Attitudes of orthodontic postgraduates to MSc research projects--a retrospective survey

A questionnaire survey of 103 past orthodontic postgraduate students from seven U.K. institutions, was undertaken to determine the perceived value of M.Sc. research projects in relation to the amount of effort required by students to complete their reports. Seventy-nine (76.7 per cent) replies were received. The majority of the respondents (47, 59.5 per cent) had trained at the Eastman Dental Hospital, although this did not markedly affect the results statistically other than where the graduates were given a choice of MSc subject (P < 0.001). Most postgraduates (42, 54.6 per cent) had found their projects interesting and useful, but 42 (54.6 per cent) claimed to have spent more than 30 per cent of their working time producing them. Forty-four (55.7 per cent) commented that they had problems with the project; of these, there were complaints of insufficient time (23.5 per cent), material (14.7 per cent), data (13.3 per cent), inadequate supervision or direction (26.5 per cent), and interference with clinical time (16.4 per cent). Twenty (25.3 per cent) had carried out further work on their projects, but only three (2.9 per cent) had gone on to complete a Ph.D.