Profiles of PhD students’ satisfaction and their relationships with demographic characteristics and academic career enthusiasm

The satisfaction of doctoral students is very important for the quality of higher education. Based on two-factor theory (also known as Herzberg’s motivation–hygiene theory), this study used a person-centered approach to examine possible doctoral student satisfaction profiles. In total, 4,964 participants were included in the study, and the results of latent profile analysis showed that they could be classified into four subgroups: (i) the low-motivation–low-hygiene group (700 participants, 14.1% of the sample), (ii) the low-motivation–high-hygiene group (979, 19.7%), (iii) the high-motivation–low-hygiene group (1,554, 31.3%), and (iv) the high-motivation–high-hygiene group (1,731, 34.9%). Analyses showed that the PhD students differed significantly in their satisfaction-profile membership depending on their gender, age, country, study-abroad status, work status, and caring responsibilities. Specifically, male students, younger students, and students studying abroad tended to be more satisfied with both motivation and hygiene factors. Besides, regarding maintaining and stimulating doctoral students’ academic career enthusiasm, motivation factors can compensate for the negative impact of the absence of hygiene factors, not the other way around. Therefore, it can be seen that two-factor theory has a certain explanatory power for changes in academic career enthusiasm, but it must be adjusted in a certain way considering the special characteristics of the population.