Dropouts for Ph. D. s
Educators are seriously concerned aboutthe high rate of dropouts among the doctor of philosophy candidates and theconsequent loss of talent to a nation in need of Ph. D. s. Some have placed thedropouts loss as high as 50 percent. The extent of the loss was, however,largely a matter of expert guessing. Last week a well-rounded study waspublished. It was published. It was based on 22,000 questionnaires sent toformer graduate students who were enrolled in 24 universities and it seemed toshow many past fears to be groundless.
The dropouts rate was found to be 31per cent, and in most cases the dropouts, while not completing the Ph. D.requirement, went on to productive work. They are not only doing wellfinancially, but, according to the report, are not far below the income levelsof those who went on to complete their doctorates.
Discussing the study lastweek, Dr. Tucker said the project was initiated ‘because of the concernfrequently expressed by graduate faculties and administrators that some of theindividuals who dropped out of Ph. D. programs were capable of competing therequirement for the degree. Attrition at the Ph. D. level is also thought to bea waste of precious faculty time and a drain on university resources alreadybeing used to capacity. Some people expressed the opinion that the shortage ofhighly trained specialists and college teachers could be reduced by persuadingthe dropouts to return to graduate schools to complete the Ph. D.’
“Theresults of our research” Dr. Tucker concluded, “did not support theseopinions.”
