uk phd completion rates

Teaching, learning and quality

Higher education in facts and figures: 2021

Last updated on Wednesday 14 Jun 2023 at 2:52pm

Highlights

Record proportions of the most disadvantaged students began a full-time undergraduate course in the UK in 2020, across all four nations of the UK.

In 2020, median graduate salaries were £10,000 higher in England than non-graduate salaries.

In 2019−20, 15.8% of undergraduate students and 40.5% of postgraduate students at UUK member institutions were from outside the UK.

In 2019−20, nearly half of total expenditure was spent directly on teaching and research activities.

What data have we used?

Most data we’ve used refers to just our member institutions. This covers 140 universities and higher education providers in the UK.

The data we have used for each chart is clearly labelled and mostly comes from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) records, which covers a wider set of providers. The below charts show the proportion of student, staff and finance data within each of the public HESA records that is represented by Universities UK members.

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In 2019−20, there were 2,413,155 students at UUK member institutions; an increase of 3.1% compared to 2018−19. Of these students:

79.6% studied full time
74.5% were undergraduates
5.8% were from EU countries
16.3% were from other non-EU countries
56.9% were females
59.9% were mature students (aged 21 and over)

Students by mode of study and country of institution, 2019–20

The number of students studying full time has increased by 3.1% since 2018–19. Part-time numbers have decreased slightly (down 0.2% on 2018–19). In 2019−20, part-time students accounted for 36.9% of postgraduate students and 14.7% of undergraduate students.

Students by level and mode of study, 2019–20

In 2019–20, four fifths of students were studying full-time. 69.2% of students were studying for a first degree either full or part time, and a quarter (25.5%) were postgraduates. 'Other undergraduates' (which includes those studying for foundation degrees, diplomas in higher education, or Higher National Diplomas among others) were the most likely to be studying part time, followed by postgraduate taught students.

Applicants, acceptances and UK 18-year-old entry rates, 2011 to 2020

For the 2020 cycle, the total number of people applying for UK full-time undergraduate higher education courses increased by 3.2% on 2019, while total acceptances increased by 5.4%. The UK 18-year-old entry rate was also at record levels, with 37.0% of this group starting a full-time undergraduate course.

Entry rates of the most disadvantaged 18-year-olds by domicile, 2011 to 2021

Record proportions of the most disadvantaged students began a full-time undergraduate course in the UK in 2020 across all four nations of the UK. The charts below show the proportion of 18-year-olds from the areas considered to be in the top fifth most disadvantaged areas who began a course.

Students by age and ethnicity, 2019–20

In 2019−20, mature students (aged 21 and over) accounted for 57.5% of the student population at UUK member institutions. This includes 44.3% of students studying for their first undergraduate degree. Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students accounted for 25.1% of students living permanently in the UK.

Students by sex, subject area and level of study, 2019–20

In 2019−20, undergraduate student numbers were highest in the subjects of business, subjects allied to medicine and social sciences. Postgraduate numbers were highest for business, subjects allied to medicine and education. Psychology had the highest proportion of female students at 81.1% with the lowest found in computing, and engineering and technology at 19.8% each.

Students by domicile and level of study, 2019–20

In 2019−20, 5.5% of undergraduates were from EU countries, while 10.3% were from outside the EU. Percentages for postgraduates were 6.8% and 33.7% respectively.

In 2019-20, UUK members awarded 761,215 qualifications.

61% were undergraduate qualifications and 39% were postgraduate
80% of graduates were in employment or unpaid work 15 months after graduation
19% of graduates were in further study
Median salaries for graduates were £9,500 higher than non-graduates
5.3% of non-graduates were unemployed compared to 3.7% of graduates

Qualifications awarded by level and mode of study, 2019–20

In 2019−20, more than half (53.6%) of qualifications awarded by UUK member institutions were first degrees. 85.8% of qualifications awarded were for full-time study.

Graduate outcomes by activity, 2018–19

In 2019−20, 80% of graduates who responded to HESA's Graduate Outcomes survey were in employment or unpaid work. 19% of survey respondents were in further study, including those who were also in employment.

Unemployment rates and median salaries in England, 2020

In 2020, median salaries for England-domiciled graduates were £9,500 higher than median non-graduate salaries. The graduate unemployment rate was 3.7%, compared to 5.3% for non-graduates, while the high-skill employment rate was 53.9 percentage points higher for postgraduates than non-graduates, and 41.5 percentage points higher for graduates than non-graduates.

In 2019−20, there were 409,055 staff at UUK member institutions, of these:

53.0% were academic staff
12.7% were from EU countries
9.5% were from non-EU countries
54.2% were female
30.7% were aged under 35 years old
14.4% were Black, Asian and minority ethnic staff.

Staff by nationality and employment function, 2019–20

In 2019−20, over a fifth (22.2%) of staff at UUK member institutions had a non-UK nationality. Half (48.9%) of academic staff with a 'research only' function had a non-UK nationality.

Academic staff by nationality and cost centre, 2019−20

In 2019−20, non-UK staff accounted for nearly half (47.2%) of academic staff in engineering and technology compared to 13.3% in education.

Academic staff by sex, mode of employment and age, 2019–20

In 2019−20, 46.6% of academic staff at UUK member institutions were female, while 34.0% of staff were working part-time. 29.0% were 35 or under.

Professors by sex and ethnicity, 2015–16 to 2019–20

Although the number of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME), professors has increased by nearly a third (32.2%) since 2015−16, they only accounted for 10.0% of professors in 2019−20. Over half (58.6%) were white males.

In 2019–20, the total reported income of UUK member institutions was £39.8 billion. Just over half of this income (£20.7 billion) was related to teaching, 15% was related to research (£6.1 billion), and 11% was related to knowledge exchange activity (£4.5 billion).

In 2019–20, our members' total expenditure was £36.4 billion. Nearly half (£17.5 billion) was spent on direct teaching and research activity, and over a tenth (£3.8 billion) was spent on libraries, IT and museums.

Income and size of higher education institutions, 2018–19 to 2019–20

In 2019−20, three quarters of UUK members had an annual income of £100 million or more, with a similar proportion having at least 10,000 students.

Income by source, 2019–20

In 2019−20, the total reported income of UK higher education institutions was £39.8 billion. Around half (£20.7 billion) of this income was sourced through tuition fees.

Teaching, research and knowledge exchange income by source, 2019–20

In 2019−20 around a third (32.3%) of teaching income was from international students from outside the EU. A third of research income came from research councils (33.6%), and nearly a quarter (23.3%) came from outside of the UK. In 2019−20, over a third of knowledge exchange income came from collaborative research involving public funding. This includes collaboration with at least one non-academic partner, which can include businesses, the third sector, and the public. The estimated current turnover of spin-off or start-up firms based on providers' intellectual property, or started by staff, students or graduates increased significantly in 2019−20. Businesses associated with UUK members had an estimated turnover of £7.9 billion with the majority coming from staff start-ups (£2.8 billion) and student start-ups (£2.6bn).

International Facts and Figures 2021

International Facts and Figures is our annual snapshot of the international dimensions of UK higher education.

Operating expenditure of UK higher education institutions, 2019–20

In 2019–20, the total reported operating expenditure of UUK member institutions was £36 billion. Nearly half of this was spent directly on teaching and research activities. Other areas of spending include those that support teaching and learning, such as libraries and IT, maintaining campuses, providing financial support to students and student facilities.

Academic employment function

A HESA field relating to staff with academic contracts. Categories are divided according to whether the contract is ‘teaching only’, ‘research only’ (no more than six hours of teaching per week), ‘teaching and research’, and neither teaching nor research. For more information visit HESA's website .

Cost centre

Cost centre is a financial concept which groups staff members to categories of spending. They enable analysis between the student, staff and finance streams. The cost centre groups are separate to the JACS/HESA codes due to the groupings and are therefore non-comparable. The reason they can't be compared and the breadth of the elements in this field is to replicate the way in which resources (including staff) can be split over multiple courses and the differences in the way individual higher education providers allocate them. For more information visit HESA's website .

A student’s permanent country of residence. This differs from nationality (see below).

The number of university entrants divided by the estimated base population.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) is the designated data body for English higher education.

High-skill employment

Occupations at this level are generally termed ‘professional’ or ‘managerial’ positions and are found in corporate enterprises or governments. Occupations include senior government officials, financial managers, scientists, engineers, medical doctors, teachers and accountants.

Knowledge exchange activities

Activities that bring together academic staff, users of research and wider groups and communities to exchange ideas, evidence and expertise. Information on knowledge exchange activities is collected by HESA through their Higher Education Business and Community Interaction (HEBCI) survey. For more information visit HESA's website .

Level of study

Whether a student studies at undergraduate or postgraduate level. With these groupings, there are other levels such as ‘first degree’, ‘other undergraduate’, ‘postgraduate (research)’ and ‘postgraduate (taught)’. For more information visit HESA's website .

Mode of study

Whether a student studies full or part time.

Nationality

A HESA field that records the legal nationality of staff. For more information visit HESA's website .

Participation of Local Areas (POLAR) is a widening participation measure which classifies local areas or ‘wards’ into five groups, based on the proportion of 18-year-olds who enter higher education aged 18 or 19 years old. These groups range from quintile 1 areas, with the lowest young participation (most disadvantaged), up to quintile 5 areas with the highest rates (most advantaged).

Professorial staff

HESA codes each staff contract. Professor level is defined as ‘senior academic appointments which may carry the title of professor, but which do not have departmental line management responsibilities’. Other senior contracts include leadership and management responsibilities. These contracts may also be held by people who hold the title of professor. It is likely that the methodology undercounts the number of professors because many will fall into more senior levels, eg heads of department.

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation for 2016 is a widening participation measure that identifies small areas of multiple deprivation across Scotland and classifies them into five groups. These groups range from quintile 1 – areas identified as the most disadvantaged, to quintile 5 – areas identified as the most advantaged.

HESA Standard Rounding Methodology

We have applied HESA’s Standard Rounding Methodology to all analysis of HESA data:

Counts of people are rounded to the nearest multiple of five
Percentages are not published if they are fractions of a small group of people (fewer than 22.5)
We have applied the methodology after making calculations, which sometimes means numbers in tables may not sum up to indicated totals

For more information, visit HESA's website .

HESA sources in this report are copyright Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited.

Neither the Higher Education Statistics Agency Limited nor HESA Services Limited can accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived by third parties from data or other information obtained from Heidi Plus.

Higher education in numbers

Key facts and figures about UK higher education.

PhD completion: an evidence-based guide for students, supervisors and universities

Senior Lecturer in Management, Fellow of the APS College of Organisational Psychologists, Swinburne University of Technology

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Timothy Colin Bednall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Swinburne University of Technology provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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Many students enrol in a Master or PhD postgraduate research degree, but few complete them. From 2010-2016 , 437,030 domestic and international students enrolled in postgraduate research programs in Australian public universities. Only 65,101 completed within the same six year period.

This discrepancy does not necessarily mean postgraduate research students “failed” their degree. Common reasons not completing a degree include changes of career goals, work-family conflicts, poor health or financial strain. Alternatively, some students remain enrolled in their degree for long periods without making significant progress.

Even so, the discrepancy is large enough for universities to be concerned. Nobody wants a student to suffer through years of hard work and frustration without achieving their goal.

What does research say about completion rates?

Research has identified several factors that make students more likely to persist with their degrees. These factors are related to the students themselves, their supervisor, and the university environment.

Psychological studies of postgraduate students find the more successful ones tend to perceive themselves as competent and be intrinsically motivated . These are students who enjoy their topic area, perceive their postgraduate studies as a valuable learning experience, and who strongly identify with being a career researcher. Students who are motivated by external factors (such as pursuing a prestigious academic role) are more likely to say they want to quit.

Scholarship holders are more likely to complete their degrees. This is likely because they are academically stronger than non-scholarship holders and are less vulnerable to financial strain. Students can support themselves financially through teaching, research assistant roles or other work, but this must be balanced carefully. Part-time students are less likely to complete their degrees.

Students’ field of study also affects completion rates. A higher proportion of students in sciences tend to complete their degrees than those in arts and humanities. This is likely because students working in the sciences are more often involved in laboratory-based work in teams, where there is greater social support and knowledge exchange. People studying humanities more often work on their research alone.

A positive student-supervisor working relationship is critical. A good supervisor should be an expert in the student’s subject of choice and a supportive mentor. They should help the student navigate through the frustrations and uncertainties of writing a thesis, and help students adjust to the world of academia.

Students are also more likely to finish their research degrees if they have strong connections with their peers . Such connections help students develop their professional identity as researchers, as well as providing opportunities for social support and informal learning .

The quality of associated coursework is also important. Ideally, postgraduate programs should provide students with a sound foundation of research skills and content knowledge, and facilitate ongoing communication with their faculty.

Involvement in formal and informal professional activities is also important. Students who complete tend to participate in departmental events, such as research seminars and professional development workshops. They also tend to participate in academic conferences. These events allow students to learn and expand their networks.

What students and their supervisors should do

First, given the importance of the student-supervisor relationship, universities can provide advice to students about locating and approaching a suitable supervisor. Specifically, students should consider the research area they wish to work in and locate a supervisor with relevant expertise. They should approach supervisors with an openness to negotiating a research topic.

Read more: Ten types of PhD supervisor relationships – which is yours?

Both students and supervisors should be upfront about their expectations about how the supervision will work. An excellent starting point for discussion is the Expectations in Supervision questionnaire. Students and supervisors sometimes have mismatched expectations about how often they should meet, the amount of feedback the supervisor should provide on drafts, and how much counselling and emotional support the supervisor should provide.

Supervisors have an important role in providing a realistic preview of academic life. One useful exercise is to review an academic competency model, such as the Vitae Researcher Development Framework , to discuss which skills academics need. In addition to knowledge of their topic area and research methods, academics increasingly need to be good at managing complex projects, working in multidisciplinary teams, and engaging with industry and media.

This discussion should enable supervisors and students to plan how students will develop their capabilities. Alternatively, it could prompt some students to opt out of a research degree if they think an academic role is not compatible with their goals.

What universities should do

As well as providing research training, universities can also increase the capabilities of students by helping them understand self-handicapping patterns. These include busyness, procrastination and disorganisation.

Students can be guided to replace these with more helpful actions such as scheduling dedicated writing time, reframing difficult tasks as learning opportunities, and developing a work routine. This could be done as part of a workshop or supervisory relationship.

Universities should also encourage greater connectedness between research students to build social support. This could be accomplished through team-based activities or face-to-face events.

For instance, some universities offer Three Minute Thesis , a research communication competition where students present their work in under 180 seconds.

Some universities organise Shut Up and Write sessions, which turns writing into a social experience and limits distractions. These activities can be complemented by encouraging students to become involved in supportive online communities and blogging .

Read more: The rise of writing events gives PhD students the support often lacking in universities

Finally, universities should be dedicated to helping academics develop as supervisors through ongoing training and coaching. Departments could consider tracking the progression of students and ensuring supervisors have the time and skills to take on new students.

Completing a dissertation can be richly rewarding, but it’s the endpoint of a process that’s often long, frustrating and uncertain. Helping students achieve their research aspirations makes academic life a better experience for all involved.

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https://www.vitae.ac.uk/doing-research/are-you-thinking-of-doing-a-phd/what-is-it-like-doing-doctoral-research-in-the-uk/the-uk-doctoral-research-experience

This page has been reproduced from the Vitae website (www.vitae.ac.uk). Vitae is dedicated to realising the potential of researchers through transforming their professional and career development.

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The UK doctoral research experience

Although the UK has about 4% of the world’s researchers, they are responsible for nearly 12% of citations and 16% of the most highly cited research (International Comparative Performance of the UK Research Base report, 2013) . So the UK punches above its weight in terms of research quality and output. But what makes the UK research experience unique?

The UK has a long and rich history in education and of producing rigorous research. The pedagogy and educational culture in UK higher education encourages free and independent thinking, challenging of existing theories and testing new ones. There is also some attraction in the relatively shorter length of UK doctoral programmes than in many other countries, particularly when compared to US doctoral degrees.

The completion rate is also high in the UK, where institutions have limited registration periods (unlike in the US where there is no limit on registration time for a PhD). Around 75% of full-time doctorates are submitted within seven years in the UK, which is rising, and about 80% of those funded by the UK Research Councils submit within four years. On the other hand, it is exceptional in the US to complete in four years or less (11% of full-time complete in four years, and over one in four formally give up within this time).

These positive aspects result in UK universities being able to attract large numbers of doctoral researchers from around the world, to add to their already highly international taught masters student cohorts. This means that the UK’s postgraduate population is possibly uniquely cosmopolitan, which can have real benefits in developing a global outlook.

The UK’s world-class research base has been achieved through continued development of the people within it. There is a strong dedication from government, universities and research institutes to skills development for the UK research workforce with most universities provide a programme of development for researchers that is informed by the Vitae Researcher Development Framework . The UK’s support for researchers' professional development is world-leading.

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PhD Failure Rate – A Study of 26,076 PhD Candidates
Doing a PhD

The PhD failure rate in the UK is 19.5%, with 16.2% of students leaving their PhD programme early, and 3.3% of students failing their viva. 80.5% of all students who enrol onto a PhD programme successfully complete it and are awarded a doctorate.

Introduction

One of the biggest concerns for doctoral students is the ongoing fear of failing their PhD.

After all those years of research, the long days in the lab and the endless nights in the library, it’s no surprise to find many agonising over the possibility of it all being for nothing. While this fear will always exist, it would help you to know how likely failure is, and what you can do to increase your chances of success.

Read on to learn how PhDs can be failed, what the true failure rates are based on an analysis of 26,067 PhD candidates from 14 UK universities, and what your options are if you’re unsuccessful in obtaining your PhD.

Ways You Can Fail A PhD

There are essentially two ways in which you can fail a PhD; non-completion or failing your viva (also known as your thesis defence ).

Non-completion

Non-completion is when a student leaves their PhD programme before having sat their viva examination. Since vivas take place at the end of the PhD journey, typically between the 3rd and 4th year for most full-time programmes, most failed PhDs fall within the ‘non-completion’ category because of the long duration it covers.

There are many reasons why a student may decide to leave a programme early, though these can usually be grouped into two categories:

Motives – The individual may no longer believe undertaking a PhD is for them. This might be because it isn’t what they had imagined, or they’ve decided on an alternative path.
Extenuating circumstances – The student may face unforeseen problems beyond their control, such as poor health, bereavement or family difficulties, preventing them from completing their research.

In both cases, a good supervisor will always try their best to help the student continue with their studies. In the former case, this may mean considering alternative research questions or, in the latter case, encouraging you to seek academic support from the university through one of their student care policies.

Besides the student deciding to end their programme early, the university can also make this decision. On these occasions, the student’s supervisor may not believe they’ve made enough progress for the time they’ve been on the project. If the problem can’t be corrected, the supervisor may ask the university to remove the student from the programme.

Failing The Viva

Assuming you make it to the end of your programme, there are still two ways you can be unsuccessful.

The first is an unsatisfactory thesis. For whatever reason, your thesis may be deemed not good enough, lacking originality, reliable data, conclusive findings, or be of poor overall quality. In such cases, your examiners may request an extensive rework of your thesis before agreeing to perform your viva examination. Although this will rarely be the case, it is possible that you may exceed the permissible length of programme registration and if you don’t have valid grounds for an extension, you may not have enough time to be able to sit your viva.

The more common scenario, while still being uncommon itself, is that you sit and fail your viva examination. The examiners may decide that your research project is severely flawed, to the point where it can’t possibly be remedied even with major revisions. This could happen for reasons such as basing your study on an incorrect fundamental assumption; this should not happen however if there is a proper supervisory support system in place.

PhD Failure Rate – UK & EU Statistics

According to 2010-11 data published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (now replaced by UK Research and Innovation ), 72.9% of students enrolled in a PhD programme in the UK or EU complete their degree within seven years. Following this, 80.5% of PhD students complete their degree within 25 years.

This means that four out of every five students who register onto a PhD programme successfully complete their doctorate.

While a failure rate of one in five students may seem a little high, most of these are those who exit their programme early as opposed to those who fail at the viva stage.

Failing Doesn’t Happen Often

Although a PhD is an independent project, you will be appointed a supervisor to support you. Each university will have its own system for how your supervisor is to support you , but regardless of this, they will all require regular communication between the two of you. This could be in the form of annual reviews, quarterly interim reviews or regular meetings. The majority of students also have a secondary academic supervisor (and in some cases a thesis committee of supervisors); the role of these can vary from having a hands-on role in regular supervision, to being another useful person to bounce ideas off of.

These frequent check-ins are designed to help you stay on track with your project. For example, if any issues are identified, you and your supervisor can discuss how to rectify them in order to refocus your research. This reduces the likelihood of a problem going undetected for several years, only for it to be unearthed after it’s too late to address.

In addition, the thesis you submit to your examiners will likely be your third or fourth iteration, with your supervisor having critiqued each earlier version. As a result, your thesis will typically only be submitted to the examiners after your supervisor approves it; many UK universities require a formal, signed document to be submitted by the primary academic supervisor at the same time as the student submits the thesis, confirming that he or she has approved the submission.

Failed Viva – Outcomes of 26,076 Students

Despite what you may have heard, the failing PhD rate amongst students who sit their viva is low.

This, combined with ongoing guidance from your supervisor, is because vivas don’t have a strict pass/fail outcome. You can find a detailed breakdown of all viva outcomes in our viva guide, but to summarise – the most common outcome will be for you to revise your thesis in accordance with the comments from your examiners and resubmit it.

This means that as long as the review of your thesis and your viva examination uncovers no significant issues, you’re almost certain to be awarded a provisional pass on the basis you make the necessary corrections to your thesis.

To give you an indication of the viva failure rate, we’ve analysed the outcomes of 26,076 PhD candidates from 14 UK universities who sat a viva between 2006 and 2017.

The analysis shows that of the 26,076 students who sat their viva, 25,063 succeeded; this is just over 96% of the total students as shown in the chart below.

Students Who Passed

The analysis shows that of the 96% of students who passed, approximately 5% required no amendments, 79% required minor amendments and the remaining 16% required major revisions. This supports our earlier discussion on how the most common outcome of a viva is a ‘pass with minor amendments’.

Students Who Failed

Of the 4% of unsuccessful students, approximately 97% were awarded an MPhil (Master of Philosophy), and 3% weren’t awarded a degree.

Note : It should be noted that while the data provides the student’s overall outcome, i.e. whether they passed or failed, they didn’t all provide the students specific outcome, i.e. whether they had to make amendments, or with a failure, whether they were awarded an MPhil. Therefore, while the breakdowns represent the current known data, the exact breakdown may differ.

Summary of Findings

By using our data in combination with the earlier statistic provided by HEFCE, we can gain an overall picture of the PhD journey as summarised in the image below.

DiscoverPhDs_Breakdown of all possible outcomes for PhD candidates based on analysis of 26,076 candidates at 14 universities between 2006 and 2017

To summarise, based on the analysis of 26,076 PhD candidates at 14 universities between 2006 and 2017, the PhD pass rate in the UK is 80.5%. Of the 19.5% of students who fail, 3.3% is attributed to students failing their viva and the remaining 16.2% is attributed to students leaving their programme early.

The above statistics indicate that while 1 in every 5 students fail their PhD, the failure rate for the viva process itself is low. Specifically, only 4% of all students who sit their viva fail; in other words, 96% of the students pass it.

What Are Your Options After an Unsuccessful PhD?

Appeal your outcome.

If you believe you had a valid case, you can try to appeal against your outcome . The appeal process will be different for each university, so ensure you consult the guidelines published by your university before taking any action.

While making an appeal may be an option, it should only be considered if you genuinely believe you have a legitimate case. Most examiners have a lot of experience in assessing PhD candidates and follow strict guidelines when making their decisions. Therefore, your claim for appeal will need to be strong if it is to stand up in front of committee members in the adjudication process.

Downgrade to MPhil

If you are unsuccessful in being awarded a PhD, an MPhil may be awarded instead. For this to happen, your work would need to be considered worthy of an MPhil, as although it is a Master’s degree, it is still an advanced postgraduate research degree.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of stigma around MPhil degrees, with many worrying that it will be seen as a sign of a failed PhD. While not as advanced as a PhD, an MPhil is still an advanced research degree, and being awarded one shows that you’ve successfully carried out an independent research project which is an undertaking to be admired.

Finding a PhD has never been this easy – search for a PhD by keyword, location or academic area of interest.

Additional Resources

Hopefully now knowing the overall picture your mind will feel slightly more at ease. Regardless, there are several good practices you can adopt to ensure you’re always in the best possible position. The key of these includes developing a good working relationship with your supervisor, working to a project schedule, having your thesis checked by several other academics aside from your supervisor, and thoroughly preparing for your viva examination.

We’ve developed a number of resources which should help you in the above:

What to Expect from Your Supervisor – Find out what to look for in a Supervisor, how they will typically support you, and how often you should meet with them.
How to Write a Research Proposal – Find an outline of how you can go about putting a project plan together.
What is a PhD Viva? – Learn exactly what a viva is, their purpose and what you can expect on the day. We’ve also provided a full breakdown of all the possible outcomes of a viva and tips to help you prepare for your own.

Data for Statistics

Cardiff University – 2006/07 to 2016/17
Imperial College London – 2006/07 to 2016/17
London School of Economics (LSE) – 2006/07 to 2015/16
Queen Mary University of London – 2009/10 to 2015/16
University College London (UCL) – 2006/07 to 2016/17
University of Aberdeen – 2006/07 to 2016/17
University of Birmingham – 2006/07 to 2015/16
University of Bristol – 2006/07 to 2016/17
University of Edinburgh – 2006/07 to 2016/17
University of Nottingham – 2006/07 to 2015/16
University of Oxford – 2007/08 to 2016/17
University of York – 2009/10 to 2016/17
University of Manchester – 2008/09 to 2017/18
University of Sheffield – 2006/07 to 2016/17

Note : The data used for this analysis was obtained from the above universities under the Freedom of Information Act. As per the Act, the information was provided in such a way that no specific individual can be identified from the data.

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Statistics and questionnaires

Research organisations are required to provide STFC with annual data regarding the submission of doctoral theses by, and completion rates of, research students whose awards have ended. Where a thesis has not been submitted, the student must submit a final report on the objectives of the research undertaken, and the extent to which these have been attained. In such cases the supervisor is also required to complete an accompanying final report on the student’s progress.

Additionally, research organisations are required to provide data regarding the first employment of STFC supported students. The data will be collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on an annual basis on behalf of STFC.

Reporting on Researchfish

STFC is regularly asked by the government to demonstrate the impact of their funding, including the impact of supporting studentships. To ensure that we can continue to make a good case for student support to the government, we collect ‘outcomes’ information from studentship funding (such as publications and collaborations) via Researchfish , the research councils’ harmonised research outcomes collection system.

An STFC -funded student is responsible for providing information about the outcomes from their studentship. They will be invited to enter and submit data to Researchfish every year until three years after their studentship has finished (since many outcomes occur towards or past the end of the studentship). They should make sure their contact details are kept up to date for this purpose.

While no sanctions are currently intended for students who do not provide research outcomes information, the research councils will be monitoring overall response rates and institutional response rates may be a factor in considering future training grant support.

Submission of a PhD thesis

The writing up of the results of a research studentship in a PhD thesis is considered an effective measure of whether the student’s training has been satisfactorily completed.

STFC considers it normal practice for a student to complete a PhD, including the presentation of a thesis, within the period of the studentship award.

Student Survey

The STFC Education, Training and Careers Committee is keen to gain feedback from students on their experience of the training provided by universities. As a result, STFC PhD students are invited to complete an annual online survey which seeks their views on their experience and skills development during their PhD.

The next survey will be available for completion by all STFC PhD students in February 2024.

You can read the analysis of responses to the questionnaires from 2019 to 2023 .

You can read about older results from surveys dating back to 2002 on our page in the UK Government Web Archive .

Career path tracking

STFC is keen to track the careers of its former PhD students and from time to time undertakes detailed studies of the career paths followed by students several years after their PhDs have been completed. Such studies inform policy decisions affecting STFC’s studentships and fellowships programmes.

STFC maintains a database of its former PhD students for the purpose of contacting them to seek their assistance with future career path studies.

Research organisations are encouraged to register their student data with the Information Commissioner in a way that will allow it to be released for career path tracking exercises, as this will provide additional help to STFC in tracing former PhD students.

Last updated: 27 July 2023

This is the website for UKRI: our seven research councils, Research England and Innovate UK. Let us know if you have feedback or would like to help improve our online products and services .

Mock TEF: the best UK universities for completion rates

See the top uk universities for student completion rates, according to predictions for the teaching excellence framework.

Carly Minsky

Once you know which course you want to study, you might be wondering how well the course delivers on what you hope to get out of it.

The proportion of students who complete their desired degree qualification goes some way to showing how well the courses are meeting student expectations and supporting students through their degree.

Step into your future: attend our events

As part of Times Higher Education ’s predictions for the teaching excellent framework ( TEF ) – the UK government’s proposed method of evaluating teaching quality at universities – you can compare 120 institutions in the UK by how well they perform on completion rates (based on data drawn from Higher Education Statistics Agency performance indicators).

More mock TEF predictions

University of Chichester jointly achieve the top spot in the degree completion table, based on scores that are benchmarked by subjects studied, entry requirements and students’ age. Although both institutions would rank lower on absolute performance, they overachieve when contextual factors that affect completion rates are taken into account. You can find the full mock TEF results and methodology here .

Russell Group universities such as University of Oxford have very high completion rates in general, but nonetheless rank lower when the scores are squared against expected completion rates.

In line with the government’s plans, the ranking is sorted by benchmarked scores to avoid recognising only those universities that are good at selecting the type of students who would achieve their desired qualifications in any case.

Using this method, University of Birmingham , despite the fact that the more prestigious institutions have higher projected completion rates.

Mock TEF: UK universities ranked by completion rate

Sorted by benchmarked scores

International edition
Australia edition
Europe edition

Study reveals low PhD completion rates

Nearly three out of 10 full-time PhD students have still not completed their doctorates seven years after starting their studies, research revealed today.

And figures for part-time students are much worse, with only one third submitting a thesis, making a part-time doctorate a "high-risk venture", according to the Higher Education Funding Council (Hefce).

Completion rates vary considerably between universities, noted the study, although the research did not identify the best (or worst) places to study.

The research also identified big differences between subjects - students doing natural sciences and maths had much better completion rates than humanities and social sciences.

Agriculture came top of the doctorates league, with 76% of students completing the course, compared to an overall average of 62%.

The study, which traced the progress of more than 19,000 students between 1995-96 and 2002-03, found that students were more likely to gain a doctorate if they had financial backing, particularly from research councils, charities or the British Academy.

Overseas students did better than average and so did younger students, the study found. So, unsurprisingly, did students who gained a first in their undergraduate degrees. Men and women had similar success rates, in contrast to school and first degree performance where males tend to lag behind.

The study grouped subjects into three areas - natural sciences, humanities and social sciences and vocational subjects including computing, engineering and business. It pointed out that the natural sciences, including agriculture, have well-established research fields with largely agreed methodologies.

"In these subjects, identifying topics and questions for PhD students is usually relatively straightforward. Fields of research in social sciences and humanities are not always as well established as in the natural sciences, and methodologies may still be disputed," the study said.

"Sometimes it may be difficult to identify topics which can yield substantial results through a PhD research programme. Completion rates for students on programmes in these subjects are not universally low, but when we take account of other factors we see that the 'subject effect' is negative compared to the natural sciences and related subjects," it added.

In vocational subjects, where the completion rates varied widely, the report mentioned alternative careers to research within the same field, for which a student with a partly completed PhD could be well-placed to enter. Computing, for instance, has a 50% completion rate for full-timers and only 23% for part-time students.

"Should these figures be cause for congratulation or concern?" pondered Hefce. "In part this depends on whether an uncompleted PhD programme is judged to be of value. This will vary from individual to individual. What is clear is that starting a part-time PhD is a high-risk venture: we can estimate that only one in three students is likely to submit a thesis within six years."

The report said that making meaningful international comparisons from currently available sources was not possible, and that it was difficult to know whether UK universities were doing better or worse than those in other countries.

Higher education
Postgraduates

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UCL English

MPhil/PhD in English Literature and Language

One of the highest-ranking English Departments in the UK, UCL provides fantastic opportunities for PhD students to study in the heart of literary London, with access to vast quantities of resources and research materials, and a high number of academic staff working on a diverse range of specialist topics.

Note that you should identify a prospective supervisor yourself (see our list of staff ) and contact them before you make your formal application, to check that they are in a position to support the project that you are proposing.

Dr Julia Jordan ( [email protected] ) is the English Department's Graduate Tutor. Application enquiries can also be directed to Natasha Clark ( [email protected] ), Senior Education Administrator.

With access to a vast collection of archival materials, and world-leading supervision in a wide range of literary periods and topics, UCL is one of the best universities in which to study for an English PhD.

There are normally about 45 students undertaking research degrees in the department. Graduate students initially register for the MPhil degree, but usually in the second year, when a realistic and workable thesis has been confirmed, and work-in-progress and a future plan have been discussed, students are upgraded from MPhil to PhD status.

Students accepted for admission are given a principal supervisor with whom the student will work closely during the course of the degree. A secondary supervisor is also appointed to provide additional advice. Great importance is attached to matching student and supervisor, and ensuring that students' progress is well monitored. Students meet either one or other supervisor approximately ten times during the academic year. The Department is eager to ensure PhD completion rates within four years, and therefore reviews each student's progress by means of an interview at the end of each year. When completed and submitted, the thesis is defended in an oral examination.

Students are expected to complete the PhD within three or four years of registration, and the minimum period of registration is two years. Part-time students complete the degree within five to seven years of registration.

The Department offers MPhil/PhD supervision in a wide range of topics, including English and English-related language and literature from Old English to the present day. Information on the research interests of staff can be found here (click on the name of each member of staff to access their personal profile).

Research Resources

UCL Library has outstanding physical and digital collections for literary research, as well as specialist materials in its excellent Special Collections department. Among these are the George Orwell Archive; Little Magazines; the Routledge and Kegan Paul Archives (publishing history); the Brougham Papers and papers of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (19th-century liberalism); and the Chadwick Papers (19th-century sanitary reform). UCL Library also has superb holdings in London history. For language topics the Department is especially well placed, as it houses the world-renowned Survey of English Usage.

Other London archives with manuscript and rare book resources relevant to the Department’s research interests include (but are by no means limited to):

British Library
University of London Library (Senate House Library)
Guildhall Library
London Library
Library of the London School of Economics
Dr Williams’s Library
Bishopsgate Institute Library
Library of the Victoria and Albert Museum
Archives of the Royal Society
The Women’s Library at London School of Economics

Research is expected to take students into numerous libraries and archives, not only within London, but also throughout Britain, and often internationally.

Research Environment

The Department places great emphasis on opportunities for students to discuss their work and participate in the exchange of knowledge and ideas. There is a programme of regular departmental Research Seminars at which PhD students are invited to present their work; speakers may also include members of the department’s academic staff and invited guests. The department also hosts a seminar series on Race, Power, and Poetics , and a wide range of informal discussion groups and reading groups.

The Institute of Advanced Studies (part of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities) hosts an exciting programme of research events and activities. UCL students also have access to the abundance of seminars and conferences available across London, including those of the Institute of English Studies at the University of London.

The English Department’s graduate students organise a one-day conference each year; many of the papers delivered at the conference are published in Moveable Type , the Department's graduate-led online journal. There is a Graduate Common Room in the English Department. Many PhD students spend much time working at the British Library, to which UCL has unrivalled proximity, which also functions as a hub for academic networking.

Details of current PhD students and their projects can be found here .

Your research proposal does not need to be long (typically somewhere between 800-1000 words). The most important things we are looking for you to explain are:

1) What primary literature/texts will you be studying?

2) What is your idea/approach to this literature?

3) How does your project fit in to the secondary literature/criticism on this topic?

4) Practical details, like which archives you will use, roughly how long you will spend on each chapter, what each chapter may be about, etc

5) That you have considered how the chosen project will work within a 100,000 word limit (so it's clearly not something so small that it's 20,000 words maximum, nor have you chosen something so big that you couldn't possibly do it justice in 500,000).

Proposals and intentions often change a little/quite a lot once they are on the course, but the important thing is just to demonstrate that you have thought about the practicalities and you have a clear, viable research topic that we could supervise in the Department, and which you could complete within three years.

Applicants should usually expect to begin their studies in September at the start of an academic year (although in some cases, a January start can be discussed). UCL’s application process usually opens in mid-October, and you are encouraged to apply as early as possible, as there are a number of stages to the process.

It is essential to understand that your application for a place must be fully processed, and an offer of a place at UCL secured, before you can apply to any of the various funding schemes (see under ‘Applying for Funding’ below). You should allow time for this, and for us to advise you on your funding application(s). For this reason your full, formal application for a place via UCL’s online system must be submitted by Friday 5 January 2024 at the latest . This is an internal departmental deadline and supersedes any dates given on external websites.

We strongly recommend that all candidates should apply for funding; but those candidates who intend to self-fund may apply for entry in September 2024 at any time up to 31 March 2024.

The steps for applying for a place take some time, and are as follows:

1. Contact a member of staff in the English Department to establish whether they are available and interested in supervising your project. They may ask to see your CV and a brief research proposal (see above, ‘The Research Proposal’). You can find details of the research interests of individual members of staff here (click on each name to see the staff member’s profile). If you are not sure who to approach, you may consult the English Department’s Graduate Tutor, Dr Julia Jordan ( [email protected] ) .

Please be aware that members of staff cannot give detailed advice on how to improve your research proposal. This is because evaluation of the proposal is an important part of the process for the selection of candidates, so it must be your own independent work. If we invite you for interview (step 3 below) this will be an opportunity for you to discuss your proposal with your prospective supervisor. If we offer you a place (step 4 below), we will then advise you on how to make your research proposal as strong as possible for your funding application(s).

2. If you have been encouraged to make a full, formal online application, please do so, following the instructions here . Your application must include a research proposal, two references, a CV, and transcripts from your previous academic courses. If you intend to proceed to funding applications, your application for a place must be submitted by 5 January 2024 . When you submit your application, please also send your research proposal and academic CV directly by email to the English Department’s Graduate Tutor, Dr Julia Jordan ( [email protected] ) .

Applying as an international student

Further information about English language requirements and applying as an international student can be found here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/applying-international-student .

3. The English Department will consider the strength of each applicant’s proposed research project, the applicant's grades in undergraduate and Masters level study, and the suitability (and availability) of academic staff in the Department to supervise the proposed project. If we decide to proceed with the application, the applicant will be invited to a short interview to discuss the research proposal in more detail. This will normally be with the applicant's proposed primary supervisor, a potential secondary supervisor, and/or the Tutor for Graduates. UK applicants will normally be interviewed at UCL; international students, or those who are unable to attend for other reasons, will be interviewed online. Please try to ensure that you are available for interview from November to January.

4. If your interview is successful, we will offer you a place. You can now proceed to funding applications (see ‘Applying for Funding’ below). PLEASE NOTE: it is your responsibility to be aware of the deadlines for different funding schemes, and to ensure that there is time for your application for a place to be fully processed before you proceed to funding applications.

Scholarships for which you may be eligible to apply are listed here .

Studentships for PhDs in English at UCL are available from LAHP (the London Arts and Humanities Partnership), funded by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council). LAHP is a consortium of Higher Education Institutions in London. More information, including eligibility for a studentship and how to apply, is available from their website . Around 10% of applications for studentships are successful.

Applicants who are interested in LAHP funding must also have submitted a completed PhD application to UCL by Friday 5 January 2024. Once we have confirmed your offer of a place, you must then submit a completed LAHP application form, including the supervisor statement, by their deadline ( 26th January 2024 at 5pm ). Your prospective supervisor will advise you on how to make your LAHP application as strong as possible. It is your responsibility to allow sufficient time for all of these processes.

If you have any further questions about the LAHP application procedure, please email Ms Natasha Clark ( [email protected] )

Research Excellence Scholarship (RES)

UCL Research Excellence Scholarships aim to attract high-quality students to undertake research at UCL. Up to 40 UCL Research Excellence Scholarships (RES) are available to prospective and current research students from any country.

More details about the application process for the Research Excellence Scholarships, including deadlines, can be found here .

Wolfson Scholarships

The Wolfson Foundation is offering six postgraduate research awards in the humanities for 2024/25. These will be for three areas in history, literature and languages.

Details about the award scheme and the application process can be found here .

Applicants should send the mandatory documents to Natasha Clark ( [email protected] ) by the end of 12 January 2024.

UCL Research Opportunity Scholarship

UCL's Research Opportunity Scholarship (UCL-ROS) supports UK BAME postgraduate research degree students. Details about eligibility, the award and the application process can be found here .

Each student works closely with their supervisor to develop research skills specific to their project. Regular completion of an online research log helps the student and supervisor to assess training needs.

The English Department provides a course in PhD Skills Training. The first term is on Research Skills and Methods, and is aimed at first-year students, who are required to attend. The second term is on Professional Academic Skills, and is open to all PhD students.

Across UCL, PhD training is co-ordinated by the Doctoral School . The Doctoral Skills Development Programme is delivered via the Inkpath platform, and benefits from participation by the Bloomsbury Postgraduate Skills Network , a consortium of leading Higher Education Institutions.

Training courses and events are also available from LAHP (the London Arts and Humanities Partnership). LAHP-funded students are given priority for booking, but places may also be available to other students.

Teaching opportunities for research students

PhD students who are making good progress with their research project are offered teaching opportunities. Those in their second year are normally offered experience in teaching one-to-one tutorials. Those in their third year are normally offered experience in teaching seminars.

PhD students in English also work with UCL’s Access and Widening Participation team to deliver a highly successful Summer School for Year 12 school students.

Employment Prospects

PhD graduates from the Department have an excellent record of securing employment in institutions of higher education. In recent years PhD alumni have progressed to academic positions here at UCL, as well as at Oxford and Cambridge, in the wider University of London, and at other universities across the UK. Others have successfully gained international appointments, in destinations including the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Our PhD graduates are also well placed to pursue careers outside academia, as the skills in research, analysis, writing, and communication obtained during the PhD transfer easily to high-level work in many sectors.

UCL prospectus page for the MPhil/PhD programme.

For further information, please email Natasha Clark ( [email protected] ).

Apply Online

You can find a link to the online application form on the main UCL website at the bottom of this page: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/apply

We do accept some visiting students, if there is a suitable academic to act as supervisor. The first step is to identify someone who looks like a suitable supervisor by looking through the list of academic staff yourself: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/english/people/academic-staff . Then, you should contact them with your research proposal to see if they think they would be well-positioned to supervise and will be available to do so over the period of time you’d like to visit. If they are happy to supervise you, you must submit an application via our online system. Further details about this and the link for applying can be found on this page: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/international/study-abroad-and-exchange/visiting-research-students .

Student Views

"I am currently completing my PhD on Shakespeare. The English department at UCL is a very special place: the academic staff are dedicated, supportive. I would whole-heartedly recommend applying to study English at UCL."

Shani Bans, PhD Candidate

What You Don't Know: Graduate Deans' Knowledge of Doctoral Completion Rates

Forum Article
Published: 04 October 2004
Volume 17 , pages 325–336, ( 2004 )

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Frank J Elgar 1 &
Raymond M Klein 2

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Doctoral completion and times-to-completion are issues of growing concern in the university community. Research on student completion difficulties has focused on student characteristics and student–supervisor relations. This article addresses the administration of graduate programs — more specifically, graduate deans’ knowledge of and attitudes toward doctoral completion rates and times-to-completion. A survey was carried out involving graduate deans from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Data showed most deans were unable to report doctoral completion percentages and completion times. Still, they rated completion at their universities as relatively good. Their lack of information may hinder attempts to improve trends in doctoral completion. Improved surveillance of students’ progress in doctoral programs may aid deans in evaluating the impact of program requirements and economic factors on doctoral completion and graduate studies in general.

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Canada's net loss of PhDs is less due to immigration of skilled workers ( Zhao et al., 2000 ).

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the Graduate Students’ Association of Canada and doctoral fellowships from the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation and Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation.

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Elgar, F., Klein, R. What You Don't Know: Graduate Deans' Knowledge of Doctoral Completion Rates. High Educ Policy 17 , 325–336 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300059

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PhD Completion Rates UK

The number of students completing a doctoral program in the UK increased by 22% between 2001 and 2006. This is according to data gathered by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. The highest completion rates were found at University of Essex (83%), University of Bradford (77%) and the University of Liverpool (71%).

Those of you seeking the phd viva failure rate and can you fail a phd? need not look further as the article below gives you all the information you require and more. Below are 10 facts about different subfields of physics, followed by extensive lists of famous physicists in each field.

Find information in the article below regarding phd in uk

What’s more? You will find related posts on phd in uk fees, cost of phd in usa for international students & phd requirements in uk for international students on collegelearners.

Getting a PhD in UK

The analysis uses a new method to calculate rates of qualification from postgraduate research degree study and replaces the research degree qualification rates (RDQRs) method that has been used by HEFCE since 2007. This updated method means that the data are not directly comparable with those calculated and published by HEFCE previously. It is intended to provide more relevant information and be less burdensome to HEIs and HEFCE than the previous one, which involved verification of data going back several years. The new method is consistent with the one we use to calculate completion rates for undergraduate students, and aims to be more objective, fair and reliable.

getting a phd in the uk – College Learners

Rates of qualification from research degree study are projected for students living in the UK and EU, who started full-time research degrees at English HEIs in 2008-09 and 2009-10. Qualification rates are provided by HEI, projected over periods of 7 and 25 years. We take 7 years as the first point by which there is a reasonable expectation that the majority of students who will ever complete their qualification will have done so. We take 25 years as the point where any student who will ever complete has done so.

The data show the proportions of full-time research degree starters that are in each of three end states that have been projected at 103 HEIs in England. That is the proportion of the cohort expected to have:

• qualified • transferred to another institution, or • become absent from higher education

Embarking on a PhD is a journey of epic proportions. Initially filled with excitement and enthusiasm, students are compelled by the idea of pushing the frontiers of human knowledge.

In time, this enthusiasm can fade. Devoting three to five years of your life to such a tiny subject niche has the ability to do that, even to the most devoted of individuals. Unfortunately, the long and winding road takes both a physical and psychological toll. Stress management will inescapably take centre stage, and your ability to manage it will be extensively tested.

Best Philosophy Phd Programs In The World – College Learners

In 2011, a study carried out by the University of Texas found that 43% of their graduate student participants reported experiencing more stress than they were able to handle, with PhD students expressing the highest levels. This likely explains the high attrition rate. In 2013, it was estimated that 30% of students who embark on a PhD in the UK leave university without finishing. This statistic was worse in North America, where in 2008, almost 50% of students left graduate school without their doctorate.

However, research has shown that the majority of students who enter doctoral programs have the academic ability to successfully complete the degree. Therefore, it is likely that the culture of PhD programs are to blame.

Despite what you may have heard, the failing PhD rate amongst students who sit their viva is low.

To give you an indication of the viva failure rate, we’ve analysed the outcomes of 26,076 PhD candidates from 14 UK universities who sat a viva between 2006 and 2017.

The analysis shows that of the 26,076 students who sat their viva, 25,063 succeeded; this is just over 96% of the total students as shown.

can you fail a phd?

There are essentially two ways in which you can fail a PhD; non-completion or failing your viva (also known as your thesis defense).

Non-completion

There are many reasons why a student may decide to leave a programme early, though these can usually be grouped into two categories:

Motives – The individual may no longer believe undertaking a PhD is for them. This might be because it isn’t what they had imagined, or they’ve decided on an alternative path.
Extenuating circumstances – The student may face unforeseen problems beyond their control, such as poor health, bereavement or family difficulties, preventing them from completing their research.

Failing The Viva

Assuming you make it to the end of your programme, there are still two ways you can be unsuccessful.

According to the 2010-11 data published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (now replaced by UK Research and Innovation ), 72.9% of students enrolled in a PhD programme in the UK or EU complete their degree within seven years. Following this, 80.5% of PhD students complete their degree within 25 years.

This means that four out of every five students who register onto a PhD programme successfully complete their doctorate.

While a failure rate of one in five students may seem a little high, most of these are those who exit their programme early as opposed to those who fail at the viva stage.

phd viva failure rate

What does research say about completion rates.

Psychological studies of postgraduate students find the more successful ones tend to perceive themselves as competent and be intrinsically motivated. These are students who enjoy their topic area, perceive their postgraduate studies as a valuable learning experience, and who strongly identify with being a career researcher. Students who are motivated by external factors (such as pursuing a prestigious academic role) are more likely to say they want to quit.

Students are also more likely to finish their research degrees if they have strong connections with their peers. Such connections help students develop their professional identity as researchers, as well as providing opportunities for social support and informal learning.

What students and their supervisors should do

Both students and supervisors should be upfront about their expectations about how the supervision will work. An excellent starting point for discussion is the Expectations in Supervisionquestionnaire. Students and supervisors sometimes have mismatched expectations about how often they should meet, the amount of feedback the supervisor should provide on drafts, and how much counselling and emotional support the supervisor should provide.

Supervisors have an important role in providing a realistic preview of academic life. One useful exercise is to review an academic competency model, such as the Vitae Researcher Development Framework, to discuss which skills academics need. In addition to knowledge of their topic area and research methods, academics increasingly need to be good at managing complex projects, working in multidisciplinary teams, and engaging with industry and media.

What universities should do

Universities should also encourage greater connectedness between research students to build social support. This could be accomplished through team-based activities or face-to-face events.

For instance, some universities offer Three Minute Thesis, a research communication competition where students present their work in under 180 seconds.

Finally, universities should be dedicated to helping academics develop as supervisors through ongoing training and coaching. Departments could consider tracking the progression of studentsand ensuring supervisors have the time and skills to take on new students.

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PhD Completion Rates UK

Last Updated on December 29, 2022 by

Find information in the article below regarding phd duration in usa & phd in uk duration.

What’s more? You will find related posts on phd in uk fees, cost of phd in usa for international students & phd requirements in uk for international students on collegelearners.

Getting a PhD in UK

• qualified • transferred to another institution, or • become absent from higher education

Embarking on a PhD is a journey of epic proportions. Initially filled with excitement and enthusiasm, students are compelled by the idea of pushing the frontiers of human knowledge.

.PhD Completion Rates UK

Despite what you may have heard, the failing PhD rate amongst students who sit their viva is low.

To give you an indication of the viva failure rate, we’ve analysed the outcomes of 26,076 PhD candidates from 14 UK universities who sat a viva between 2006 and 2017.

The analysis shows that of the 26,076 students who sat their viva, 25,063 succeeded; this is just over 96% of the total students as shown.

can you fail a phd?

There are essentially two ways in which you can fail a PhD; non-completion or failing your viva (also known as your thesis defence ).

Non-completion

There are many reasons why a student may decide to leave a programme early, though these can usually be grouped into two categories:

Motives – The individual may no longer believe undertaking a PhD is for them. This might be because it isn’t what they had imagined, or they’ve decided on an alternative path.
Extenuating circumstances – The student may face unforeseen problems beyond their control, such as poor health, bereavement or family difficulties, preventing them from completing their research.

Failing The Viva

Assuming you make it to the end of your programme, there are still two ways you can be unsuccessful.

This means that four out of every five students who register onto a PhD programme successfully complete their doctorate.

While a failure rate of one in five students may seem a little high, most of these are those who exit their programme early as opposed to those who fail at the viva stage.

PhD Completion Rates | Surviving Grad School

phd viva failure rate

What does research say about completion rates.

Psychological studies of postgraduate students find the more successful ones tend to perceive themselves as competent and be intrinsically motivated. These are students who enjoy their topic area, perceive their postgraduate studies as a valuable learning experience, and who strongly identify with being a career researcher. Students who are motivated by external factors (such as pursuing a prestigious academic role) are more likely to say they want to quit.

Students are also more likely to finish their research degrees if they have strong connections with their peers. Such connections help students develop their professional identity as researchers, as well as providing opportunities for social support and informal learning.

What students and their supervisors should do

Both students and supervisors should be upfront about their expectations about how the supervision will work. An excellent starting point for discussion is the Expectations in Supervisionquestionnaire. Students and supervisors sometimes have mismatched expectations about how often they should meet, the amount of feedback the supervisor should provide on drafts, and how much counselling and emotional support the supervisor should provide.

Supervisors have an important role in providing a realistic preview of academic life. One useful exercise is to review an academic competency model, such as the Vitae Researcher Development Framework, to discuss which skills academics need. In addition to knowledge of their topic area and research methods, academics increasingly need to be good at managing complex projects, working in multidisciplinary teams, and engaging with industry and media.

What universities should do

Universities should also encourage greater connectedness between research students to build social support. This could be accomplished through team-based activities or face-to-face events.

For instance, some universities offer Three Minute Thesis, a research communication competition where students present their work in under 180 seconds.

Finally, universities should be dedicated to helping academics develop as supervisors through ongoing training and coaching. Departments could consider tracking the progression of studentsand ensuring supervisors have the time and skills to take on new students.

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Success rates for PhD students and PhD duration for standard PhD
Doctoral Degrees Earned by Women, by Major
UK-graduate-employment-rate
Why Are STEM Doctoral Completion Rates Lower for Women?
Which PhD Fields Are Growing The Fastest?
PhD Completion Rates UK

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COMMENTS

PDF PHD COMPLETION RATES 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
PHD COMPLETION RATES . 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY . This paper presents information about PhD completion rates in response to a request from Senate. It also provides information on supporting activities that may be implemented by the new ... Postgraduate Research School, [email protected]. 2. BACKGROUND AND STRATEGIC CONTEXT Postgraduate ...
Higher education in facts and figures: 2021
Applicants, acceptances and UK 18-year-old entry rates, 2011 to 2020. For the 2020 cycle, the total number of people applying for UK full-time undergraduate higher education courses increased by 3.2% on 2019, while total acceptances increased by 5.4%. The UK 18-year-old entry rate was also at record levels, with 37.0% of this group starting a ...
PhD completion: an evidence-based guide for students, supervisors and
Many students enrol in a Master or PhD postgraduate research degree, but few complete them. From 2010-2016, 437,030 domestic and international students enrolled in postgraduate research programs ...
The UK doctoral research experience
The completion rate is also high in the UK, where institutions have limited registration periods (unlike in the US where there is no limit on registration time for a PhD). Around 75% of full-time doctorates are submitted within seven years in the UK, which is rising, and about 80% of those funded by the UK Research Councils submit within four ...
PhD Failure Rate
To summarise, based on the analysis of 26,076 PhD candidates at 14 universities between 2006 and 2017, the PhD pass rate in the UK is 80.5%. Of the 19.5% of students who fail, 3.3% is attributed to students failing their viva and the remaining 16.2% is attributed to students leaving their programme early. The above statistics indicate that ...
Are doctoral progress reviews just a bureaucratic process? The
Within the UK, expectations about the duration of doctoral degrees and completion rates have become codified in multiple policy documents (for some examples, see: (QAA Citation 2018; UKRI Citation 2020)).They are also monitored by some funding bodies (AHRC Citation 2020) and remain a metric of choice for measuring institutional performance of doctoral degrees (UKCGE Citation 2021).
How do institutional factors shape PhD completion rates? An analysis of
Our paper adds to a growing literature of doctoral training by studying factors that drive time-to-completion based on a new and unique data set from an international European graduate school. While previous research focused on individual factors, we inspect the role of institutional factors and the organization of PhD programs for PhD completion.
PhD completion rates, 2013
PhD completion rates, 2013. The proportion of PhD students in England expected to obtain degrees has risen slightly, but at some institutions around a fifth may never qualify. ... 72.9 per cent of the 11,625 students from the UK or the EU who began full-time doctorates in 2010-11 will obtain a degree within seven years.
DP765 The Hazards of Doing a PhD: An Analysis of Completion and
The paper examines UK PhD completion and withdrawal rates, in a competing risks framework, using the 1986 National Survey of 1980 Graduates. The statistical problem of thresholding of completion data is also addressed. We argue that our results suggest that there are problems with the use of PhD completion rates as performance indicators for academic departments.
PhD Study in the UK
You may be able to get a PhD loan of up to £27,892 for a UK doctorate. Our guide explains eligibility, applications and repayments. Our guide explains the best ways to fund international PhD study in the UK, with information on all the main scholarships available to you.
Statistics and questionnaires
The next survey will be available for completion by all STFC PhD students in February 2024. You can read the analysis of responses to the questionnaires from 2019 to 2023. You can read about older results from surveys dating back to 2002 on our page in the UK Government Web Archive. Career path tracking
Published statistics
The data combines projected completion rates with graduate outcomes data to create projected rates of progression from entry to professional employment or further study, and is published at named provider level for the first time. ... Number of UK-domiciled undergraduate students to English higher education providers 2006-07 to 2019-20.
Predictors of UK postgraduate researcher attendance ...
Doctoral attrition is high in many countries, with reported rates of up to 40 to 50% of postgraduate researchers (PGRs) terminating their PhD studies before completion (Geven et al., 2017; Litalien & Guay, 2015).Attrition can be considered a process, in which PGRs weigh the costs and benefits of persisting or discontinuing, and then do or do not actually end their studies accordingly (Jaksztat ...
Non-continuation: UK Performance Indicators
This edition of the UK Performance Indicators will be the last release in this current form. A review of existing indicators will determine which measures will be migrated into core official statistics and open data published in 2023. ... The other method for producing non-completion rates projects what proportion of the full-time first degree ...
What are HE students' progression rates and qualifications?
Some information is taken from our Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2021/22 statistical bulletin. All tables and charts include a link underneath allowing you to download the data. Many tables also include a link to download the complete source data as a machine-readable csv file.
Research Council (UKRI) PhD Studentships
At least £4,712 for PhD fees at the domestic rate. Universities are free to set their own actual fees, but they can't charge any additional amounts to UK students with a UKRI studentship. At least £18,622 per year as a PhD stipend to help cover living costs. This is tax free and increases with inflation each year.
Mock TEF: the best UK universities for completion rates
As part of Times Higher Education's predictions for the teaching excellent framework - the UK government's proposed method of evaluating teaching quality at universities - you can compare 120 institutions in the UK by how well they perform on completion rates (based on data drawn from Higher Education Statistics Agency performance indicators).
Study reveals low PhD completion rates
Mon 10 Jan 2005 19.09 EST. Nearly three out of 10 full-time PhD students have still not completed their doctorates seven years after starting their studies, research revealed today. And figures ...
MPhil/PhD in English Literature and Language
The Department is eager to ensure PhD completion rates within four years, and therefore reviews each student's progress by means of an interview at the end of each year. ... UK applicants will normally be interviewed at UCL; international students, or those who are unable to attend for other reasons, will be interviewed online. Please try to ...
UK Performance Indicators: Non-continuation 2020/21
UK Performance Indicators: Non-continuation 2020/21. New statistics from HESA show that 5.3% of young, full-time, first degree entrants in 2019/20 did not continue past their first year of study. This is the lowest non-continuation rate to be observed since UK Performance Indicators have been calculated. The statistics released today relate to ...
What You Don't Know: Graduate Deans' Knowledge of Doctoral Completion Rates
There was significant variation between samples whereby more deans from the UK indicated that external grants were linked to PhD completion rates: 15.0% (Canada), 30.0% (US), 72.7% (UK), χ 2 (df=2)=10.6, P<0.01. Whether or not research funding was contingent on PhD completion rates was unrelated to either reported completion rates or times-to ...
PhD Completion Rates UK
The PhD failure rate in the UK is 19.5%, with 16.2% of students leaving their PhD programme early, and 3.3% of students failing their viva. 80.5% of all students who enrol onto a PhD programme successfully complete it and are awarded a doctorate. Despite what you may have heard, the failing PhD rate amongst students who sit their viva is low.
PhD Completion Rates UK
PhD Completion Rates UK. The PhD failure rate in the UK is 19.5%, with 16.2% of students leaving their PhD programme early, and 3.3% of students failing their viva. 80.5% of all students who enrol onto a PhD programme successfully complete it and are awarded a doctorate. According to 2010-11 data published by the Higher Education Funding ...

Higher education in facts and figures: 2021

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Students by mode of study and country of institution, 2019–20

Students by level and mode of study, 2019–20

Applicants, acceptances and UK 18-year-old entry rates, 2011 to 2020

Entry rates of the most disadvantaged 18-year-olds by domicile, 2011 to 2021

Students by age and ethnicity, 2019–20

Students by sex, subject area and level of study, 2019–20

Students by domicile and level of study, 2019–20

Qualifications awarded by level and mode of study, 2019–20

Graduate outcomes by activity, 2018–19

Unemployment rates and median salaries in England, 2020

Staff by nationality and employment function, 2019–20

Academic staff by nationality and cost centre, 2019−20

Academic staff by sex, mode of employment and age, 2019–20

Professors by sex and ethnicity, 2015–16 to 2019–20

Income and size of higher education institutions, 2018–19 to 2019–20

Income by source, 2019–20

Teaching, research and knowledge exchange income by source, 2019–20

International Facts and Figures 2021

Operating expenditure of UK higher education institutions, 2019–20

Academic employment function

Cost centre

High-skill employment

Knowledge exchange activities

Level of study

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HESA Standard Rounding Methodology

Higher education in numbers

PhD completion: an evidence-based guide for students, supervisors and universities

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What does research say about completion rates?

What students and their supervisors should do

What universities should do

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The UK doctoral research experience

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Introduction

Ways You Can Fail A PhD

Non-completion

Failing The Viva

PhD Failure Rate – UK & EU Statistics

Failing Doesn’t Happen Often

Failed Viva – Outcomes of 26,076 Students

Students Who Passed

Students Who Failed

Summary of Findings

What Are Your Options After an Unsuccessful PhD?

Downgrade to MPhil

Additional Resources

Data for Statistics

Browse PhDs Now

Statistics and questionnaires

Reporting on Researchfish

Submission of a PhD thesis

Student Survey

Career path tracking

Mock TEF: the best UK universities for completion rates

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Mock TEF: UK universities ranked by completion rate

Study reveals low PhD completion rates

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MPhil/PhD in English Literature and Language

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Teaching opportunities for research students

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Student Views

What You Don't Know: Graduate Deans' Knowledge of Doctoral Completion Rates