The PhD track: who succeeds, who drops out?

Doctoral completion rates are an indicator of successful doctoral programmes and of a region's potential of highly skilled workforce. The Human Resources in Research - Flanders (HRRF) database contains data of all academic staff appointments, doctoral student registrations, and doctoral degrees of all Flemish universities from 1990 onwards. Previous research has identified the following factors as affecting successfully completing the PhD: cohort, scientific discipline, type of scholarship or appointment, gender, age, and nationality. We present a competing risk analysis of factors determining PhD completion and drop-out. This event history technique allows for determining the relative impact of each of these characteristics on the level of success/failure and time to degree. It predicts at what time periods the 'time to degree' and 'time till drop out' is most likely to occur, and why some individuals experience the event earlier than others. Our results show that scientific discipline and funding situation are the most important factors predicting success in obtaining the doctorate degree

From PhD to professor in Flanders: ECOOM Brief 11

The current study focuses on careers which have developed within Flanders, using the Flemish Ph.D. as a starting point and the promotion to professor as an end point. About 1 in 5 Ph.D. graduates at a Flemish university obtain an academic post as professor at the same or a different Flemish university. This share is the combined result of opportunities to remain within the Flemish academic system, interest to establish a career path within the system and degree of internationalization within the system. The increasing number of Ph.D. graduates implies that this figure will decrease slightly for the current generation if the total number of professorships is to remain the same. Comparing recent cohorts with older ones, the time between Ph.D. completion and entry at professorial level now more often covers a longer period of time. Of those who funded their Ph.D. through competitive scholarships and Research Assistant appointments, higher shares established an academic career in Flanders. Ph.D. graduates in the natural sciences and engineering –less often establish an academic career. Finally, men more often than women used to continue their early-stage research career within academia