Interest, Burnout, and Drop-Out Intentions Among Finnish and Danish Humanities and Social Sciences PhD. Students

Abstract

Aim/Purpose: This study focused on advancing understanding of individual variations in doctoral students’ interest in their doctoral studies and how they related to experiences of burnout and drop-out intentions in Denmark and Finland. Background: Ph.D. students’ experiences of interest, burnout, and dropout intentions among Finnish and Danish Ph.D. students have not been researched before. Research with a person-centred approach exploring individual variations in students undertaking doctoral studies in two comparable but distinct socio-cultural contexts is limited. Methodology: This study uses exploratory factor analysis, K-means cluster analyses in combination with Pairwise comparisons, ANOVA, and Chi-square test. A total of 365 doctoral students in social sciences and humanities disciplines in Finland and Denmark responded to a Cross-Cultural Doctoral Experience Survey. Contribution: This study contributes understanding on individual variation in doctoral students’ interest across two socio-cultural contexts by identifying four personal interest profiles. The profiles were invariant across the contexts. The study also shed further light on the interrelation between the interest in research and the risk for suffering from burnout and entertaining dropout intentions. Findings: The interest profiles identified among the Ph.D. students were the High interest profile, the Moderate interest profile, the Developmental, research and impact interest profile, and the Development and impact interest profile. All interest profiles exhibited high levels of the developmental interest, however they varied especially in the weight given to instrumental and research interests. Ph.D. students in the Moderate interest profile showed signs of burnout, and they were prone to consider dropping out. Also, individuals in the Development and impact interest profile considered more frequently dropping out of their studies. Recommendations for Practitioners: Investing in the identification and support of interest among Ph.D. students is worthwhile, as interest is not a permanent characteristic of the individual, and the combination of research, development, and impact interest indicates a lower risk for burnout and drop-out intentions. Recommendation for Researchers: It is possible that interest profiles are the same across the two national contexts investigated in this study, but their underpinnings and premises are different. It is likely that a qualitative approach would shed more light on these foci. Impact on Society: The results imply that personal interest was not determined by the socio-cultural differences between the countries, indicating that cultivating doctoral students’ personal interest, particularly a combination of research, development, and impact, provides a potential buffer for doctoral students’ burnout and drop-out, which has been raised as global concerns among policy makers, researchers, and doctoral education developers and administrators during the past decade. The study has impact on doctoral studies in international communities. Future Research: The results in this study reflect specific characteristics of social sciences and their applied nature. It remains for future research to investigate the extent to which the identified four profiles of interest in relation to burnout and drop-out intentions emerge in the natural sciences.

Academic burnout among master and doctoral students during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Several studies have reported high rates of university withdrawal intentions, for example, 30–70% of doctorate students will may not complete their PhD degree 8 , 29 – 31 . Experiences of high stress, anxiety and exhaustion, demonstrated a lack of interest in their studies which appears to influence drop-out intentions 8 , 32 , 33 . In contrast, satisfaction and engagement in research, supervision from several supervisors, integration and networks in the research community has a reverse effect in reducing burnout rates and enhancing success to degree completion 34 , 35 .…”

Predicting Algerian Doctoral Students’ Academic Burnout Using the Expectancy-Value Model: The Effect of Faculty Attachment and Years of Enrolment

“…It can be observed that success expectancy, as well as the intrinsic and utility values of the doctoral course, had stronger correlations with burnout dimensions than the attainment and cost values; candidates who thought they were good at doing their research and who had greater intrinsic and utility values were the least emotionally drained by their doctoral course. It could be argued that the high central tendency of the intrinsic and utility values in Algerian doctoral students could be justified by high interest profiles, development and impact interest profiles (Cornér et al, 2021), and the scarcity of Ph.D. positions in national contests. The associations are in line with the claim that graduate students' enrolment choices are undeniably based on the employment prospects of the course (Gedye et al, 2004) and that enjoyment of the course is associated with academic self-control (Gallaa et al, 2018).…”

“…Significant positive associations and predictive relationships were found between the components of the expectancy-value model and university students' metacognitive skills (Sellali & Yahiaoui, 2021). In their study, Cornér et al (2021) reviewed the literature on the possible motives that stem from doctoral students' interest in completing a doctoral course, and the most prevalent reasons were driven by intrinsic motives such as the understanding and the creation of knowledge, professional development, increasing job opportunities, and getting a raise or a better salary (Guerin et al, 2015;Neves, 2018;Pyhältö et al, 2020;Skakni, 2018;Stubb et al, 2012)…”

Danish University Governance and Reforms Since the Millennium:

“…The changes are also visible in quality assurance agendas, such as the mandatory courses in doctoral supervision for doctoral supervisors, which increasingly include modules on career guidance and talent development (Kobayashi, Godskesen, & Wichmann-Hansen, 2017). The complexity and many-sided expectations to the PhD and doctoral education have been reported to be confusing for doctoral students and supervisors, whose expectations and strategies are not always aligned with each other and with the wider institutional system framing doctoral education (Bengtsen, 2017;Cornér et al, 2018). The tensions can also be seen on the micro-level in the ways doctoral supervision and pedagogy has a complex, layered, and not always internally coherent expression and outcome (Bengtsen, 2016).…”