evidence suggests that the sector is equally burdened with a high level of student attrition, dropouts and study delays about which little is known.

The authors recently conducted a study to bridge the existing research gap and explore the completion rate of PhD programmes, factors that affect degree completion time and the coping strategies of students at Addis Ababa University (AAU) – Ethiopia’s premier university.

Archival data and in-depth interviews with 10 PhD candidates, who volunteered to participate, were used as data-generation tools. The interviews focused on progression patterns, reasons for study delays, and how the doctoral students were coping with the challenges they face.

PhDs take more time to complete

Under optimum conditions, the duration for completing a PhD programme in AAU is four years. However, it is not uncommon for students not to defend their proposals, let alone complete their dissertations, within four years.

On (cumulative) average, students took 6.18 years to complete their doctoral studies. The duration of stay among 276 students who completed their PhD studies in 2020 in 16 different colleges or faculties at the university ranged from three to 13 years.

Though not consistent, the data for the past seven academic years (2014-20) indicated that students are requiring more and more years of study to complete their PhD programmes. On average, graduates in the year 2014 studied for 5.59 years. Those who completed their studies in the year 2020, however, needed an average of 6.19 years.

A comparison between the periods 2018-20 and 2014-16 shows a similar trend. Those students who graduated in the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 stayed in their programmes for an average of 6.15, 6.03 and 6.19 years, respectively. On the contrary, students who finished their programmes in 2014, 2015 and 2016 required less time, on average 5.59, 5.62 and 5.29 years, respectively.

The average maximum time taken to complete a PhD programme is also higher in the past three years than during the earlier period. In 2019, the average maximum time was 7.67 years and in 2020, 8.19. In 2014-16, the average maximum completion time ranged from 6.54 to 6.77 years.

Given the AAU’s claim that the quality of its professors and the resources needed to run PhD programmes are improving, the increasing trend of delayed studies is alarming. This may be partly due to the calibre of students admitted to the programmes, as the findings of the interviews show.

Multiple reasons for delayed studies

Participants offered various reasons for delays in their studies. The major explanations relate to students’ own commitment and lack of preparation, financial constraints, the academic and research environment, and supervisor-student rapport.

Student commitment

Most of the students come from regional universities to which they must return to work upon completion of their studies. However, they are not motivated to complete their programmes in time because they are reluctant to return to the sponsoring universities.

Students’ unpreparedness for the kind of rigour that developing the thesis proposal and writing the dissertation requires is another factor behind delays. Doctoral candidates who participated in the study feel that they have an ‘easy ride’ when it comes to completing coursework but struggle to produce an original proposal or dissertation, which is more demanding.

Financial reasons

What is clear from the interviews is that financial reasons seem to be the main cause of delays. The salary increase candidates get when they complete a PhD is not attractive and adds little to their already meagre salaries.

If they stayed in the capital before completing their studies, they could engage in many part-time jobs (moonlighting) and earn additional money. The data further revealed that students’ engagement in moonlighting has largely to do with family commitments and making ends meet.

Academic and research environment

PhD candidates felt that the research climate in their respective departments did not meet their expectations. They complained about obtaining neither incentives from their departments nor encouragement from their supervisors regarding conference participation, and participation in seminars and conferences within and outside of the university.

PhD students who participated in the study believe that supervisors are in a position to give advice on such matters because most have been educated abroad and have the knowledge and networking opportunities. However, students note, the supervisors lack the willingness and the commitment to help their students.

Additional training in areas such as reviewing the literature writing proposal, qualitative and quantitative analysis, getting published, and securing dissertation grants, is sorely needed. However, there is little evidence of such support. In most cases, it is non-existent; and in the few cases where it is available, it is haphazard, unplanned, and not institutionalised.

Student-supervisor rapport

When it comes to student-supervisor rapport, the findings show mixed results.

Doctoral students recognise the importance of their supervisors in providing ongoing, relevant, constructive and timely feedback. They acknowledge that there are some professors who are humane, collegial and encouraging. Students also disclosed that the feedback given by a significant number of advisers is rather intimidating.

According to participants, supervisors’ lack of commitment and timely feedback also add to the delays. Students sympathise with their professors for taking on many extra assignments to increase their income. However, they are critical about the lack of timely feedback.

It is encouraging that the rapport among PhD students seems to be cordial. As opposed to what happens in the undergraduate programmes in which students compete with one another because higher grades are associated with better employment opportunities, in PhD programmes, students are sympathetic towards one another.

Student coping mechanisms

A handful of candidates have the discipline and the coping strategies that enable them to finish their studies on time. One coping mechanism such students use is creating positive relationships with their supervisors.

It is often the case that, in their attempts to create positive rapport, doctoral students assist their supervisors with various academic tasks, thereby enticing supervisors to be more helpful. Some of these relationships are interpreted as deliberate moves to win the sympathy of advisers and are interpreted negatively by other students.

Other coping strategies employed by successful PhD students include the efficient use of library resources, wise use of income or academic mechanisms, and tailoring papers produced during coursework to the final dissertation in order to shorten their stay.

It was found that some students make sure that they move with their families to nearby towns where life is cheaper so that their income is undivided, and they don’t have to work part time to supplement their earnings.

While the expansion of PhD programmes is an encouraging development in Ethiopia, greater effort is needed to explore major challenges and reform graduate education so that it meets expectations set at individual, national and institutional levels.

As in the case of countries with similar challenges, it is particularly important for policy-makers and higher education institutions to find ways to improve the on-time completion of doctoral programmes to minimise the continued financial, emotional and opportunity costs the system is currently incurring.

Wondwosen Tamrat is an associate professor and founding president of St Mary’s University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and a collaborating scholar of the Programme for Research on Private Higher Education at the State University of New York at Albany, United States, and coordinator of the private higher education sub-cluster of the Continental Education Strategy for Africa. He may be reached at preswond@smuc.edu.et or wondwosen@gmail.com. Dr Getnet Tizazu Fetene is an assistant professor of sociology of education in the department of educational planning and management at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. As a full-time faculty member, he primarily offers doctoral courses and supervises PhD dissertations and MA theses. This commentary is based on research they conducted.