EXECUTIVE brief

Building Doctoral Completion Systems That Don't Depend on Faculty Heroics: An Executive Brief for Academic Leaders

Shift your academic unit’s strategy from a reliance on faculty heroics to operationalized structure, allowing you to identify attrition risks before they become permanent statistics.

  • Detect Risks Before They Scale: Move beyond lagging annual reviews to catch doctoral student challenges before they decide to not complete their degree.
  • Protect Faculty Capacity: Implement strategic interventions that improve completion rates without adding emotional strain to already burned-out faculty.
  • Solve Systemic Barriers: Address the root causes of attrition—like misaligned communication and unclear expectations by focusing on program structure rather than just individual student commitment.

Done Dissertation has partnered with institutions across the country to reduce doctoral attrition and protect retention metrics.

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About The Author

Dr. Ramon Goings is Director and an Associate Professor in the Language, Literacy, and Culture interdisciplinary doctoral program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and founder of Done Dissertation®. Dr. Goings is author of over 70 scholarly publications and is an expert on doctoral student success, diversifying the K-12 teacher and school leader workforce, and Black male student success from K-PhD. He earned his Doctor of Education degree in urban educational leadership from Morgan State University, Master of Science in human services from Post University, and Bachelor of Arts in music education from Lynchburg College (now University of Lynchburg).