"Less than one percent of the population has PhDs, so if you have one, be proud; it’s a big deal" ❤️

Shocking Data | On PhDs that take Ages with TN Universities!

Only 29.4% of PhD candidates managed to submit their thesis within five years!

#newspaperinlearning 

What does it mean to think like a doctoral student?

#newspaper | 2nd May 2025

Today’s New Indian Express

Data from 13 state universities in Tamil Nadu have revealed that only 29.4% of PhD students are able to complete the course within five years.

Alarmed by the figures, the Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education (TANSCHE) has decided to take up a detailed survey to identify the challenges faced by state institutions and PhD scholars that are causing delays.

According to initial data collected by TANSCHE from the 13 Universities under the Higher Education Department, 42,913 students had enrolled in PhD programmes in the last five years. Of them, only 12,625 students (29.4%) managed to submit their thesis within five years.

Varsity officials said that ideally PhD scholars should be able to finish their degrees within three to five years, with the maximum time allowed to complete the programme being six years.

“Nearly 70% of the scholars are unable to finish their PhD within five years. To address the problem, we need to identify the root causes. A questionnaire is being prepared for the students and this will provide us clarity on their problems,”

said TANSCHE vice chairman MP Vijayakumar.

During his recent meeting with vice chancellors, CM Stalin had advised them to prioritise research work.

As per the latest All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) report of 2021-22, as many as 28,867 researchers enrolled for PhDs in the state that year, 2,854 received their doctorates.

Alarming facts indeed.

Although TN leads India in PhD enrollments, the question is, why-on-earth does it take a candidate beyond five years to submit their PhD thesis?

In fact, the PhD journey is a highly demanding intellectual endeavour, that requires a lot of commitment on the part of the candidate as well as the supervisor!

Even in the United States, the situation is almost the same, say researchers.

Globally, only 1.1% of 25- to 64-year-olds have a doctoral level education, and a doctorate is generally seen as the highest academic achievement you can obtain.

However, in the US, despite producing the highest number of doctorates, figures show that only slightly more than 50% of those who take on a PhD actually graduate! (Lani 2020).

Even if you follow data all the way back to the 1950s, the average reported completion rate has been only 61%.

But this is not just a US phenomenon, and low figures are quoted for Europe (66%: European University Association 2019) and the UK (70%: Jump 2013).

Australian Government 2020 data shows that from 2010 to 2016, the national completion rate for master’s/PhD programmes was a shocking 14.9%

says Nicholas Rowe, in his book titled, The Realities of Completing a PhD: How to Plan for Success.

Jason R. Karp’s 2009 book titled, How to survive your PhD has some interesting pointers in this direction.

Jason says -

Did you know that less than 1 percent of the U.S. population has a PhD?

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education and National Science Foundation, 43,354 PhDs were awarded by U.S. schools in 2005 (their most recent data). Of these, 27,974 were awarded in science and engineering disciplines, and 15,380 were awarded in liberal arts and humanities disciplines.

Sounds like a lot of PhDs hanging around, but these figures are actually quite small when you consider there are over 300 million people living and working in the United States. These small numbers are one reason why doctors, whether they’ve earned PhDs or MDs, hold such a prestigious role in society today,

says Jason, and proceeds to put forth some wonderful ideas on how to successfully submit one’s PhD on time! -

Don’t enter a PhD programme thinking that it will be your ticket to some cushy college professor job with three to four months off every summer. Sure, it could happen, but that’s not what a PhD really means.

A PhD is about learning, about working your tail off, about striving for excellence, about the process of becoming a scholar. And, when it’s all done, for the honour of being called “Doctor” with all of its privileges and responsibilities.

A PhD is an Opportunity

there will be plenty of opportunities when you are working on your PhD, opportunities including –

• Working side-by-side with faculty and experts

• Conversing with other graduate students about issues in your discipline

Taking a wide variety of classes on various subjects

• Teaching undergraduate students about your field

• Becoming involved with research projects

• Presenting your research at academic conferences

• Sharing your research findings with scholarly communities by publishing your work

• Conveying your research findings to the general public

The key to PhD success is the ability to recognize these opportunities when they present themselves. You want to choose a school that will offer you the maximum number of opportunities, one that matches your research interests, too.

For example, maybe there’s a certain person you admire in your discipline and working with him or her would help you learn what you wouldn’t otherwise learn somewhere else. To be the best, you need to rub elbows with the best. Choose a school that will give you the best opportunities to learn and become successful.

Writing your research interests on paper will force you to think about what you want to study and help make your ideas more concrete. Try listing your research interests below, starting with some general areas and then listing specific ones.

My General Research Interests

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

My Specific Research Interests

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

If you can list more than five general or specific research interests, chances are you’re not focused enough. As a doctoral student, your research will focus on a very specific area.

For example, a general research interest could be “child development,” but child development research alone is not specific enough. Listing “factors that influence child development” is still not specific enough, unless you want to spend the rest of your life working on your PhD.

What about child development do you want to study? The effect of nutrition on physical maturation? How different types of parenting styles affect behavior? The effect of single-parent homes compared to dual-parent homes on the development of social skills?

Another general research interest could be “psychology,” and then your specific interests could include the factors influencing deviant behavior among high school students, the effects of serotonin on mood in clinically depressed patients, or the various factors that influence memory.

Of course, your dissertation will inevitably become even more specific than these issues as you learn.

Ask yourself what you are most interested in studying. More importantly, what excites you?

Patience

If someone were to ask me to pick one word to describe my PhD experience, the word would have to be “patience.” My lack of patience led to a lot of self-inflicted, unnecessary stress.

Academia moves slowly. Be prepared to wait for your advisor to read your research manuscripts that you intend to submit for publication, for your advisor to read your dissertation proposal, for your committee members to read your proposal, for your advisor to read your dissertation, etc.

Thinking Like a Doctoral Student

What does it mean to think like a doctoral student, and how exactly do you know whether or not you’re thinking like one? Is thinking like a doctoral student different than thinking like a normal person? What do doctoral students do that makes them unique?

Many people go through their daily lives without really thinking too deeply about countless issues.

If you sit in a public place and listen to the conversations that people have with each other, you’ll notice that most of those conversations are superficial in nature.

People tend to talk about smaller things rather than major thoughts or monumental feelings. We get so wrapped up in our busy lives (and spend too much time watching TV) that we spend little time actually thinking. Look at the books people read. When most people graduate from college, they usually don’t continue reading the kinds of texts they were “forced” to read while in school.

For example, how many people do you know who read Shakespeare in their free time? Or physics textbooks? Or essays on literary theory?

Instead of reading the works of great scientists, philosophers, sociologists, economists, among numerous other legends, people read romance novels, Dr. Phil’s latest weight loss book, or People magazine to find out what Britney Spears has been up to recently.

With all due respect to romance novels, Dr. Phil, and Britney Spears, reading these things doesn’t do much for your brain or your own personal development and enrichment. Except for pure, cheap entertainment value, they’re largely a waste of time.

As a doctoral student, however, you’ll spend a lot of time reading and thinking about what you read. During the time you spend on your degree, you’re expected to eventually become one of those scholars whose work you’ve been reading the last four or more years.

While undergraduate students want to know what and sometimes how, graduate students want to know why.

Basically, as an undergraduate, you learn what is already known, but as a graduate student, especially as a doctoral student, you learn to add to the body of existing knowledge in your discipline.

Think Big 

You know you’re thinking like a doctoral student if you like studying a subject so specific that you can discuss it with only five other people in the world.

The first step in thinking like a doctoral student is to think big. No one has ever achieved something great without first believing it could be achieved, however seemingly impossible at first.

A PhD is the highest academic degree conferred by a university, after all. Believe it or not, despite the greater salary, prestige, and respect given to MDs, a PhD is considered a higher academic degree by most.

Less than one percent of the population has PhDs, so if you have one, be proud; it’s a big deal.

Understand the Literature

The third step in thinking like a doctoral student is to understand the prior body of work in your specific area of study. Before you can develop your own ideas, you first need to understand what research has been done before you entered the field—believe it or not, people were doing research long before you were born—and that requires a lot of reading.

What are the major thoughts and arguments for popular topics in your discipline? Have these thoughts and arguments changed over the years? If so, why have they changed? What new information exists that didn’t exist before? Gaining knowledge of your discipline and establishing yourself as an authority are necessary to successfully move forward.

Be Critical

The fourth step in thinking like a doctoral student is to be critical. Don’t believe everything you read and don’t take everything at face value.

Reason

The fifth step in thinking like a doctoral student is to reason your way through a problem. Say you’re presented with a problem or question in your discipline. First, write down what the problem or question is!

Publications: Publish or Perish

One of my fellow grad students once told me that I should have more than just my dissertation as a publication when I graduate. Although having as many publications as you can is arguably important when applying for faculty positions (the infamous “publish or perish” philosophy).

If you’re clever and think like a doctoral student, you may be able to get two or even three publications just from your dissertation alone.

There is no question among the academic professorate that the purpose of research is publication. Your professors cannot get tenure without getting published and getting published often.

Even the ones who are already tenured still regard a publication as the Holy Grail; a long publication list can lead to promotions, higher salaries, and professional prestige.

As a scholar, you will not be judged by your breadth or depth of knowledge, your service-related activities, or, if you’re working in a scientific discipline, your dexterity in the laboratory. No, you will become known and judged by your publications; so when it comes to a publication, everyone wants a piece of the pie.

Intellectual Property

While working on your PhD, you’re going to generate tons of written work, some of which will be based on your own ideas. Therefore, it’s a good precaution to protect your intellectual property. 

There are four main categories of intellectual property: patents, trademarks, designs, and copyright. While the majority of your doctoral work will fall within the copyright category, patents, trademarks, and designs may also apply to your work if you are working in a discipline in which you will design or create things (e.g., architecture, engineering, dramatic arts, among others).

Conferences

Regardless of your discipline, one of the things you’ll do as a PhD student is submit your research, most often in the form of an abstract (or synopsis) to present your findings at a conference. 

Presenting your research at a conference is a wonderful opportunity to share your research with others in your discipline, not to mention a great chance to develop yourself professionally. When you attend conferences, make sure you bring business cards and hand them out judiciously.

Well, I’ve just given a few vignettes excerpted from the legends on how to complete your PhD within the stipulated timeframe, and make sure you finish it well within the five-year plan! 😊

By creating a dedicated workspace, mapping your timeline, and learning to say no to non-essential commitments that could take away valuable time from your thesis work, you can plan on submitting your thesis well ahead of the deadline.

Finishing your PhD on time is indeed a significant achievement. By planning effectively, staying focused, and taking care of yourself, you can navigate the final stages and submit your thesis with confidence.

Best wishes! 😊

Works Cited

Rowe, Nicholas. The Realities of Completing a PhD: How to Plan for Success. NY: Routledge, 2021.

Karp, Jason. How to survive your PhD: The Insider’s Guide to Avoiding Mistakes, Choosing the Right Program, Working with Professors, and Just how a Person actually Writes a 200-page paper. Illinois: Source Books, 2009.

Lee, Anne and Rob Bongaardt. The Future Of Doctoral Research: Challenges and Opportunities. NY: Routledge, 2021.

PS: You may want to read our past post on How to Identify Research Gaps? HERE on our blog.

Yet another article, on ‘Why Research’ may be quite useful in motivating you towards the right kind of research, HERE on our blog.