Development of a dissertation quality value-added model for humanities and social sciences programs for private higher education institutions in Thailand

The purposes of this study were: (1) to evaluate the quality of dissertations in the humanities and social sciences of private higher education institutions, (2) to analyze factors affecting the quality at the student, advisor, and institute levels, and (3) to develop a quality, value-added model of the dissertations. Samples consisted of: (1) 750 student dissertations in the humanities and social sciences and (2) 753 questionnaire responses consisting of 633 students, 108 dissertation advisors, and 12 senior administrators in the participating institutions. A 5-point rating dissertation evaluation scale was developed for use by the researcher and her assistants. Three sets of a dissertation attribution questionnaire used by the students, advisors, and senior administrators were also developed and administered. Descriptive statistics were used with the 5-point rating data. The 3-level HLM package was used to analyze the quality, value-added model of the dissertations. The findings of the study were: (1) the overall quality of the 750 dissertations was at the standard level; (2) there were 5 factors at 3 different levels influencing the dissertation quality with 1 student factor (favorable characteristics in conducting research), 3 advisor factors (experience in research, up-to-date knowledge in research, and the advisor-student ratio), 1 institutional factor (close monitoring and management system); and (3) the quality value-added model was able to predict the variance of the dissertation quality at 36 percent.