Research degree completion rates

Indicator Description

Doctoral degree completion rate per 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) academic staff members.

What We Have Found

Why This Is Important

The New Zealand Government, like other governments, has recognised the crucial role played by the innovation system in the creation of a knowledge-based society and economy and hence in economic and social development.  It has also recognised the critical part played by the tertiary education sector in the innovation system.  The sector is a very important producer of research and hence of new knowledge – producing more than 60% of the nation’s research outputs.  It also has the responsibility for the key task of training researchers for the innovation system.

The primary roles of tertiary education research activities are to:

• support degree-level teaching and ensure that degree graduates are of high quality and informed by up-to-date developments in the knowledge base
• train New Zealand’s future knowledge-creators and innovators
• contribute to improving the knowledge base through high-quality research that generates new knowledge, and
• disseminate knowledge through technology transfer.

One traditionally important contribution of the universities to the national research effort is in the area of pure basic research, which involves exploring and expanding the frontiers of knowledge.  The formal training of researchers is mainly carried out through postgraduate research degrees.  The doctoral degree completion rate per FTE academic staff members, therefore, provides a proxy measure of the ability of universities in training researchers for the future.

How We Are Going

The ratio of doctoral degree graduates to FTE academic staff has increased fairly steadily since 1999.  In 2006, there were 9.4 doctoral degree graduates per 100 FTE academic staff members in New Zealand universities.  This compares with 8.2 graduates per 100 FTE academic staff members in 1999, an increase of 14%.

Doctoral degree completion rates per 100 FTE academic staff members (1998-2006)

Note: Excludes Auckland University of Technology which was only granted university status in 2000.

The five most common broad areas of study for doctoral degrees completed in 2006 were: biology/biological sciences (21%); social sciences (21%); humanities (13%); law, business and commerce (10%); and physical sciences (9.6%).  These five areas collectively represented approximately three-quarters of all doctoral completions from New Zealand tertiary education institutions in 2006.  Other fields with more than five percent of the total number of doctoral graduates were: medicine and health sciences (9.0%); engineering and architecture (7.7%); and mathematics and information/computer science (5.4%).

An examination of the rate of completion of doctoral students shows that, of domestic students who started a doctorate in 1998, 43% had completed successfully by 2005.  The long-term completion rate for doctoral students was estimated at between 54% and 57% in a report by Scott (2004).  That rate is similar to estimates made in a report by Yew, Maclachlan and Karmel (2001) of long-term completion rates for doctoral degrees in Australia.

Where To Find Out More

To obtain information about other ways of assessing the overall quality of research from the tertiary education sector consider indicators:

• Performance Based Research Fund staff receiving an A or B quality rating
• University research contract income

References

Ministry of Education (2007). New Zealand's Tertiary Education Sector Profile & Trends 2006. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Ministry of Education (2006). Tertiary Education Strategy 2002/07:  Monitoring Report 2005.Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Ministry of Research, Science and Technology. (2006). National Bibliometric Report 2001-2004: International Benchmarking of New Zealand Research. Wellington: Ministry of Research, Science and Technology.

Scott, D. (2004). Retention, completion and progression in tertiary education 2003. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Yew, M., Maclachlan, M. and Karmel, T. (2001). Postgraduate completion rates. Occasional Paper Series. Canberra: Higher Education Division, Department of Training and Youth Affairs.