2003-12-16

Sweden's 16 Research Institutes - a statistical follow-up of the doctoral students concerned and some findings about the institutes? work

• Up to and including spring 2002, a total of 177 doctoral students had embarked on their studies at the 16 research institutes. Overall, the students are distributed fairly evenly among the universities and university colleges serving as hosts and partners. However, there are deviations among individual research institutes, to either the host´s or the partners´ advantage. In recruiting their doctoral students, most of the research institutes have taken into consideration the distribution of doctoral students at the universities and colleges included in the scheme.
• Overall, the gender distribution of doctoral students is even; but there are individual research institutes at which either women or men are predominant.
• Among ‘freshmen' at the research institutes, the proportion showing a ‘low´ or ‘very low´ rate of activity is smaller than among first-year doctoral students in regular education.
• More than 25 per cent of the students admitted to the research institutes have previously been registered as active doctoral students for one or more terms.
• A large majority (79 per cent) of the research institutes´ doctoral students support themselves through employment in their capacity as postgraduate students from the very first term. This is a substantially higher proportion than among students engaged in regular doctoral studies.
• More than half of the research institutes ensure that all doctoral students have at least one assistant supervisor.
• Few students at the research institutes have changed their supervisors.
• All the research institutes arrange courses, which -- to the extent that places are available -- are open to postgraduate students outside the research institutes as well.
• Several institute directors have overwhelmingly positive experience of collaboration in the institutes´ steering group (or equivalent), which includes representatives of both the host and partner institutions. However, in a few cases one of the minor university colleges has been unable to provide a representative for the steering group of the research institute concerned.
• Several directors, in drawing comparisons with regular doctoral studies, are of the view that the research institutes tend to announce students´ places on a larger scale; to obtain more applicants for the places announced; and to offer their students assistant supervisors more often than other institutions. Moreover, in their opinion the institutes tend to be characterised by more ‘painless´ changes of supervisors, owing to the extra support they provide; their students drop out more seldom; their scope (resources) for developing new courses is superior; and their students are included in a larger network of doctoral students and supervisors.