Doctoral Students Think Teaching Assistantships Hold Them Back

By Peter Schmidt

A new survey of recent Ph.D. recipients has found that more than four out of five of those who received paid teaching assistantships believe that having them prolonged their doctoral education, though not enough to keep them from completing the programs in a timely manner.

The perceived impact of research assistantships on doctoral students' progress, on the other hand, varied by academic field, according to a report on the survey's findings being