The Determinants of Study Progress in Postgraduate Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: N Akbar Muhammad 
Published: July 2024

Aim/Purpose: The aim of this paper is to investigate the determinants of satisfaction with study progress during a period when COVID-19 restrictions were in place and after their removal.

Background: The pandemic instigated a period of rapid technological change in global higher education. Relatively little research has examined the combined effect of technological use and the pandemic on academic development. The current work sets out to examine the role of time management, technology use, and health and well-being on self-assessed academic progress.

Methodology: An opportunity sample of 494 doctoral students recruited predominantly from universities in the UK completed a survey with measures of technology use, attitudes to technology, self-reported health and well-being, satisfaction with study progress and aspects of time management. During the period of data collection, pandemic restrictions were removed, providing the opportunity for a limited, interrupted time series (ITS) analysis

Contribution: This paper presents a model of study progress, which is applied in two distinct periods over which data was collected – during the period of the pandemic when social restrictions were in place and in the period following, when restrictions were removed.

Findings: A majority of doctoral students reported being satisfied with their study progress. Several significant correlates of this were identified. A linear model utilising these variables statistically explained 29% of the variance in satisfaction with study progress. For the period when COVID restrictions were still in place, the model explained 47% of the variance, significantly greater than in the subsequent period when restrictions were removed. Effect sizes for happiness with time management, finding software applications difficult to use or learn, currently reported general health, health compared to the previous year and the effects of the pandemic on study were significantly greater during the period of the pandemic.

Recommendations for Practitioners: A proportion of the sample reported finding software difficult to use/learn, with this impacting on reported study progress. This suggests a need for technology training for doctoral students. The relationship between time management and study progress also suggests a potential need for support in this area. It is important that technology training takes on board the ‘emotional usability’ of technology. Raising awareness amongst supervisors of doctoral students of both the psychological dimensions of technology use and the need for student support would be beneficial.

Recommendation for Researchers: Self-rated academic progress provides a useful measure of academic attainment. The role of doctoral students’ health and well-being in relation to study progress warrants further investigation. To clarify the causal nature of relationships between time management, health and well-being and study progress further work using longitudinal studies is required.

Impact on Society: The study suggests the pandemic had a large influence on doctoral students’ education and their health and well-being. With the increasing importance of international postgraduate recruitment for universities, the findings highlight the need for attention to be given for students’ well-being and the support infrastructure which can contribute to this.

Future Research: Future work should seek to replicate the findings and examine how determinants of study progress may vary over time and in different populations of doctoral students. Structural equation modelling could be used to further explore the relationships which health, time management, technology use and appraisal have with study progress. More work is needed to assess the potential long-term effects of the pandemic on well-being and academic life.