Survey of Earned Doctorates

[Roxanne Shirazi]

Hello,

Apologies if this is not appropriate for this list, but I am hoping to reach folks who work with doctoral graduates when they deposit dissertations to ask about communications related to the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED).

Our university used to require doctoral graduates to complete the SED and it was listed as a required step in the degree checklist. A few years ago, a student complained and our legal department agreed that surveys should be voluntary and not tied to graduation. We had to change our communications and no longer required students to complete the survey before depositing their dissertation.

Now, predictably, our survey completion rate has tanked. We've gone through a few different ways to reach students to explain the survey and encourage them to complete it voluntarily, with only mild success. Our administration is seeking information about how other universities handle this survey, in the hopes that we can find a middle ground with our legal department. I've seen several institutional websites that indicate SED is a requirement, so we seem to be an outlier and we'd like to gather more information about how it is handled elsewhere.

Does anyone have anything that they'd be willing to share? I am happy to talk off list.

Thank you!

Best,

Roxanne Shirazi

The Graduate Center, The City University of New York

rshi...@gc.cuny.edu

[Cynthia Tindongan]

Hello Roxanne, 

At Ohio University continues to require the SED of doctoral students.

I do see how events at your institution have brought you to your present point.

I look forward to hearing what our colleagues have to say.

Many thanks,

Cynthia Tindongan, PhD 

Director, Thesis and Dissertation Services 

Ohio University

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[Shari Hill Sweet]

Hi, Roxanne,

The University of Notre Dame still lists the SED as a required component of the dissertation submission checklist, and we do follow up with students who have not submitted it before we approve their dissertation.

 

If a student objects to completing the survey, we send them the information from the SED website about the survey's data collection and usage in the hope it will address their concerns. If they still refuse, we ask that they provide a written statement outlining their objections, and we add that to their student record in lieu of checking off the survey. (We do something similar with those who object to submitting their work to ProQuest.) It's working for us so far — we usually have a 98-100% SED completion rate. 

Shari Hill Sweet