PERSISTENCE PATHWAYS: CHANGING RESEARCH LABS TO PERSIST IN ENGINEERING GRADUATE EDUCATION

The US requires more highly trained engineers to meet the problem-solving needs of the next century. Improved graduate education systems are one way to increase the degree completion of graduate engineering students. About half of engineering graduate students do not complete their degree. Students leave graduate degree programs for many reasons including conflict with faculty or peers, financial or academic difficulties, or family concerns. Additionally, well-paying industry positions in many sectors of engineering also provide attractive alternatives to continued education. However, some students who leave would have preferred to complete their degree. These partially trained graduate students represent a missed opportunity for future innovation and development. Changing research labs during doctoral study is one avenue doctoral students use to resolve serious conflicts. The research will measure how often students change research labs and identify obstacles, processes, and solutions needed in the graduate education systems to support students in addressing academic, personal, or social reasons for changing research labs. The research will inform strategic recommendations to improve engineering graduate education systems to facilitate students changing research labs as an opportunity to retain skilled and partially trained students.

Engineering education requires creative solutions to the continued attrition of talented and well-qualified doctoral students who choose to leave without a doctoral degree. Over 70% of engineering doctoral students consider departing their programs and many, 40-60%, leave due to conflict with advisors and peers, financial or academic difficulties, and personal or family concerns. Some students choose to remain in doctoral engineering by changing their research lab or advisor, program, or university. In a recent preliminary survey, 60% of doctoral engineering students seriously considered changing or had changed research labs or universities during their doctoral training. Lab change provides the opportunity to retain partially trained and qualified engineering doctoral students. However, the costs for the individual, programmatic barriers, and advisor conflicts complicate changing labs. The research will describe and contextualize the lived experience of changing research labs during doctoral engineering training through quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. First, longitudinal data from a new survey will capture the frequency, predictors, and career outcomes of lab change. The second phase will use qualitative data from students planning, who are currently or have recently changed research labs or universities during doctoral engineering studies. A third phase will combine longitudinal quantitative data (Phase 1) with the qualitative interview data (Phase 2) to construct timelines for mixed-methods analysis of the process of changing research labs.

Increased persistence of students with the experience, knowledge, and interest to be admitted for doctoral education impacts the industries and communities they participate in post-graduation. In particular, the persistence of underrepresented groups represents an opportunity to profoundly impact marginalized communities through the socioeconomic benefits of advanced engineering training and attention to marginalized research questions unasked by current engineers. Marginalized groups are focused on due to the disproportionately higher attrition rates. Findings from this research will be developed into proposed guidelines and considerations for lab-change policies to be adapted and integrated into existing department and college policies.

The research will advance knowledge about why, how, when, and who changes research labs during engineering doctoral education. Outcomes include the identification of considerations to retain students in graduate study while addressing their academic, personal, or social needs that require changing research labs. While focused on engineering disciplines, the outcomes, and research methods have potential applications across fields in STEM, providing a research framework and direction for future research.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Award Number: 2603026
Principal Investigator: Matthew Bahnson
Funds Obligated: $261,753
State: OH