Abstract:

The interest in academic careers matures as graduate study progresses. Even though during the basic training many students aspire for a PhD title, the actual number of enrolled is lesser. To better understand the reasons and identify the candidates as well as identify the obstacles, we conducted a survey. This paper will report the findings dealing with PhD aspirations undertaken in students of the last year of Kinesiology graduate study (5th year) at University of Zagreb, Croatia.

Altogether 229 senior students filled in a self-completion 12 item questionnaire that was administered to them during the 9th semester of Kinesiology study. The items consisted of questions regarding their academic achievements up to now, their interest for PhD in Kinesiology or elsewhere, their financial constraints regarding PhD financing etc. The mean study duration till the end of the 9th semester was 5.34 ±1.33 years, range 4-11 years and the mean number of exams that were not passed from previous years was 3.3 ± 2.64 exams, range 4-15 exams. The achieved grades were as follow: 20.8% of students had the average grades between 3.01 and 3.50; 57.8% between 3.51 and 4.00; 16.6% between 4.01 and 4.50 while only 4.3% students were among the best with average grades between 4.51 and 5.00. Out of all, 54% finished gymnasium high schools while the others went to professional schools and for 94% of them the Faculty of Kinesiology at University of Zagreb was their first choice. When asked about PhD study aspirations only 3.9% are sure they will enroll, 34.4% are thinking about it while 61.3 does not think about it at all. If they planned to enroll 93% would do it at our faculty while 7% would choose different University or abroad. Mann Whitney U test confirmed a strong difference between the interest for PhD between gymnasium graduates and professional school graduates (p<0.001) in favor of gymnasium graduates.There was also a strong correlation between the average grade and PhD interest (lower grade –less interest Spearman R = 0.23) and number of exams still to pass (Spearman R =-0.13). They are not sure how they would finance the study; some count on their parents (21%), some plan to work for it (51%),some would take a loan (11%) and others don’t know. 35% of those interested still don’t know their potential field of interest and the potential supervisor. Being already focused on specific field of interest topic and supervisor was weakly but significantly connected to their better average grade and gymnasium high school attended (Spearman r=0.16 and -0.19; p<0.05). There was no difference (Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA p=0.684) in PhD interest among the groups that lived at home with parents or relatives, at student dormitory or in other private apartment even though the ones living in dormitory showed slightly higher PhD aspirations. The students who do not think about PhD study at all name the main reason for that their own lack of interest, lack of finances and a few think it would not contribute do their success in career and life. The PhD aspirations of seniors show the relatively high interest but also worries about the finances. The graduates from Gymnasium high schools definitely do better during the study and show more interest in continuing their academic career and are more focused on the specific field of interest. There would be a need to negotiate the possible financing options with government for those who would like to attend but are unable to do so.