Sociological Analysis of Factors Affecting Social Demand for Ph.D. (Case Study of Ph.D Students of Tehran Universities)

The present article seeks to explore the sociological factors affecting social demand for doctoral studies. In order to achieve this goal, a quantitative survey method and a questionnaire tool have been used. The statistical population of the study is all students of Ph.D. in Tehran, which is in the academic year 2015-2016, which is equal to 20956 people. The statistical sample was performed using a probabilistic stratified sampling method. In this way, 364 people were selected as samples from different universities. The research findings indicate that by applying the regression test and Pearson correlation coefficient among the five hypotheses, four hypotheses were confirmed. with the comparison of the part effects of squares, it was observed that the value system with part squared (0.226) had the highest share in explaining social demand for continuing postgraduate studies. Subsequently, in terms of having the largest share in the explanation of the dependent variable, the variables of social change (0.127), the motivation to improve the job status (0.052), social pressure (0.038) and ultimately extension policies for higher education (0.015) are respectively. Finally, the total squared of the part effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable of the model is 0.458, meaning that about 0.46 of the changes in social demand for studying in the PhD are explained by the set of independent variables of the research. Key Words: Social Demand, Ph.D., Value System, Social Change, Motivation for Improving Job Status, Social Pressure, and Expansion Policy.