Report

Doctorate recipients who graduated in the 2021 academic year encountered multiple challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The most frequent impact of COVID-19, mentioned by 48% of doctorate recipients, was a disruption of their research (figure 26). Doctorate recipients whose research was disrupted most frequently reported limited or no access to resources needed for research (84.6%), changes they had to make to their research plan (38% of them), and other kinds of disruptions (13%) (table D).^{​Doctorate recipients were allowed to provide multiple responses as to how their research was disrupted.}

Nearly 39% of doctorate recipients indicated the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the timeline for completing their doctoral degree.

In addition, doctorate recipients reported the pandemic affected both short-term and long-term plans. For example, 38% of doctorate recipients indicated their immediate postgraduation employment or education plans had changed. More than two-thirds of these doctorate recipients attributed these changes to limited job opportunities (70%), while 15% said they had to accept a less-desirable job, and 22% indicated they had changed plans in other ways (table E).^{​Doctorate recipients were allowed to provide multiple responses as to how their postgraduation employment or education plans changed.}

Over 31% of doctorate recipients said their plans about where to live in the year after graduation had been affected, and 24% said their long-term career plans or goals had changed (figure 26). Among the latter, half mentioned they had changed their long-term career plans or goals for a different type of job or field, 36% for a different type of employer, 17% for new opportunities, and 27% for other kinds of changes (table F).^{​Doctorate recipients were allowed to provide multiple responses as to how their long-term career plans or goals changed.}

Only 7% of doctorate recipients said that the funding for their doctoral studies had been reduced or suspended.^{​The proportion of doctorate recipients who mentioned their funding was reduced or suspended did not vary by the primary source of funding reported by the doctorate recipient (special tabulation).}

Overall, more than three-quarters of doctorate recipients (77%) responding to the COVID-19 impact module reported their graduate experience and career plans were affected in at least one of these areas.^{​NCSES, special tabulations (2022) of the 2021 SED.}

The impact of COVID-19 varied by broad field. Doctorate recipients in fields where laboratories, equipment, and other facilities are indispensable—such as biological and biomedical sciences and physical sciences within S&E (figure 27) and visual and performing arts within non-S&E fields (figure 28)—indicated their research was disrupted in higher proportions than doctorate recipients in other fields. In contrast, those in mathematics and statistics and computer and information sciences had the lowest reported proportions of research disruptions among all fields.

Doctorate recipients in biological and biomedical sciences indicated the timeline for completing their doctoral degree was delayed in higher proportions than those in most other S&E broad fields. In contrast, those in mathematics and statistics and in psychology saw their degree timeline delayed least frequently.

Nearly 40% of doctorate recipients in geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences said that their plans about where to live in the year after graduation were affected, compared to 22% of those in psychology and 24% in health sciences.

Doctorate recipients in psychology and those in mathematics and statistics were the least affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of their immediate postgraduate employment or education plans or their long-term career plans or goals.

Among non-S&E doctorate recipients, larger proportions in visual and performing arts and in humanities said their research had been disrupted by the pandemic compared with their counterparts in business, education, or other non-S&E fields (figure 28). A similar pattern is observed regarding the pandemic’s impact on their immediate postgraduate employment or education plans and their long-term career plans or goals.

Doctorate recipients in business were the least likely to say the timeline for completion of their studies had been delayed, compared with those in other non-S&E broad fields. Similarly, doctorate recipients in education were the least likely to say their plans about where to live in the year after graduation had been affected.

Doctorate recipients who were earning their degree at higher research intensity institutions reported more impacts from the pandemic than their counterparts at doctoral/professional institutions (figure 29).

The largest differences by Carnegie classification of doctorate recipients’ institutions had to do with research disruptions, change in immediate postgraduate employment or education plans, or effect on plans about where to live in the year after graduation.