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Abstract
Despite successful completion of coursework and comprehensive finals, many doctoral students are deterred from finishing their degree at the dissertation-phase, and are commonly referred to as ABDs (All But Dissertation). ABDs are prevalent at many schools and within various disciplines of study, and non-completion can affect the individual both personally and professionally. The problem also reflects poorly on universities, and can create repercussions to society.
This study explored and isolated factors that inhibited or enabled the completion of the dissertation for three ABDs, and for three PhDs; all of whom were non-traditional age male students at one university, who pursued a PhD in Educational Administration, while being employed full-time. A multiple case study was formulated through individual interviews, and cross-case analysis compared individuals from both categories of participants. The primary factors that were investigated include: Personal and Professional Factors, Family and Peer Support, University Support, Campus Resources, Topic Selection, and Perfectionism and Procrastination.
Professional advancement, which is common among this category of participants, was cited as an inhibiting factor due to escalating job responsibilities causing less available free time for academic endeavors. This, coupled with the change from a structured learning environment with fixed demands on time to the non-structured, independent arena of the dissertation project, makes degree completion difficult. Topic selection was cited by all as the most important and challenging aspects of the dissertation process. The study participants completed self-assessment surveys, which revealed moderate concern for perfectionism, but strong tendencies toward procrastination for two of the three ABDs. To alleviate these and other inhibiting factors explored in the study, recommendations are provided to ultimately yield more PhDs and fewer ABDs.
