How common is it to fail PhD?

This means that four out of every five students who register onto a PhD programme successfully complete their doctorate. While a failure rate of one in five students may seem a little high, most of these are those who exit their programme early as opposed to those who fail at the viva stage.

Is it easy to fail a PhD?

To give you a dose of reality, the attrition rate at any PhD school is very high. Anywhere from a third to half of those that enroll at a PhD university will not end up graduating and finishing their dissertation. In fact, the figure of 40\%-50\% of failing PhD students has been fairly stable over the past three decades.

What is the failure rate of PhD students?

This means that four out of every five students who register onto a PhD programme successfully complete their doctorate. While a failure rate of one in five students may seem a little high, most of these are those who exit their programme early as opposed to those who fail at the viva stage.

Can you be unsuccessful in a PhD program?

Assuming you make it to the end of your programme, there are still two ways you can be unsuccessful. The first is an unsatisfactory thesis. For whatever reason, your thesis may be deemed not good enough, lacking originality, reliable data, conclusive findings, or be of poor overall quality.

What is the failure rate for a PhD viva?

Of the 19.5\% of students who fail, 3.3\% is attributed to students failing their viva and the remaining 16.2\% is attributed to students leaving their programme early. The above statistics indicate that while 1 in every 5 students fail their PhD, the failure rate for the viva process itself is low.

What is the drop out rate for PhD students?

Drop out rates vary by discipline, but as many as 50 percent of students don’t complete their doctorate. In order to succeed, you must understand what’s at stake—and what’s expected of you—then develop a plan that you can stick to.