Volume 7

7 pages 365 K bytes

Cultural Influence on Social Isolation in Doctoral Programs and Doctoral Attrition - A Case Study Azad Ali Indiana University of Pennsylvania Indiana, PA 15705, USA Frederick G. Kohun Robert Morris University Pittsburgh, PA 15219 USA

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the influence that cultural practices has on feeling of social isolation and student attrition in doctoral programs. It has been established that doctoral programs have a high percentages of attrition or dropping out of the program among their students before completion. This phenomenon has been studied repeatedly and a number of findings were concluded from these studies. One of the findings is that social isolation contributes significantly to the student dropping out of the doctoral programs. This paper take it a step further by studying the effects that cultural practices have on the feeling of social isolation and as a sequence on the decision of the student to drop out of the doctoral program. It takes the doctoral program in Information Systems and Communication (DISC) at Robert Morris University as a case example for this study. The paper begins by summarizing the findings of previous studies and then shifts to focus on the effect that culture has on the feeling of social isolation among doctoral students.

Keywords: Culture influence and social isolation, Culture Social Isolation and Doctoral Attrition, Social Isolation in doctoral programs and culture, Culture effect on doctoral attrition

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Recommended Citation: Ali and Kohun (2009). Cultural Influence on Social Isolation in Doctoral Programs and Doctoral Attrition - A Case Study. Information Systems Education Journal, 7 (64). http://isedj.org/7/64/. ISSN: 1545-679X. (A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of ISECON 2008: §3533. ISSN: 1542-7382.)