Grad Coach publishes US doctoral timelines and declines to estimate the UK equivalent

2026-09-08 04:22:39 Education

A new analysis of doctoral study from dissertation coaching firm Grad Coach is unusual in what it leaves out. It reports how long a doctorate takes in the United States in some detail, and then states that it cannot answer the same question for the United Kingdom, because the figure has never been published.

"The education doctorates we work with are nearly always part-time, and the student is holding down a full-time job while they do it, usually in a school, a district or a university department," said Derek Jansen, Founder of Grad Coach.

What the company can report comes from the National Science Foundation's Survey of Earned Doctorates, a census of every research doctorate awarded by a United States institution. The 2024 round covers 58,131 graduates.

Measured from entry to graduate school, the median across all fields is 7.3 years. The range around it is wide: education takes a median of 12.3 years, while the physical sciences take 6.0.

"Nobody publishes a median [for the UK], and I am not going to estimate one. I would rather leave a gap here than fill it with something I cannot stand behind," said Derek Jansen, Founder of Grad Coach.

The analysis notes that even the American figures need their definition attached. Time to degree is reported from three different starting points, and a duration quoted without saying which one it uses cannot be set against any other.

Grad Coach argues that an acknowledged gap is more useful to a prospective student than a confident figure with no source behind it, and that unsourced durations circulating online are the reason so many candidates start with the wrong expectation.

The full analysis, How Long Does a PhD Really Take?, is published at https://gradcoach.com/how-long-does-a-phd-take/

About Grad Coach
Grad Coach is a dissertation and thesis coaching service providing one-on-one support from doctoral-qualified coaches, alongside language editing, transcription, qualitative data coding and self-paced courses. Founded in 2017 and trading as Think Digital Limited, the company is a member of The Tutors' Association. Grad Coach publishes a free library of research templates, guides and video tutorials at gradcoach.com.

Media contact
Derek Jansen, Founder, Grad Coach
Email: pr@gradcoach.com
Phone: +852-8192-9453
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