Abstract:

The Council of Graduate Studies found only 44% (N= 3,829) of students enrolled in a doctoral program in the US completed their degree within 7 years; 36% withdrew, and 20% remained after 7 years. Doctoral degree abandonment presents a challenge for doctoral degree-granting institutions. Completing a doctoral dissertation is the culminating milestone and often the most challenging aspect of degree attainment. It requires resilience, dedication, and strong institutional support. Both personal and university related factors contribute to doctoral degree abandonment and can occur at different points throughout the doctoral experience. When unsuccessful in a doctoral program at the dissertation stage, “All But Dissertation” (ABD) students are left with feelings of shame, financial strain, and failure. In many cases, doctoral candidates who do not complete their programs are required to start over at a different institution, resulting in significant losses of time and resources.

Few universities in the US offer second chance opportunities for doctoral students to transfer with course credit to finish only their dissertation. The example university in this paper created a unique dissertation completion pathway in 2018 to assist ABD students by accepting a block credit transfer, allowing them to enroll in three bridge courses as a skill refresher before restarting the dissertation. To date, the university reports a 50% success rate for doctoral students enrolled in this novel pathway. With 7 years of experience working with ABD doctoral students from across the US, this university has gleaned insights from students regarding their previous and current doctoral experiences leading to doctoral abandonment and completion in a second chance opportunity.

This paper’s methodology utilizes a dual epistemological approach that converges two analytic lenses to frame doctoral abandonment and explain how universities can support ABD students to address this problem. The first lens is programmatic, using the Loss and Momentum Framework, which focuses on four phases of doctoral students’ experience (connection, entry, progress, and completion). The second lens is from a doctoral student vantage point, using university and personal factors as barriers to doctoral success. Integrating these lenses makes visible the reciprocal epistemic workflow required to complete a dissertation and clarifies where programmatic reforms and targeted resources and supports are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. By examining institutional policies, mentor training models, and student narratives, the analysis identifies recurring points of loss—such as inconsistent mentor engagement, unclear expectations, and insufficient methodological scaffolding—as well as momentum building practices that support re-entry and completion.

Findings indicate doctoral abandonment is best understood as a breakdown in shared epistemic workflow rather than an individual deficit. Programs that explicitly train faculty in co constructive supervision, provide structured dissertation milestones, and offer targeted supports demonstrate higher rates of ABD engagement and completion. The paper concludes by outlining a dual lens model for designing ABD pathways that reposition the dissertation process as a collaborative, knowledge building partnership. Implications for doctoral program reform, faculty development, and student experience are discussed.

Keywords:

Higher education, doctoral education program innovation, All But Dissertation, epistemological framework.