The explosive increase in admissions to the Danish PhD degree programmes since 2006 has had no negative effect on the standards of PhD students in Denmark and the quality of their dissertations.<\/p>\n
At least if the results coming out of a large study of PhD education programme\u2019s quality and relevance are to be believed. They have just been published by the Ministry for Education and Research.<\/p>\n
\n
The study \u2018PhD programmes\u2019 quality and relevance<\/em>\u2019 was carried out by the Ministry for Education and Research in 2016. It is based on a questionnaire sent to 8,433 current PhD students, 5,988 supervisors and 4,106 international reviewers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n24 per cent of the respondents\u2019 PhD supervisors say that the PhD students’ academic level is higher now than 10 years ago. 48 per cent believe the level is the same, while 16 per cent think it is lower. The group of international reviewers give a similar response, giving the Danish dissertations a higher quality assessment than in a similar survey in 1999. 29 per cent assess the quality of the dissertation as being 'very good' and 47 per cent as 'good' compared to 23 and 45 per cent respectively in the previous study.<\/secret><\/p>\nEske Willerslev concedes<\/h2>\n
The increase in PhD admissions <\/secret>has been repeatedly criticized. S\u00f8ren Bregenholt \u2013 the head of external innovation and stakeholder relations in Novo Nordisk’s research and development department \u2013 said last year to the Danish news site Berlingske that too many PhDs are being trained in Denmark, and that they are not “scientifically competitive with countries we compare ourselves with,” such as the UK and Sweden.<\/p>\n\n
15 per cent of respondents in the survey have been delayed in their PhD completion schedule.<\/p>\n
The primary causes for the delays are ‘modified project focus’ (according to 35 per cent of the delayed) ‘personal circumstances’ (28 per cent) and ‘lack of time to research’ (27 per cent).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Scientists at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) have expressed concern about the PhD students\u2019 standards.<\/p>\n
“They are admitting so many PhDs, so we see people today getting a PhD, who in reality are not suited for it. In this way, the quality of PhDs is dragged down on average,” Professor Eske Willerslev said in 2012 in an article on the Danish newspaper Information, and was backed up by the astrophysicist Anja C. Andersen.<\/p>\n
The University Post presented the new figures for PhD education programmes\u2019 quality to Willerslev.<\/p>\n
“I have to concede and admit I was wrong. If the investigation was done properly – and it does sound like it was,” he says.<\/p>\n
“It is clear that my opinions were not based on a statistical evaluation, but on my own experience within the community. During this period (around 2012, ed.), there were some years when I got many more PhDs than before \u2013 I was at one time supervisor for 14 at one time \u2013 and here I thought the quality was varied,” he says.<\/p>\n
Have the supervisors got worse?<\/h2>\n
Eske Willerslev points out, however, that the trends in PhD quality can vary greatly from area to area \u2013 and that the increase in admissions can have affected standards in a way that the survey has not been able to measure.<\/p>\n
“A problem related to this is that it is not just a question of how good or bad the students are, but also how good and bad the supervisors are. And the more PhD students you have, the harder it is to give them proper guidance. If you have too many PhDs as a supervisor, the quality is affected all the way through,” says Willerslev.<\/p>\n
According to the survey report, students assess the ‘quality of research counselling’ at 0.8 on a scale from 0 to 1 \u2013 but the report does not specify figures from previous studies.<\/p>\n
More international PhDs<\/h2>\n
So while the study shows that the quality of PhDs in Denmark has gone up \u2013 or has held its own \u2013 despite the increase in admissions, it is harder to find the causes behind the improvement in the survey report.<\/p>\n
\n
89 per cent of PhD students complete their PhD programme.<\/p>\n
The completion rate is highest in the health science programmes, where more than 95 per cent graduate, and appear to be lowest in the humanities programmes (where 75 per cent graduate). However, according to the Graduate School at UCPH the low number is caused by a UCPH practice of exmatriculating delayed PhDs and letting them deliver their delayed paper after being ex-matriculated. Therefore the actual completion rate in the humanities programmes\u00a0is much higher than the 75 per cent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The PhD students indicate that the professional quality <\/secret>and relevance <\/secret>of their courses are high, but yet again there is no indication of comparable data in previous years.<\/p>\nThe report does say, however, that the proportion of international students taking their PhD in Denmark, has more than doubled over the last 13 years.<\/secret> So a possible hypothesis could be that the increase in the number of foreign PhDs may have helped to raise the average quality of Danish PhD programs.<\/p>\n“This could have something to do with it,” says Willerslev. “My experience is that international PhDs are really good. They are extremely motivated. Some come from countries where conditions for doing research are worse than in Denmark, and so they see coming to Denmark to write a PhD as a huge opportunity. ”<\/p>\n
My experience is that international PhDs are really good. They are extremely motivated<\/p>\n
Eske Willerslev, professor and\u00a0director of Centre of Excellence in GeoGenetics<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The survey also reveals that an increasing proportion of international PhDs stay in Denmark after their PhD programme. Five years after graduation in 2009 and 41 per cent of international PhDs were still here \u2013 back in 2000 only 21 per cent did.<\/p>\n
PhD programmes are worth the money<\/h2>\n
In total, 89 per cent of PhD students in Denmark complete their programme.<\/secret><\/p>\nAs a nicety, the study concludes that the many PhDs provide ‘positive socio-economic returns’.<\/p>\n
And if you are wondering yourself whether a PhD will make yourself better off financially, the answer is yes, according to the study. You will over a – hopefully long and happy – life as a PhD graduate get a personal financial return that is 3 – 4 per cent higher than if you ‘made do’ with a master\u2019s.<\/p>\n
The financial gain is highest in taking a social science or humanities PhD. Here you will end up earning DKK 1.7 million and DKK 1.2 million more than your master\u2019s degree companions respectively.<\/p>\n
Read the full study here (in Danish with a summary in English)<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Things are moving in the right direction for the quality of PhDs in Denmark. This is according to supervisors and a group of international reviewers who took part in a large study of the PhD programmes\u2019 quality and relevance. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[67,108,362,363,334],"class_list":["post-46197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","tag-ph-d","tag-ph-d-en","tag-phd","tag-phd-survey","tag-quality","expression-feature_article"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n
PhDs in Denmark have got better - despite admissions explosion<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/phds-in-denmark-have-got-better-despite-admissions-explosion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PhDs in Denmark have got better - despite admissions explosion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Things are moving in the right direction for the quality of PhDs in Denmark. 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This is according to supervisors and a group of international reviewers who took part in a large study of the PhD programmes\u2019 quality and relevance. The study also puts a monetary value on a PhD. ","use_post_excerpt":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":true,"contributors":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>The explosive increase in admissions to the Danish PhD degree programmes since 2006 has had no negative effect on the standards of PhD students in Denmark and the quality of their dissertations.<\/p>\n<p>At least if the results coming out of a large study of PhD education programme\u2019s quality and relevance are to be believed. They have just been published by the Ministry for Education and Research.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">About the survey<\/p>\n<p>The study \u2018<em>PhD programmes\u2019 quality and relevance<\/em>\u2019 was carried out by the Ministry for Education and Research in 2016. It is based on a questionnaire sent to 8,433 current PhD students, 5,988 supervisors and 4,106 international reviewers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>24 per cent of the respondents\u2019 PhD supervisors say that the PhD students’ academic level is higher now than 10 years ago. 48 per cent believe the level is the same, while 16 per cent think it is lower. The group of international reviewers give a similar response, giving the Danish dissertations a higher quality assessment than in a similar survey in 1999.<secret text=\"In 1999, art PhDs were not included in the questionnaire. If the numbers are adjusted for this, the difference between 1999 and 2016 is 'not significant' \u2013 or in other words, at least not getting worse.\"> 29 per cent assess the quality of the dissertation as being 'very good' and 47 per cent as 'good' compared to 23 and 45 per cent respectively in the previous study.<\/secret><\/p>\n<h2>Eske Willerslev concedes<\/h2>\n<p><secret text=\"1,210 PhDs were admitted in 2003. In 2015, thus number was 2,310.\">The increase in PhD admissions <\/secret>has been repeatedly criticized. S\u00f8ren Bregenholt \u2013 the head of external innovation and stakeholder relations in Novo Nordisk’s research and development department \u2013 said last year to the Danish news site Berlingske that too many PhDs are being trained in Denmark, and that they are not “scientifically competitive with countries we compare ourselves with,” such as the UK and Sweden.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">15 per cent will be delayed<\/p>\n<p>15 per cent of respondents in the survey have been delayed in their PhD completion schedule.<\/p>\n<p>The primary causes for the delays are ‘modified project focus’ (according to 35 per cent of the delayed) ‘personal circumstances’ (28 per cent) and ‘lack of time to research’ (27 per cent).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Scientists at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) have expressed concern about the PhD students\u2019 standards.<\/p>\n<p>“They are admitting so many PhDs, so we see people today getting a PhD, who in reality are not suited for it. In this way, the quality of PhDs is dragged down on average,” Professor Eske Willerslev said in 2012 in an article on the Danish newspaper Information, and was backed up by the astrophysicist Anja C. Andersen.<\/p>\n<p>The University Post presented the new figures for PhD education programmes\u2019 quality to Willerslev.<\/p>\n<p>“I have to concede and admit I was wrong. If the investigation was done properly – and it does sound like it was,” he says.<\/p>\n<p>“It is clear that my opinions were not based on a statistical evaluation, but on my own experience within the community. During this period (around 2012, ed.), there were some years when I got many more PhDs than before \u2013 I was at one time supervisor for 14 at one time \u2013 and here I thought the quality was varied,” he says.<\/p>\n<h2>Have the supervisors got worse?<\/h2>\n<p>Eske Willerslev points out, however, that the trends in PhD quality can vary greatly from area to area \u2013 and that the increase in admissions can have affected standards in a way that the survey has not been able to measure.<\/p>\n<p>“A problem related to this is that it is not just a question of how good or bad the students are, but also how good and bad the supervisors are. And the more PhD students you have, the harder it is to give them proper guidance. If you have too many PhDs as a supervisor, the quality is affected all the way through,” says Willerslev.<\/p>\n<p>According to the survey report, students assess the ‘quality of research counselling’ at 0.8 on a scale from 0 to 1 \u2013 but the report does not specify figures from previous studies.<\/p>\n<h2>More international PhDs<\/h2>\n<p>So while the study shows that the quality of PhDs in Denmark has gone up \u2013 or has held its own \u2013 despite the increase in admissions, it is harder to find the causes behind the improvement in the survey report.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">11 per cent drop their PhD<\/p>\n<p>89 per cent of PhD students complete their PhD programme.<\/p>\n<p>The completion rate is highest in the health science programmes, where more than 95 per cent graduate, and appear to be lowest in the humanities programmes (where 75 per cent graduate). However, according to the Graduate School at UCPH the low number is caused by a UCPH practice of exmatriculating delayed PhDs and letting them deliver their delayed paper after being ex-matriculated. Therefore the actual completion rate in the humanities programmes\u00a0is much higher than the 75 per cent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The PhD students indicate that the professional <secret text=\"49 per cent say the professional quality is 'high', 12 per cent say 'very high', and only 6 per cent say 'low' or 'very low'.\">quality <\/secret>and<secret text=\"45 per cent say that the relevance in terms of a PhD in general is 'high', 15 say 'very high' while 9 per cent say 'low' or 'very low'.\"> relevance <\/secret>of their courses are high, but yet again there is no indication of comparable data in previous years.<\/p>\n<p>The report does say, however, that the proportion of international students taking their PhD in Denmark,<secret text=\"International students made up 31 per cent of all students admitted to PhD programmes in Denmark in 2015 - compared to 13 per cent in 2003.\"> has more than doubled over the last 13 years.<\/secret> So a possible hypothesis could be that the increase in the number of foreign PhDs may have helped to raise the average quality of Danish PhD programs.<\/p>\n<p>“This could have something to do with it,” says Willerslev. “My experience is that international PhDs are really good. They are extremely motivated. Some come from countries where conditions for doing research are worse than in Denmark, and so they see coming to Denmark to write a PhD as a huge opportunity. ”<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>My experience is that international PhDs are really good. They are extremely motivated<\/p>\n<p class=\"quotee\">Eske Willerslev, professor and\u00a0director of Centre of Excellence in GeoGenetics<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The survey also reveals that an increasing proportion of international PhDs stay in Denmark after their PhD programme. Five years after graduation in 2009 and 41 per cent of international PhDs were still here \u2013 back in 2000 only 21 per cent did.<\/p>\n<h2>PhD programmes are worth the money<\/h2>\n<p>In total, 89 per cent of PhD students in Denmark<secret text=\"The completion rate is highest in the health science programmes, where more than 95 percent graduate, and lowest in the humanities programmes, where 75 per cent graduate. According to the Graduate School at UCPH the low number is most likely caused by a UCPH practice of exmatriculating delayed PhDs and letting them deliver their delayed paper after being ex-matriculated.\"> complete their programme.<\/secret><\/p>\n<p>As a nicety, the study concludes that the many PhDs provide ‘positive socio-economic returns’.<\/p>\n<p>And if you are wondering yourself whether a PhD will make yourself better off financially, the answer is yes, according to the study. You will over a – hopefully long and happy – life as a PhD graduate get a personal financial return that is 3 – 4 per cent higher than if you ‘made do’ with a master\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>The financial gain is highest in taking a social science or humanities PhD. Here you will end up earning DKK 1.7 million and DKK 1.2 million more than your master\u2019s degree companions respectively.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ufm.dk\/publikationer\/2017\/filer\/ph-d-uddannelsens-kvalitet-og-relevans.pdf\">Read the full study here (in Danish with a summary in English)<\/a><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"ArticleEnd"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Banner","img":false,"url":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"OtherStories","headline":"","hand_picked_posts":false,"references":false,"category":false,"theme":false,"number_of_posts":"4","style":"default"}]},"taxonomyData":{"category":[{"term_id":42,"name":"Education","slug":"education","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":42,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":661,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[{"term_id":67,"name":"ph.d","slug":"ph-d","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":67,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":26,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":108,"name":"ph.d","slug":"ph-d-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":108,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":362,"name":"PhD","slug":"phd","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":362,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":6,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":363,"name":"PhD survey","slug":"phd-survey","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":363,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":334,"name":"Quality","slug":"quality","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":334,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"}],"post_format":[],"expression":[{"term_id":18,"name":"Feature Article","slug":"feature_article","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":18,"taxonomy":"expression","description":"","parent":0,"count":1200,"filter":"raw"}],"translation_priority":[]},"featured_media_url":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46197"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48016,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46197\/revisions\/48016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}