To give you an idea of the reality, the turnover rate in any doctoral school is very high. About a third to a half of those who enroll in a doctoral university will not complete their doctorate. In fact, the 40% to 50% failure rate of graduate students has remained fairly constant over the past thirty years. In 1990, Baird reported that doctoral graduation rates were around 50% in most disciplines and even lower in the liberal arts and humanities. In 2003, Elgar conducted a detailed study of North American graduate students and found that “only about half of all students who enter a doctoral program … actually graduate” (p. iii). The Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) for England also reported similar figures in 2007.
50% failure is a real number; and the turnover rate of graduate and postgraduate students has always been extremely high, especially compared to bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The reason is related to many factors, but in this article, I want to focus on the negative factors that prevent you from getting a Ph.D. To that end, I have included what I believe are the six most relevant factors of PhD student failure.
Expert advice on when to ask for help, stop or quit
Getting good grades is important for many reasons. Not only do they provide a student with better long-term opportunities to apply to graduate or vocational school, but they also provide access to specialized fields of study and lead to scholarships and other opportunities. But some classes are difficult and students often have academic difficulties in at least one class. If you fail a course, you have options.
Find out what you can do to improve your grade and when it’s time to quit or drop a course.
Before a student considers dropping out or withdrawing from a course, they should work to put themselves in the best position to succeed using the tools available on and off campus. Here are the steps students should take when they know their grade is at risk.
How long is the PhD aptitude test?
If you write the traditional template, you have five to seven questions over two days, and you basically write whatever you can think of about those questions. Students usually throw away everything they know, true or not, just to show what they know.
If you take the exam at home, you will probably type it. Many schools now allow typing in the traditional pattern as well. Their answers are usually close to 15-20 pages per question because they want to see everything you can think of.
Summary
The PhD failure rate in the UK is 19.5%, with 16.2% of students dropping out of their PhD program and 3.3% of students failing their Viva. 80.5% of all students who enroll in a doctoral program successfully complete it and obtain a doctorate.
One of the biggest concerns of doctoral students is the constant fear of failing their doctorate.