The effect of student attributes and program characteristics on doctoral degree completion.

Abstract

DEDICATIONI wanted to take the opportunity in this small space to acknowledge the support of some very important people in my life. Both my parents and my wife stood by me through this entire process and deserve the appropriate recognition. From their humble beginnings, my parents agreed to devote all their efforts to allow their children to achieve beyond what they themselves could only imagine. They wanted us to reach for a level of achievement that would open up a lifetime of opportunities for ourselves and the generations to follow. My brother and I knew from an early age that going to college was not only a possibility, but a foregone conclusion. Education, in their belief was our path to opportunity. My parents worked multiple jobs and sacrificed many creature comforts in life in order to finance a private catholic education for both of their children. They continued this tireless support and work to not only get us through our undergraduate degrees, but to instill the belief, the dream, the opportunity, and the desire to reach the highest levels of educational attainment.They never made it feel like a burden, or something that was forced. My brother and I ultimately fulfilled their dreams, by his completion of a Doctor of Chiropractic and my completion of a Ph.D. But they did not limit their support only to their sons. My parents also became ardent supporters of both of their daughter-in-laws. They, without hesitation or reservation, did whatever was needed to stand behind both Tara and Jen and see them through to the completion of their undergraduate degrees.iv When I look back on the entire duration of this degree, I realize that I have been a doctoral student for over five years and that my wife and I will celebrate our 5-year anniversary on October 1, 2010. Throughout our engagement and entire marriage I have been in the pursuit of this doctoral degree. With that acknowledgment, comes a realization that this was not a singular sacrifice and achievement. My wife Jennifer was there with me in the beginning when I interviewed in Elizabethtown to be admitted to the program, when I had assigned reading during our honeymoon, through the semesters of lonely evenings while I was at class, and the weekends consumed with studying. She tolerated the many late nights I spent writing my dissertation with our dogs Topper and Marley at my feet. She may not have always been happy with the sacrifices, and at times I know she was fed up with the circumstances, but she stayed by my side and saw me through to the end of this degree. These are the intangible things that are not described in the wedding vows, but embody a strong and dedicated spouse. Jen, you mean the world to me, and thank you for travelling down this journey with me and following it through to completion.Therefore it is with years of hard work, endless late nights of reading, researching, and writing that I dedicate my dissertation to my wife Jen and to my parents Larry and Jennie. To my wife Jen, I look forward to building a long and happy life and fina...

PhD Candidate Expectations: Exploring Mismatch with Experience

“…These include the departmental intellectual climate (Trigwell & Dunbar-Goddet, 2005), employment (Gittings, 2010), and university and/or departmental infrastructure support (Tennant, 2008). Much of the variation in satisfaction with advisers has been attributed to a general decline over the period of candidature related to failure to meet expectations in a number of ways (Russo, 2011).…”

Come Hell or High Water: Doctoral Students’ Perceptions on Support Services and Persistence

“…Participants specifically cited employment as a barrier to persistence and a cause of lengthy times to completion. To date, research on the effects of employment on doctoral degree progress and completion has produced mixed findings (Boulder, 2010;Gittings, 2010).…”

“…Student attributes and program characteristics (Franco-Zamudio, 2009;Gittings, 2010), as well as both institutional and non-institutionally-based support (Boulder, 2010;Williams-Tolliver, 2010) has been shown to play a role in graduate student persistence and degree completion. Key to these analyses is the role of student perceptions in determining the effect of such factors on persistence.…”

“…Future research should examine the effects of personal methods of coping with the rigors of doctoral study in more depth, especially in contexts where there is a lack of institutional support services. It is also recommended that academic research and writing groups, seminars, and workshops be made a formalized component of doctoral programs, which has been suggested by previous research (Gittings, 2010).…”

Keeping the Research Thesis on Course: Case of Kenyatta University Doctoral Students Experiences during the COVID 19 Pandemic

“…The positive influence of internal and external sources of support such and family and peers has been demonstrated in other studies (Boulder, 2010;Jairam & Kahl, 2012;Williams-Tolliver, 2010). Gittings (2010) supports the establishment of academic research and writing groups, seminars, and workshops to be made a formalized component of doctoral programs. Muthima (2019) in her doctoral capstone report on enhancing positive attitudes towards research supervision feedback process among the doctoral candidates to increase graduation rates, recommended pastoral supervision where supervisors try to establish the problems that the supervisees are going through with an aim of seeking for an intervention.…”