A Study on Completion Rates and Time to Completion of Graduate Students

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A Study on Completion Rates and Time to
Completion of Graduate Students
Methodology Adopted by the G10 Data Exchange
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Background

• Started in 2001 at the request of the G10
  Presidents
• G10DE consortium
• Provide statistics for benchmarking long term
  planning
• G10 institutions include University of Alberta,
  University of British Columbia, Université Laval,
  McGill University, McMaster University,
  Université de Montreal, Queens University,
  University of Toronto, University of Waterloo,
  University of Western Ontario.

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Objectives

• Track individual graduate students
• Completion rates
• In-progress rates
• Attrition rates
• Length of studies
• Produce comparative data across 10 universities

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Methodology

• Variables
• 1) students ID,age, gender, citizenship
  full-time or part-time status
• 2) programs type of program, names of program
  and host department, interdisciplinary aspect of
  the program six-digit CIP codes assigned
• 3) academic progression start year and session,
  end year and session, standing in winter 2001,
  number of registered sessions to the program

Note dataset comprised of two files from each
institution (1) a research Masters degree file,
(2) a Doctoral degree file.
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Methodology (cont.)

• each students academic situation in 2001 was
  characterized as one of five possibilities
• Graduation
• Promotion to the PhD (Masters degree file)
• In-progress
• Withdrawal, or
• Absence from the program of study for less than
  two sessions

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Discipline grouping

• Six-digit CIP code was assigned to each record
  (department level)
• CIP codes grouped into four major disciplinary
  divisions to
• Simplify presentation of results
• Ensure adequate sample sizes

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1st-Year Statistical Results

• 1992 cohort
• Includes over 9,000 Masters students 3,807
  Doctoral students
• AAUDE presentation limited to Doctoral students

Note Data reported by number of terms (3 terms
1 year).
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities All Disciplines
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities All Disciplines
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities All Disciplines
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities Humanities
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities Humanities
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities Humanities
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities Social Sciences
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities Social Sciences
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities Social Sciences
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities Physical Applied Sciences
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities Physical Applied Sciences
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities Physical Applied Sciences
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities Life Sciences
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities Life Sciences
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1992 Doctoral Cohort G10 Data Exchange
Universities Life Sciences
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Evaluation - 1st Years Experience

• the data validation - painstaking exercise,
  manual modifications months of coordination with
  institutions reps
• most significant difficulties related to
  institutions student information systems
  (lack/format of certain key data elements)
• Modifications to student systems between 1992
  2001 - difficult to reconstruct a students
  academic history
• Difficult to harmonize the distinction between
  research professional Masters programs across
  participating institutions
• Needed to develop a working definition of
  attrition

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Next Steps

• Collection of data on the 1993 cohort Analysis
  Final Report complete.
• Collection of data on the 1994 and 1998 cohorts
  almost complete
• Data set now sufficiently large to permit
  analysis at the CIP level by gender citizenship
  status
• Follow-up analyses to improve best practices, eg.
  study of attrition

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Next Steps (cont.)

• UofT conducted a survey of students who had
  withdrawn from the 1992 Doctoral cohort
• 143 students surveyed 71 responses

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Next Steps (cont.)
Major Reasons for Withdrawal
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Next Steps (cont.)

• Follow-up studies will examine the role played
  by
• Regulatory Environment existing policies,
  regulations and rules re student progression in
  doctoral study
• Academic Environment quality of supervision,
  faculty-student relationships, and support
  (financial other)