Aldrich Interdisciplinary Conference

Next week (Feb.21-23) the Graduate Student's Union of Memorial University will be holding the Aldrich Interdisciplinary Conference. Presentations will be centered around the following themes: socio-economic impact of research, pedagogy, and sustainability. For the first time, this year's conference will be open to student and faculty at a national level. More information about the conference can be found here.

Ph.D. Placement Statistics

There has been some recent discussion at Princeton University about Ph.D. statistics. This editorial published in The Daily Princetonian, commented on the need for graduate schools at research universities to release information on the placement of their Ph.D. graduates into academic positions to potential graduate students. Unfortunately, few schools release these statistics, although it is argued that these statistics help students to consider their options with regards to a career path- an important decision considering the job market today. The fact of the matter is that while most Ph.D. students in the social sciences and humanities are encouraged to enter academia, few will find opportunities for employment upon graduation. This reality, and the disillusionment that accompanies it, is evidenced by websites about dropping out of graduate school, such as SellOutYourSoul.com, and Leavingacademia.com. The editorial further notes that a recent report released by the National Research Council, discussed in an earlier blog, did not include data on graduate placement because of the difficulty encountered in trying to obtain it from institutions. A recent column, written in response to the earlier editiorial, says that schools should strive to provide more than just placement stats; information on completion and time-to-degree in Ph.D. programs should also be made available.

Socializing Doctoral Students for Professional Careers

A recent column in the Chronicle of Higher Education claims that Ph.D. programs are neglecting graduate student’s professional development, and the author, English professor, Leonard Cassuto, calls for the incorporation of seminars that address this topic into graduate program coursework to educate students about the culture of the profession. A part of this education involves preparing graduates for careers outside of academia.

From the column:

It amounts to this: Graduate school is professional school, but most Ph.D programs badly neglect graduate students' professional development. We spend years of their training ignoring that development, and then, only at the last moment when students are about to hit the job market, do we attend to their immediate professional needs. By neglecting their career goals, we allow their desires to coalesce from their immediate surroundings—the research university—and to harden over time.

Canadian Doctoral Graduates, Class of 2005: Where are they now?

A report was recently released by Statistics Canada, entitled, “Expectations and Labour Market Outcomes of Doctoral Graduates from Canadian Universities.” Data for the report was drawn from two sources- the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), and the National Graduates Survey (NGS). In summary, two concerns are raised about doctorates in Canada: the number being produced; how doctorate holders (graduates) are employed in this country. With regards to the first concern, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports that Canada lags behind other developed countries in the production of doctoral degrees. In 2005, about 4,200 candidates earned a doctorate degree in Canada- approximately one tenth the number awarded in the United States in the same year (43,400). While differences in population size and number of institutions are not accounted for, this is still concerning.

A related concern that is noted in the report is where graduates live and work after completing the doctorate. Slightly more than a quarter of 2005 doctorate graduates (about 27%) moved out of Canada upon completion of their degree and many still resided in the United States two years after graduation. However, 24% of those who moved to the United States after graduation in 2005 had returned to Canada by 2007, and many others were still planning to return. Slightly more than one out of ten 2005 doctoral graduates (12%) were living in the United States in 2007. About seven out of ten graduates who lived in the United States in 2007 (69%) moved for work-related reasons. The majority of those who moved (9 out of 10) had a job awaiting them. However, more than eight out of ten graduates living in the United States in 2007 (83%) intended to return to Canada.

Of those graduates of Canadian universities who are employed in this country, fewer are employed by the private sector than in other countries. Employment rates were found to vary according to field of study; graduates from the humanities reported the highest unemployment rate at 16%. The median income for doctoral graduates in 2007, two years after graduation, was $65,000. While women accounted for 46% of doctoral graduates in the class of 2005; an increase of 11 percentage points compared to their proportion in the class of 1995, across all fields of study, men were paid a median income of $65,000 compared to $61,000 for women. Approximately one in five graduates(19%) said they were overqualified, compared to 30% who reported that less than a doctoral degree was needed to obtain the job they were in. The majority of graduates (56%) were employed in educational services; with most working in a university (87%).

It would be interesting to know what current attrition rates are. What is needed is a longitudinal study examining the total number of students enrolled in first year doctoral studies in a given year, following up at several points to determine the number who complete, average time-to-degree, as well as the number that do not complete. Differnces between institutions and disciplines could be analyzed; comparisons made with American data.

Grad School: Avoiding the Real World

Here's some mid-week grad school humour:

Doctorate Degrees Granted in U.S. Reach Record Levels

According to a recent article in the International Herald Tribune-the global edition of the New York Times, the number of doctorate degrees granted by American Universities has reached the highest level ever recorded: 49,562 students in the 2008-09 academic year; an increase of 1.6% over the 2007-08 year. The stats are provided by the National Science Foundation's Survey of Earned Doctorates. Some of the findings were as follows:

-In 2009, 67.5% (33,470) of doctorates went to students in science and engineering (S&E), 13,593 of whom were women- a 4.8% increase over 2008. The number of men earning these degrees declined slightly.

-The number of doctorates awarded in non-S&E fields increased from 2008-2009 for both men (1.2%) and women (0.8%).

-The number of doctorates earned by international students declined- by 3.3% in science and engineering; and 4.6% in other disciplines.

The full report can be found here.

The Effect of Prestige at American Universities on Graduate Education

The most recent edition of the Journal of Higher Education features an article I have been eagerly anticipating: Keeping up with the Joneses: Socialization and Culture in Doctoral Education at One Striving University, by Susan K. Gardner. In the article, Gardner discusses the role of institutional prestige and rankings at American universities, and the effect this has on students, faculty, and the quality of graduate education programs. Gardner’s research at one third-tier university indicates that in their effort to increase their ranking to keep up with the most prestigious institutions of higher learning, lower-ranking universities may in fact be unintentionally undermining the quality of education. Such middle- to -lower ranking universities try to attract the ‘best’ scholars and students, but doing so requires funding and resources for research, areas in which many of these institutions are ultimately lacking. The reality is that such “superstar” faculty who get hired on devote little time to teaching and mentoring graduate students, and/or become disillusioned, many of them leaving, resulting in high turnover rates and setting a pattern in play of poorer quality programs and thus affecting the reputation of the university.

One’s institutional affiliation is an important factor to consider when enrolling in graduate study, particularly in the U.S., where prestige and ranking are considered important (though maybe not the most ideal) methods for measuring the success of a university. In Canada, this is not so much the case, but I think it definitely plays a role. Certain campuses are certainly less well known than others, and access to funding and resources is distributed less than equally across the country, as is the case around the world. How much do Canadian graduate students pay attention to how well their chosen institution is renowned (or not)? Do prestige and rankings matter all that much- to us, to faculty, or the institution? How much of a role does where one completed graduate work play in the job market or in seeking a career in academia? Should it play a role at all?