Two points: Firstly my institution offers little active support for postgraduate students and I experienced little during my own studies. Secondly, part of the PhD process seems to be the culling of those who cannot stay the distance. I would suggest that the actual cognitive abilities are there in most of the students who are accepted to study towards PhD but the sheer scale of this type of project means that not everyone can see it through to the end. Perhaps this is not a bad thing, as individuals can get good idea whether a PhD is right for them (or if they are right for a PhD) over the course of 3-5 years. Academic work is hard and the PhD process is a way for students to see if they are suited to this 'job'. Perhaps we shouldn't think of this as failure, but students making informed decisions about what is right for them. That said, some universities could be better at making the process and administration of PhDs better so that students can focus on their studies.

I think a (professional) identity perspective can help here. The Academic identity is not so easily obtained; there are a lot of skills and attitudes associated with it that not every student readily adopts. Much of this has to do with the social support they can or cannot attract in their social networks (both work and I formal networks). Of course there will always be some that come badly prepared (as e.g. did not receive proper academic writing preparation) but I think a lot of PhD students might have an image of the kind of work that is necessary that is inaccurate. As a PhD you have to slowly become socialized into the academic identity. If the mismatch between ones own image persists the student will feel BECOMING an academic is not their path.

In my experience there is insufficient appreciation of what it takes to get a Phd. As a by stander from the University Library, those that succeeded had a very single minded focus. They saw it as part of the process of getting a job in a University, felt committed to their topic and studied in faculties that had a strong research ethic, which isn't the same as having a lot of support. Those that failed were in general part time PhD's, external students, and those that had more or less full time jobs in, and sometimes outside, higher education. For the few that made it through the Part Time route I think it was a massive achievement, but in general they were in the minority. A few converted to an M Phil, a UK intermediary qualification between Masters and PhD. I think this level of qualification is underrated as not being a PhD, but suits the time and ambition of some students well. BW Matt

I will draw an analogy between the recruitment and attrition process between PhD graduate school and medical school. I am a PhD, MD. In that order. In my first year class as a graduate student 1/3 of the students did not make it past the first year. There was a 'weeder' curriculum to choose only the 'brightest' students. Some of my best friends are from that class that did not make it and have been making high 6 figure salaries for a decade, they are very bright. The publish or perish lifestyle is not for everybody. However in medical school there was no attrition. Every student admitted was graduated. The application process for medical school, the demands of a medical student and the role of an MD in society are well known. Not so much for the academic path. Perhaps creating such an understanding in a prospective PhD would better allow them to understand what it is that is expected of them and what they will be doing for the rest of their life. I however believe that by far the most important factor that leads to the drop out of academic graduate students is the uncertainty of grant funding now and in the future.

David V. Baewer MD, PhD, MT(ASCP)

Care always needs to be taken around the issue of retention of students, PhD or otherwise. The focus of any retention strategies should be about what is best for the students- not what is best for the university. Students should be provided with support and guidance from motivated and interested supervisors; however, the final decision resides with the student whose decision should be respected.

Economy and wise career planing strategies may influence science significantly.

I am physiotherapist. In my profession medical specialization and postgraduate courses have at least the same importance as PhD. Specialization lasts 4 years, and courses up to several months each, but you can do it working. PhD studies lasts four years and it is difficult to do it when you normally work e.g. in the hospital. Increase of the income after PhD is not huge. Salaries in universities are usually lower than clinicians, especially if you join work in the hospital and private practice. If you think about flat or house, new car, etc., the quicker way to achieve it may be clinical career, not academic, especially due to number of students will decrease in the future. Moreover number of managing posts for physiotherapists in hospitals is very small - I graduated PhD seven years ago, specialization four years ago, a lot of courses since 2001, wrote eight books and more than two hundred articles and chapters, and have not achieved it so far - in my clinical hospital is lack of such posts, and there is very hard to find any in the same city. Of course I still think about further education.

My husband is scientist in IT branch. In his opinion IT specialists need rather BSc and further specialistic courses than MSc or PhD to earn more money. Moreover number of posts for people with PhD in IT is not so big.

So answer to your question may be: higher education, including PhD, not always provides better income, and not always provides equal income as quick as possible (sometimes it is even harder to find a job). Students should be aware of it beginning their PhD studies - but I hope there still be candidates to achieve PhD.

This is a good question.

PhD students quite for a variety of reasons. Here are probably the 4 most prevalent reasons why.

1) non-funded students quit do to financial stress.

2) Family pressure: spouse/family pressure to get get a job or to find a different career

3) Student underestimated the amount of work required to get a PhD; many students were just not cut out to get a PhD.

4) Students quit to do perceived lack of job prospects for PhD's.

Dear Tiia:

Michael´s four points mesh with my own experience.

In our case, we have much funding, so reason one is irrelevant.

His reason two is more pertinent: I remember one promising female PhD student who married a jeweler while completing her degree. She quit at the last chapter of her dissertation, obviously in deference to her non-degree husband!!!

Reason three is less pertinent, because even when students underestimate the amount of work involved in a Ph.D., they continue in the program, not progressing for a long time until circumstances force them to quit.

Reason four of Michael´s answer is very important: Ph.D. programs survive on their own inertia, even when job possibilities disappear. Professors want theses to direct because their merit depends on it. They do not care about students in many cases.

The survival of a Ph.D. program for its own sake reminds me of an elephant who dies while standing on its feet.

PhD students quit because usually they don't have adequate supervisor to work with targets. Time management is very important. Students usually get disappointed because of no progress in their project. They need a lot of encouragement while implementing/achieving their various steps in their research. I believe students should feel that they are friends with their supervisor.

@Tiia, part of original thread: "Why do PhD students quit...?" My answer is mostly money,money and money! And there are two ways, either they do not have money to pay school Ph.D fees or chasing money through better job!

@Judie gave the good post about "... what can universities do to prevent it?" Yes, these measures could help!

We should not forget that Ph.D supervisor's influence is crucial beyond all!

Also, someone commented before, I do not know any person who is studying for Ph.D for the purpose of higher earnings!

@Tiia, let me look from another angle and say why I didn't quit despite my weaknesses. I continued teaching, but my school head moved me to afternoon session (1pm-6.50pm). So I had the whole morning to think and to work. Although I had no scholarship, I had a grant through my supervisor and it was sufficient. I wrote up 1 paper based on Masters research and it was accepted by Pertanika Journal of Social Sc and Humanities. I wrote up 3 more papers for conferences, and enjoyed communicating my work at conferences. My weakness is that I'm not a good driver, but I had 2 friends who were great at that. I helped my friends and checked their SPSS analyses, to proof read their drafts of theses. We had a good time collaborating.

When I had collected all my data, my aunt had a stroke. She was in hospital quite a long while, but my church friends helped out, fetching me to the hospital. We would be there 8 -10pm. My conclusion: no man is an island, we are here for one another.

A PhD student is self motivated, the supervisor provides info and feedback. If the alert supervisor gets an honest, diligent and thinking student, there's no problem. But if either party does not fulfill the responsibility, the work cannot achieve the desired outcome.

Vissak, I think there must be different reasons for different universities, cultures, countries, and economies but as the problem is global some of the reasons may also be global. In my view some of the most common reasons are:

1. PhD is a marathon with very few, if any, milestones on the way. So most of the times you are not sure whether you will reach the end until you have reached there. This, at times, becomes nerve breaking for the candidates and frustrate many of them.

2. PhD is different from the rest of the education (experienced earlier) in many different ways so many PhD candidates discover, on the way, that it is not their ball-game and ultimately quit.

3. PhD being a long journey at an age where the priorities of life change quickly (in terms of family, work or financial commitments etc.) so many of those who start the journey fail to stay the course.

4. Many a times it is the mismatch (academic or emotional) between the candidate and the adviser that changes things in a negative manner.

This list is not an exhaustive list but I think the availability of some kind of qualified emotional help/therapy, at the times of high stress, can save many candidates from breaking down.

We can not guarantee suitable jobs for students after award of PhD degree.About 20% of my PhD students have left as they got better opportunity elsewhere. Students need good research topic,publication in high impact factor journal and research atmosphere.

I agree with the above given ideas. We are having similar experience in the graduate studies. There are several factors why students do not finish their phd: time, money, and motivation.

1. Funding. To beautify our curriculum vitae is very expensive.

2. Time factor and change of workplace. Some of our nurses in phd failed to finish phd because of overseas employment during their studies. When monetory reward from overseas employment reach satisfaction level motivation to finish phd decreases. However some of our nurses working in other countries manage to continue and finished their phd here in the Philippines through distance learning program.

3. Lack of motivation from the university how to vision career path.

4. Lack of support for publication. If research for phd is just a compliance to obtain phd degree and research work are kept in the shelves there is less appreciation and motivation for phd

4. Lack of caring mentor who will support the students to develop research capability. Students need mentor who will enhance their self esteem in doing research. Not all phd students are interested in research. They want professional development and career advancement through graduate studies but not interested in research.

5. Impact of motivation and job requirement in relation to financial return from having phd. Economic component is always attached to professional development and career advancement. To some professionals phd should be an income generating degree.

Right now, I wish a certain PhD student of mine would quit. She hands her thesis work in a year late and it represents a retrogression from the time she started. I have told her time and again that perhaps she should find a younger, more vibrant, less rigid professor. I do not think her capable of finishing. What can I do to make cease and desist?

I'll talk about the experience of doctoral students in Tunisia.

the first problem is to have a thesis director who is overwhelmed as he accepted generally lead a very large number of PhD student because the number of students is very high compared with the guiding theses.

the second is the problem of finacement. it is the State that pays an equivalent scholarship at $ 160 which is still inadequate for a PhD student.

third problem is the availability of data especially those concerning our country

Again, if students WANT to quit, we should graciously stand aside and not dissuade them. If they NEED to quit because their minds do not equip them for graduate study, we should also not dissuade them. If any other factor except desire and intellectual inadequacy explain a student´s quitting, we as faculty should do all in our power to retain him.

I do have two point of views to explain this issue:

1. The students have become more ambitious for earning money as soon as they finish their 12th standard. They follow the comfort lifestyle where they can make money easily, and could not develop the taste and patience to do research or higher studies. 

2. Research field doesn't attract students as the remuneration for the job is quite less and also it takes long time.  

I had initially joined IISc for a PhD program about 5 years ago, but it had got to a stage where I have been faced with serious issues in completing it due to technical issues concerning the samples that I had received from my collaborators/funding agency and also with regards to some key facilities related to my work. The problems were thought to be solvable at the initial stages but now there seems to be no way to salvage the thesis, hence, the only option I had was to convert my PhD degree to a Masters degree (M. Sc.) since opting for a change or topic at this point would mean almost starting all over again afresh with a thesis at the same place with the prevailing uncertainties.

However, since I had acquired few valuable skills over the years I feel that I must still pursue a PhD, but elsewhere (preferably in the EU) where the programs are more structured and which take about 3-4 years to complete in most cases.

Could anyone please share their views on my decision, especially since I already have a masters degree (M. Tech) in the same field form my previous institute, IIT-Kanpur. 

I would like to contribute some more readings about the issue in order to push the discussion. @Tiia's thread is fine. 

Dear @Vinay, you have done optimal!

http://thesiswhisperer.com/2014/03/26/why-do-people-quit-the-phd/

http://www.nextscientist.com/phd-dilemma-quit-your-phd/

I saw some persons who had to quit  the PhD studies because they made the wrong decision of joining a certain program which is beyond their capabilities or for another reason. For example, a friend of mine joined a PhD program in organic chemistry in country (X) but found the courses & the research topic to be tough. So he changed his direction ,at a proper time, and joined a PhD program in analytical chemistry in country (Y). The second choice worked fine for him & he obtained the degree within 3 years.

Another friend ,who was employed in a university with MSc qualification, took absence leave in the early 1990s & joined a PhD program in country (Y) but found that the appointed supervisor, for him, was both moody & racist. He tried to change the supervisor but to no avail. So he went back to his previous job after less than a year & to this day, he does not have a PhD degree. No one can accuse him of failure because his explanation was obvious " I went to the wrong person in the wrong place !".

There are several reasons.

The list does not end here. We can find several other reasons for that.

Universities can do a lot to restrict this practice. Some of them are

An intentional effort must be made to nourish good researches.

Students quit for multiple reasons, lack of support from the adviser, or lack or motivation.  

I am currently in my third year of Phd. So far, I have published 2 papers and my third paper is under review. My fourth paper has been drafted and is under review by my supervisor. My supervisor is an extremely nice person and has helped me throughout my candidature. However, being an international student in a costly city, I found it very hard to cope up with my finances- I do not receive any money from the university or whatsoever. I am not sure if I will be able to finish it. Seems like that very soon I will be kicked out as my progress is extremely slow and my supervisor reminds me of this every week. What can I do? Should I quit?

If you have already published 2 and written 2 more papers, then your progress seems fine for a 3rd year. If you enjoy doing research, then try to continue.

@ Shamsher, I'm not sure what is the normal progress of your peer as required by your school. However, 2 publications and 2 in progress, let's assume at leas t one of them accepted, so, you've 3 publications/3years, I don't think it is bad such that your school my push you out.

Is there any time limit for your program that you're exceeding?

Anyway, I would suggest that: you look for some part-time job over the weekends in your region, if possible and allowed (by your school). Also try to discuss with your adviser, he might have some funded project to help you at least to stay and finish your degree.

If neither of these work for you, you may also try to do some online jobs, I think there are many things you can do online.

Best of luck.

The main reason students quit is the fact that academic research and academia nowadays is built as a pyramid scheme. And that comes with loopholes that centrifuge people's hopes and dreams. Often PhD courses are places where people go loving science (for example) to see their love for science die on the fact that academia is just crumbling on its own nature. Unstable, nomadic lives for postdocs, and building niche skills for phds!!

When I read anyone stating that some students aren't fit for a PhD I can only feel sorry for that person's arrogance. If a student is selected it is definitely fit, unless the staff selecting the student are so unprepared for the selection process that they themselves are not fit for supervising. Academia is a crumbling private-public partnership these days, where universities are run as companies and career progression resembles modern 'slavery' (no prospects, no progression for all involved, but 'hey, keep working mate').

When I read a bunch of technocrats just debiting that workload and unfit personalities, family pressure, etc etc are the reasons for failure, I must assume these are probably supervisors defending their own existence. My friends, 99% of PhD students quit due to poor supervision, poor academic support, lacking of future prospects and the fact that PhD students are not seen as students but employees... and matter of fact, most of the time, their supervisors are already assuming that their practical and theoretical knowledge is enough to get them going naturally though the process. They demand rather than incentive or demonstrate.

Hypocrisy, Fallacy and Disgust that's what it means.

Who's to blame? Students and Student Unions that instead of worrying about throwing parties and launching society events should focus once for all on alleviating the pressure on students. Pressure that comes from uni cuts, governmental cuts and general despotic directing orders. Ask yourselves, when was the last time a student protest changed anything, anything at all????

I dare to say May '68.

I respect your points of view, but I must admit that often when I see people analysing it from such a "student's profile perspective" I am forced to assume that this is just lecturers, supervisors and directors defending their daily bread.

Very interesting discussion. I had the same mind when I was doing ph.d.  This line of discussion is good - even to attract students for ph.d.

@Tiia's proposal for @Shamsher Singh is the right one. Yes, it is promising result that you have achieved. Do not live this trajectory to scientific success!

A ph. d. degree means a long sacrifice, away from other things. It may or may not be

an asset for future wellbeing.

A good treatment of the students is to be recommended, not always to be focused

exclusivley  on the academmic goal.

Dear Dr. Tiia Vissak,

Universities have "Retention Plans" for their students. A researcher many have other issues like funding, family, 

As for as the relation of Supervisor and Research Scholar should be very much cordial and professional. 

Also, some research scholars are doing research because they don't get any other job, as they get they leave.. 

PhD programs in certain universities are in-structured. The guide only accompany the students in his trials and studies. The research committee should discuss on the probable stages and should check the genuineness and authenticity of the process, data and results at different stages.

If research goes to wrong direction, it becomes very hard for a researcher to revamp due to previous labour of long time i.e. some years.

Good question and Informative answers thank you all

This is a great article that can partly, I'll repeat, partly, help solve the problem: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2018/10/11/team-based-phds-would-address-the-isolation-caused-by-current-doctoral-programmes-and-improve-the-efficiency-quality-and-impact-of-research/