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Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment (2011)

Chapter: 4 Time to Degree, Funding, and Completion Rates

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Suggested Citation:"4 Time to Degree, Funding, and Completion Rates." National Research Council. 2011. Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13213.
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4

Time to Degree, Funding, and Completion Rates

Median time to degree in the biomedical sciences is relatively constant across fields: medians range from 4.88 to 5.73 years for all biomedical science fields with a standard deviation of less than or equal to one year (see Appendix E). There is a “model” for doctoral training. In almost all programs, more than 90 percent of students are fully funded in the first two years, about one-quarter with an institutional fellowship and the rest through either a traineeship or research assistantship. By the third year, almost all students are funded through some combination of research assistantships and traineeships. This funding is available for 6 years of doctoral study, although the source of funding may vary.

Table 4-1 shows the funding patterns in the biomedical sciences compared with the broad fields of engineering and the physical and mathematical sciences. Nearly one-third of students in the biomedical sciences receive funding through external fellowships or traineeships after the first year, as compared with a percentage that is less than one-half as large for engineering and the physical sciences. Since funding for the biomedical sciences comes primarily from the National Institutes of Health, NIH can use its influence to encourage program practices in the biomedical sciences in a way that is not available for other fields in science and engineering, where research assistantships on grants to individual investigators are the dominant avenue for funding doctoral students beyond the first year.

Suggested Citation:"4 Time to Degree, Funding, and Completion Rates." National Research Council. 2011. Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13213.
×

TABLE 4-1 Sources of Funding for Ph.D. Students by Year of Enrollment 2005-2006, by Percent

  YEAR 1 YEAR 2  
  Biomedical Sciences Physical and Mathematical Sciences Engineering Biomedical Sciences Physical and Mathematical Sciences Engineering
External fellowships or traineeships alone or with institutional support 25 9 10 33 11 11
Institutional fellowships and assistantships alone or with institutional support 34 25 27 18 17 20
Research assistantships 22 14 33 33 28 46
Teaching Assistantships Other or less than full 12 45 15 12 37 11
support 4 2 4 3 2 4
Unfunded 2 5 10 2 4 7

   

   

    YEAR 3 YEAR 4
Biomedical Sciences Physical and Mathematical Sciences Engineering Biomedical Sciences Physical and Mathematical Sciences Engineering
External fellowships or traineeships alone or with institutional support 35 13 11 35 13 10
Institutional fellowships and assistantships alone or with institutional support 16 14 18 14 14 17
Research assistantships 37 38 49 40 43 51
Teaching Assistantships Other or less than full 8 2 10 7 23 8
support 3 2 4 3 2 4
Unfunded 2 4 7 2 4 8

Suggested Citation:"4 Time to Degree, Funding, and Completion Rates." National Research Council. 2011. Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13213.
×

   

   

  YEAR 5 YEAR 6
  Biomedical Sciences Physical and Mathematical Sciences Engineering Biomedical Sciences Physical and Mathematical Sciences Engineering
External fellowships or traineeships alone or with institutional support 34 12 9 32 11 6
Institutional fellowships and assistantships alone or with institutional support 11 14 16 10 12 12
Research assistantships 43 47 53 46 48 52
Teaching Assistantships 6 20 7 6 18 7
Other or less than full support 4 2 4 4 4 6
Unfunded 2 4 8 2 7 14

   

   

    YEAR 6+  
Biomedical Sciences Physical and Mathematical Sciences Engineering
External fellowships or traineeships alone or with institutional support 26 7 4
Institutional fellowships and assistantships alone or with institutional support 11 9 9
Research assistantships 42 43 40
Teaching Assistantships 6 15 7
Other or less than full support 7 6 6
Unfunded 7 18 31

Suggested Citation:"4 Time to Degree, Funding, and Completion Rates." National Research Council. 2011. Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13213.
×

In terms of completion rates, the average percent of doctoral students who complete their degrees in 6 years or less ranges from 42 percent in genetics and genomics to 56 percent in pharmacology, toxicology, and environmental health. There is substantial variation among programs, however. For example, in immunology and infectious disease, one university had a completion rate of 100 percent, while another had a completion rate of 25 percent, although both programs average 3.4 doctorates per year. The extent to which this difference is due to variations in admissions policies, retention efforts, funding, or other factors, is impossible to say. Case studies or other detailed analyses would be needed to sort this out. It is noteworthy, however, that immunology and infectious disease programs at both institutions had the same median time to degree for those students who did complete.

As might be expected, a shorter median time to degree is correlated with a higher completion rate. In at least six fields the coefficient is < -0.3:

TABLE 4-2 Correlations Between Median Time to Degree and Average Completion Rate by Field

   

Field Median Time to Degree (years) Average Completion Rate (%) Correlation
Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology 5.63 45.9 -0.375
Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering 5.06 46.3 -0.134
Cell and Developmental Biology 5.66 50.1 -0.383
Genetics and Genomics 5.73 41.6 -0.451
Immunology and Infectious Disease 5.36 56.2 -0.071
Integrated Biological and Biomedical Sciences 5.62 47.4 -0.362
Microbiology 5.58 47.1 -0.493
Neuroscience and Neurobiology 5.68 46.2 -0.464
Nutrition 4.88 55.8 -0.165
Pharmacology, Toxicology, and Environmental Health 5.21 56.1 -0.260
Physiology 5.13 50.9 -0.179

Suggested Citation:"4 Time to Degree, Funding, and Completion Rates." National Research Council. 2011. Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13213.
×
Page 23
Suggested Citation:"4 Time to Degree, Funding, and Completion Rates." National Research Council. 2011. Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13213.
×
Page 24
Suggested Citation:"4 Time to Degree, Funding, and Completion Rates." National Research Council. 2011. Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13213.
×
Page 25
Suggested Citation:"4 Time to Degree, Funding, and Completion Rates." National Research Council. 2011. Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13213.
×
Page 26
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Research-Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment Get This Book
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Research Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences: Selected Findings from the NRC Assessment examines data on the biomedical sciences programs to gather additional insight about the talent, training environment, outcomes, diversity, and international participation in the biomedical sciences workforce. This report supports an earlier publication, A Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States, which analyzes data and rankings from more than 5,000 doctoral programs, 982 of which were in the biomedical sciences. Research Doctorate Programs in the Biomedical Sciences explores questions about degrees and completion rates as they relate to GRE scores, student funding, program facilities, diversity among faculty members, and other variables. The report examines 11 biomedical science fields including cell and developmental biology, genetics and genomics, microbiology, nutrition, and physiology, among others.

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