Exploring Factors Influencing the Success of Doctoral Students in Engineering

This paper reports on a survey conducted by the faculty on recent PhD engineering graduates of the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, (UKM) concerning factors that lead to successful doctoral studies. Survey results show that 74.2% of the respondents rated their supervisors as being very helpful, 54.8% opined that working independently is crucial in achieving PhD success, 38.7% of the respondents expressed more than 40 hours per week as time spent doing research during their PhD tenure. In addition, 87.1% of graduates indicated that readings on past and current literature were done every semester, 58.1% of respondents published more than three journal papers while 64.5% of the respondents attended conferences more than four times during their PhD studies. Results from the survey will be used to upgrade present practices in the faculty to help current engineering PhD candidates achieve success in their studies.