Winning a competitive research award decreases time to degree in bioscience PhD programs, but not for everyone

Abstract

Time to degree completion is an important metric of academic progress and success for doctoral students. It is also a common way for educational stakeholders to compare programs even if the content of the degree programs varies. But what types of behaviors and experiences are associated with faster times to degree? In this education article, we examine the relationship between receiving competitive research awards (e.g. grant writing) and time to degree for Ph.D. students. We organize our analyses by student identities, specifically gender and underrepresented minority (URM) status, to examine differences in time to degree based on student demographics. Our dataset included students that graduated between academic years 2008-09 through 2018-19. Using well known, open access computational tools, we find that URM women who won competitive research awards graduate faster than all other students who also won awards. We also find that URM women and all URM students graduate faster compared to students who did not win awards. Combined, these results show how competitive awards and grants can facilitate faster times to degree for some students. This study suggests similar introspective analyses at other institutions and databases are needed.