Figure

II-27a: Median Number of Years Spent by Ph.D. Recipients in Their Doctoral Programs, by Field, Graduation Years 2003–2020*

* Time in doctoral program is measured as the difference between the month and year the doctorate was granted and the month and year the doctoral program was started; however, program start is based on master’s program entry if the master’s degree was at the doctoral institution in the same fine field of study or was a prerequisite to the doctorate. The values for time to degree for years 2003 to 2012 are derived from custom tabulations purchased by the Humanities Indicators in 2014. Starting in 2014, the Indicators’ method for calculating time-to-degree (as time in doctoral program) was adopted by the data collector, but they did not include a value for 2013 in any of their published reports.
** Life sciences includes agricultural sciences and natural resources; biological and biomedical sciences; and health sciences.
† Physical sciences includes earth, computer, and information sciences, as well as mathematics. The latter three fields were reported separately beginning in 2015.

Source: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED). A custom tabulation of SED data was prepared for the Humanities Indicators by NORC at the University of Chicago for the years 2003–2012. Since 2014, the values have been reported by NCSES in its annual Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities, Table 31, https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/doctorates/ (accessed 2/15/2022). Data presented by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (www.humanitiesindicators.org).

The data on which this indicator is based are collected as part of the federal Survey of Earned Doctorates, a national census of recently graduated doctorate recipients.

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