Study : Many doctoral students taking up to nine years to earn degree
Cedar Rapids Gazette
April 22, 2010
The median time for students to earn doctoral degrees surpassed eight and nine years in some University of Iowa graduate programs, according to a recent study.
It’s called “time to degree,” and it’s a hot topic at the UI and in higher education nationally.
A UI task force on graduate education recently said 14 of the university’s 108 master’s and doctoral programs need additional review that could result in changes, mergers or closures. Time to degree was one measure used to rank the programs.
Time to degree is climbing nationally, and some at the UI say programs must work harder to educate doctoral students in a shorter time. Longer time to degree, they say, makes it harder for programs to financially support students and bring in new students.
“Time to degree and percent completion had a lot of traction with this task force, for right or for wrong,” Graduate College Dean John Keller said. “Just because it may be nine years nationally in a discipline, that doesn’t mean we should feel comfortable if we’re in that range.”
Other faculty and students argue the task force put too much emphasis on time to degree and that median times vary too much to be a good measure, especially in smaller departments where one or two students can sway it.
