The Effectiveness of Research Grants and Incentive Policies on Graduate Study Development, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University

Abstract

This policy evaluation study had four primary objectives: 1) to analyze the structural improvements of research grants and financial incentives in alignment with the 7SOI strategic framework; 2) to compare study durations between funded and non-funded graduate students; 3) to analyze the relationship between research funding amounts and publication quality; and 4) to investigate student decision-making behaviors regarding graduation criteria under financial incentive mechanisms at the Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University. The study analyzed retrospective empirical secondary data from a sample of graduated students (N=865; 701 master's and 164 doctoral students) using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, and Spearman's rank correlation. The findings revealed that: 1) the research grant structure underwent continuous strategic improvements, transitioning from a staggered semester-based disbursement system to a front-loading model to optimize liquidity, integrated with an accountability-based monitoring mechanism and international publication rewards of up to 20,000 THB to support the 7SOI strategy; 2) funded master’s students completed their degrees significantly faster than non-funded peers (t=-3.7192, p=0.0002), averaging 5.03 semesters compared to 5.53 semesters, while no statistically significant difference in mean duration was found for doctoral students, though the funded doctoral cohort exhibited markedly higher graduation consistency (lower variance); 3) funding amounts showed a statistically significant but low positive correlation with publication quality for both master’s (r=0.2716, p<0.001) and doctoral (r=0.2442, p=0.0092) levels, indicating that funding serves as a basic facilitator rather than a direct determinant of research quality; and 4) the relaxation of graduation criteria in academic year 2021 triggered a behavioral substitution effect, whereby 38 master's students opted to graduate through conference proceedings and only 10 chose international journals to avoid delays in graduation despite forfeiting the publication rewards, thereby reducing high-quality journal outputs. In conclusion, the research grant restructuring aligns with the 7SOI strategic framework. Funding primarily enhances time efficiency for graduation but has a low linkage with elevating academic publication quality. Therefore, the design of financial support measures and incentives must be systematically integrated with curriculum graduation criteria to prevent behavioral responses that could undermine long-term policy effectiveness.