Gender, Type of Institution, and Access to Doctoral Education—An Analysis Based on the 2016 National Master’s Graduate Survey

Abstract

Access to opportunities for higher education is a classic topic in the sociology of higher education, but studies on access to doctoral education are still rare. This paper drew on data from the 2016 National Master’s Graduate Survey to analyze this issue, focusing on the effects of gender and the types of the institution on access to doctoral education. The study found that approximately 10% of Master’s students graduating in 2016 chose to continue on to pursue a doctoral degree, and the factors of gender and the types of the institution both had a significant impact on the outcome for a student’s pursuit of doctoral education. After controlling for the types of the institution, age, number of papers published during the period of study, and other factors, the probability that women in a humanities discipline, social sciences discipline, science or medicine discipline would pursue a doctoral degree was significantly lower than for men. In the discipline of medicine, graduates from a Master’s program at a high-ranking educational institution had a higher probability of pursuing doctoral education. Further analysis indicated that, in comparison with men, women were more likely to be subject to age constraints when choosing to pursue doctoral education, and were also more likely to be affected by satisfaction with their academic advisor.