A national survey of female and male doctoral students will be launched during autumn 2021. It will aim to reflect on the study conditions of female and male doctoral students.
The survey is commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, which already supported similar research in 2014.
The project is designed to be long-term. In the first phase of the survey, i.e. during data collection in spring 2021, we will address all PhD students who are studying in the current academic year in full-time and combined form, as well as those who are currently interrupted in their studies. In total, approximately 20 000 potential respondents will be approached. The survey will continue as a longitudinal survey, with regular follow-up surveys after about two years, when we intend to re-engage with respondents who allow us to do so and ask them about changes that have taken place during that time.
The design of the questionnaire is based primarily on the need to improve the quality of this type of study. Of course, the amount of doctoral scholarships and the overall financial conditions of study are also of interest. We will also be interested in other topics such as the relationship with supervisors, support from the university, and of course the motivation of PhD students to study and their career prospects. We will also ask about what threatens their studies and what benefits them.
Doctoral studies and increasing their quality and success rate is one of the main priorities of the new Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Education and Science for the period from 2021.
A major innovation of this year’s survey is the coordination with a similar survey conducted by Das Deutsche Zentrum für Hochschul- und Wissenschaftsforschung (DZHW), a major German research organisation in the field of higher education. The result of this coordination will be the comparability of data from both countries and the understanding of where Czech and German PhD students are similar and where they are not.