Understanding the Doctoral Research Process
- Introduction- Apart from finishing college and obtaining a degree, students are aiming for a much higher educational attainment by finishing graduate studies to further their expertise in a particular area of expertise. However, finishing a graduate course would require a comprehensive research that will prove the student’s established knowledge in the discipline (Blanton-Kent et al., 2010). Doctoral research is one way for graduate students to prove their specialization in the particular field of study. In lieu to that requirement, a research about student success and retention in both public and for-profit universities and colleges will be measured to identify which of the two learning organizations can foster student success and has higher retention rate
- Project Aim– The research aims to provide a succinct exploration of the issues pertaining to retention and success in both public and for-profit organizations through a doctoral research process.
- Objectives– The objective of the research is to present the important elements factors that affect retention and success in public and for-profit universities and colleges. It is crucial for a learning organization to identify the factors that lead to the failure and success of the students and to determine the reasons that cause a student to drop from college. A recommendation will be presented for the benefit of the universities and colleges regarding to how they would be able to improve retention and improve the success rate of the college students.
- Statement of the Problem – There is a widening gap in terms of success and retention of students between public and for-profit universities and colleges.
- Rationale – The underlying principles of this study is determined by the current reports about the widening gap of successful students and retention rate between public and for-profit universities and colleges. About half a million students in colleges and universities have reportedly dropped from college as of 2010 and the number kept on growing each year (Stratford, 2012). In addition, the public learning sector reportedly have 55% of their student withdrawn from their courses at the middle of the year, while the private learning sector was reported to have a percentage of 46% (Stratford, 2012). These numbers translates to an alarming rate of students in the United States that were not able to obtain their academic degrees due to various factors. Logically, there is underlying evidence pertaining to the lack of students’ success in finishing college if the retention rate appears to be diminishing.
- Theoretical Background
- Literature Review– Beltyukova and Fox (2002) has conducted as study on student retention in different colleges and universities to identify the rate of persistence of students in private and public universities and colleges. The research objective of Indiana College Board is to explore the strategies that would increase the student success by measuring persistence and compared them to the acceptable benchmarks. It was mentioned in the research that higher learning institutions need to have a deeper understanding of the student interaction in which persistence may arise. The data presented in the research conveys a widening gap in numbers between students that were able to finish college in public and private universities. However, the overall data suggests that the average success rate of students ranges only from 51 to 55%.
- Methodology – The most appropriate approach to be used in order to identify the reasons and underlying problems that causes the diminishing number of students that were able to successfully finish college is through a qualitative survey. In this approach, the survey questionnaire will be administered to at least 100 sampled students. 50% of the samples will be taken from the public university or college and the other 50% of the samples will be taken from the public sector. The questionnaire will contain questions of the probable reasons that would allow them to either succeed of drop from college. The responses will be used for the analysis of the problem statement and to determine the main factors would affect a student’s success, which in return could also affect the school’s retention rate.
- Findings – Study suggests that there are more reasons that both public and private universities and colleges are a hard time to maintain a reasonable number of graduating students. 60% of the students are having a hard time coping up with the expenses of going into college particularly the tuition fee and the cost of textbooks (Peterson, 2004). 63% of the students are found to be struggling to balance their time between work and school (Peterson, 2004). Some college students are opted to work full time to be able to sustain expenses. However, setting priorities between work and studies is also becoming an issue. In addition, over socialization also affects student performance making them to lose interest in studying.
- Conclusion – Retention rate and student success of student both private and public universities and colleges are largely affected by several factors such as cost of education, environmental influences, peer pressure and other economic reasons. It appears that the mentioned factors can be mitigated by understanding the needs of the student and ratification of prevailing guidelines in college admission and requirements.
Part II.
Views about Doctoral Research
Yielding an interesting thesis requires no particular algorithm. Depending too much of your endurance and artistry. To try with identifying a breathtaking topics there are most and less adequate ways. I will try to conduct on my own theory of art about alluring research. It may various a little by sub-field and absolutely beyond economists, so positively they explore the others point of view. So neglect these commendations if you adopt this make sure you is reasonable to do so. At the outset, there is no "Right Topic." The time that you go on the job market is the hottest today. I'm sure you don't want a hot topic on the nineteenth best paper of the year. The extremely important is to look for something that is essential and absolutely interests you. All fields are almost written on great papers, most of the innovations in various fields have resulted from the rigorous studies performed by PhD professionals. Scientists and industry experts all share the same initiative to offer new knowledge and breakthrough discoveries by performing comprehensive research, which then translated into practical applications.
It is apparent that not all subjects create great interest to the majority of the people, but generating a new and sound interesting hypothesis conveys a great deal of interest to those that can relates. There are several ways on how to find out if the selected topic would interest audience. When undertaking a project, it is a useful to think of that the audience would consist of more skeptical members of the professional field who may would possibly pressing the research of why is the topic of the research important. In order to avoid skeptical reviews of the topic of the research itself, it is important for the researchers to identify the indicators that will determine whether the topic is indeed interesting. In most cases, the most compelling of researches are carefully thought through by good minds, but for a student aiming for a doctoral degree, the sound interest in the chosen topic is paramount to the obtainment of audience of interests.
After choosing the right topic, the next challenge for understanding the doctoral research process is to look at the strategies performed during the research. Validity and reliability of the facts stated in the findings of the research can be established by choosing the most appropriate methodology and tools for gathering data. For example, if the researcher is trying to discuss about applied theories, it is important that he use empirics because empirical studies constitutes, credibility and reliability of the presented data. The reason that validity is important in empirical studies is because; the topics covered by the research are derivatives of an existing theory, which needs to show quantifiable facts that can be measured and validated. The findings derived from empirical research also show academic prose of the researcher and the findings are crucial for further developments in a particular field.
The same goes with writing about empirics, the researcher have to read about theories. This is because writing about empirics requires intellectual capital in the process. The findings from such research are susceptible to abandonment or acceptance of the discourse community. Therefore, taking an effort to do an empirical research should constitute a clear understanding the underlying theories of the subject. Understanding doctoral research process allows any student or professionals to explore the unknown frontiers of the known world and seek for higher understanding of the world mysteries. Narrowly focusing on a particular topic should demonstrate a selective approach in reading related journals and working papers of intellectual individuals. Conducting a doctoral research should adhere to the standards of scientific methods in order to achieve credibility of the study and for the findings to be easily validated and a reliable doctoral research must also demonstrate deeper knowledge of the field of study.
References
Beltyukova, S., & Fox, C. (2002). Student Satisfaction as a Measure of Student Development: Towards a Universal Metric.. Journal of College Student Development, 43(2), 161-72.
Blanton-Kent, B., Pappert, R., Smith, T., & Weimer, K. (2010). Understanding the Graduate Research Process: From Concept to Product. Building Effective,Sustainable, Practical Assessment, 1. Retrieved February 6, 2013, from http://libraryassessment.org/bm~doc/blanton-kent_beth.pdf
Peterson, M. (2004). Towards Whole Schools: Building a Movement for Dialogue and Action in the 21st Century. International Journal Of Whole Schooling, 1(1), 4-7.
Stratford, M. (2012, July 30). A Damning Portrait of For-Profit Higher Education - Government - The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved February 6, 2013, from http://chronicle.com/article/A-Damning-Portrait-of/133253/
