A person-centered approach to doctoral completion: Do motivational profiles predict persistence?

De Clercq, Mikaël [UCL] Galand, Benoît [UCL]

Doctoral studies can be seen as being at the pinnacle of education, gathering high achievers who have gone through an important selection process to reach it. However, despite former bright educational pathways, a large number of doctoral students will not complete their degree (Jairam & Kahl, 2012). The high attrition rate (30 to 50%) of doctoral students has been largely depicted as a worldwide major educational concern (Mason, 2012; Peltonen, Vekkaila, Rautio, Haverinen & Pyhältö, 2017). A potential explanation of attrition among Phd students could lie in the motivational layer of doctoral experience. As it was largely demonstrated with high school students (Hayenga & Corpus, 2010) and college students (Allen, Robbins, Casillas & Oh, 2008), motivation is crucial to maintain a high level of tasks engagement and persistence. Without appropriate motivation, even the brightest students can feel compelled to give up. Existing research substains this assumption and highlighted that motivation is a critical component of doctoral completion (Lovitts, 2008; Mason, 2012). However, in depth investigations of the impact of motivation on doctoral completion is still lacking: (1) studies addressing the effect of motivation on doctoral completion are still scarce and mainly qualitative (London et al., 2014), (2) self-determination has barely been considered (Mason, 2012) and (3) motivational profiles have been largely neglected (Hayenga & Corpus, 2010). Further analysis of the actual effect of motivational variables on the doctoral experience is therefore needed (Mason, 2012) and will be endorsed by this study.