They bring prestige to the university, but NTNU has done a poor job in supervising the progress of its PhD candidates. Nobody knows how many PhDs take breaks during the course of their studies, and even less is known about what is happening with foreign PhDs.
More than 2000 people currently have doctoral appointments at the university. The goal is for 350 candidates to defend their dissertations each year, but the university is far from achieving this goal. Nobody knows how many PhD candidates take time off from their studies. The number of foreign students has also soared in recent years. Some are struggling and dropping out, and NTNU acknowledges that a lack of knowledge about their background is a problem.
Too many stop
A report about NTNU’s PhD education programme was presented at the last NTNU Board of Trustees meeting. Kari Melby, pro-rector for research, made it clear that the university does not have enough of an overview of how its PhD candidates are progressing.
The report states that: “The results for 2009 and the year to date reveal that NTNU does not have the tools it needs to make accurate forecasts, has no overview of the progress of candidates and does not know enough about why candidates either take too long to complete their degrees or do not complete them at all.”
Board member Helge Holden expressed concern over the situation. Confronted by UA, he described his concern in this way:
“There are too many students who stop with their studies. And we know too little about why this happens.”
Wasted resources
Do we really understand what happens when a young, talented woman or a man at the highest educational level gives up? Holden says the situation demands the utmost attention.
“A nearly completed PhD is worth nothing. An abandoned PhD programme wastes significant resources in the form of wages, adviser time, and the candidate’s own time,” says Holden.
He notes that the problem of abandoned PhD programmes involves society’s best minds.
“These people are basically ‘the best of the best’ - students who have always done well during almost 20 years of schooling, and who, when they break off their studies, have for the first time encountered a situation that they have not managed to master,” he said.
Struggling to adapt
Holden's concern over aborted PhD studies is especially true for candidates from abroad.
“Some of these candidates are struggling to adapt to stringent demands and the tough progression of studies. This is a situation where it is especially important to have close monitoring, both in terms of candidate selection and during the course of studies,” says Holden, who himself comes from the mathematics community.
It is far from easy to conduct interviews with candidates and check their background, motivation and other issues when the candidate is located somewhere else in the world. In these situations, the only thing that the selection committee may have to rely on is a telephone call, or conversations via Skype. Here it is also important to ensure that it is the actual candidate who is being interviewed, and not a stand-in.
More than 50 programmes
“Helge Holden brings up something I consider to be very important,” Pro-rector Melby says.
“How do you ensure that the admission procedure for PhD programmes is of the highest quality? We have more than 50 doctoral programmes today, and developing effective methods for selecting good candidates is a high priority. This applies to Norwegian and foreign candidates,” she said.
Melby is concerned that the university does not have enough expertise in this area.
“Do we have procedures to ensure that we get motivated candidates? It is essential that we provide potential candidates with the information they need about the requirements to complete a PhD programme. It is therefore my recommendation that we conduct interviews to ensure that we have the right person, and to get a sense of the candidate's motivation.”
Not enough good data
In 2009, NTNU had the largest decrease in the number of completed PhD dissertations of any Norwegian university. Last year the university awarded 259 doctoral degrees, which is 55 fewer than its peak year of 2008, and far short of the goal of 350.
Some doctoral appointments are more or less inactive, in that the candidate has lost momentum. Here Melby is keen to establish procedures to terminate non-active agreements.
“But what about the lack of knowledge about who and how many candidates stop their studies before completion?
“It's a very big problem that we do not have good enough data here. We'll figure this out,” Melby promised.
Melby is in charge of efforts to establish a common standard for the PhD programme for the entire course of studies, from the start to the defence. This will entail guidelines for all doctoral programmes at the university.
“Now we have received feedback on the Board’s report, and we will begin to work on these issues immediately, “ Melby said.
- A nearly finished Ph.D has no value, member of the NTNU board Helge Holden says.Tore Oksholen
