Motives and Aspirations for Doctoral Study: Career, Personal, and Inter-personal Factors in the Decision to Embark on a History PhD

Introduction Why would a mature person decide to do a PhD? It is not urban myth that a significant number of doctoral students fail in completing their degrees, nor is the stereotype of the lonely dissertation student toiling away for years and years to finally stagger over the finishing line, exhausted and disillusioned. There is a body of quantitative and qualitative research proving that deciding to do a PhD is a high-risk strategy (Golde, 2005; Lovitts, 2001; Powell & Green, 2007). Why would someone commit several years of his or her life studying for a degree when there was no guarantee of success at the end? These were the questions posed in this study to 11 individuals in Australasia who took up the challenge of a History doctorate; their answers provide, from a student perspective, qualitative data to better understand the complex decision-making process. Researchers have explored how doctoral students 'navigate stages' (Grover, 2007) of their candidacy, with special concern over student isolation as a cause of attrition in doctoral programmes (Ali & Kohun, 2007; Lovitts, 2008). Successfully embedding or socialising doctoral students within their departments has been identified as a key factor in supporting persistence (Austin, 2009). Major studies are also tracking candidates' career paths beyond the doctorate (Aanerud, Homer, Nerad, & Cerry, 2006; Denholm & Evans, 2009). While our knowledge of doctoral students staying in and then exiting the 'ivory tower' is advancing, less is known about the entering phase (Gill & Hoppe, 2009; Leonard, Becker, & Coate, 2005). This paper, therefore, deals with this less understood aspect of the doctorate: the initial journey taken by students to enrolment. It takes its cue from Tatham and Denholm's provocative question in Supervising doctorates downunder: "If a doctorate is the answer, then what was the question in relation to career development? " (Tatham & Denholm, 2007, p. 262) This study is premised on the conjecture that PhD candidates (and their academic institutions) might avoid (or at least alleviate) the difficulties that the existing research indicates are likely to be encountered during the doctorate if both parties clearly understand the candidate's motives and aspirations from the outset. There are a few British studies that touch upon the issue of initial motivation. Salmon's (1992) Achieving a PhD interwove narratives of 10 mature social science candidates recounting their own doctoral journeys in the late 1980s, several of whom were motivated by social justice concerns and their own sense of identity. From their discussions with successful candidates, Churchill and Sanders (2007) in Getting your PhD established five generic headings to categorise motives or reasons for embarking on a PhD: career development; lack of current job satisfaction; a personal agenda; research as politics; and drifting in. Leonard, Becker and Coate's (2005) study, 'To prove myself at the highest level', using the Education doctorate as a case study, discerned from their interview data the "powerful aspirational value of the doctorate" (p. 139). This desire of Education doctoral holders to prove themselves underscored both 'personal growth' and 'training and qualification' motives. In addition to these British studies, a recent discussion on business professional doctorates (Gill & Hoppe, 2009, p. 31) proposes five motivational 'profiles' (and an associated personal objective) that could lead an individual to doctoral study: 'traditional' (entry into academia); 'advanced entry' (professional development); 'continuing development' (professional advancement); 'transition' (entry to a new career); and 'personal fulfilment' (self-enhancement). They also suggest that the first four profiles accord with different career stages; 'traditional' and 'advanced entry' relate to early-career candidates while 'continuing development' and 'transition' relate more to mid- to late-career candidates. …