Graduate Programs of a Different Kind

When one thinks of graduate programs, one tends to think of research studies in areas that contribute to the advancement of human knowledge in some way. Research that focuses primarily on the betterment of animals is not heavily profiled. The University of Guelph offers graduate programs through the Ontario Veterinary College (OVC) in the areas of biomedical sciences, clinical studies, pathobiology, and population medicine. The program is widely known for its equine (horse) science programs. According to Canadian Thoroughbred, there are more than one million horses in Canada; the equine industry generates $3.5 billion a year. The University of Guelph recently received $2 million from the E.P. Taylor Equine Research Fund to support clinical research in the health and performance of racehorses; plans for a new Equine Sports Medicine and Reproduction Centre are in the works. E.P. Taylor was a visionary in Canadian Thoroughbred breeding. The fund has been supporting graduate student and faculty research at the university through the OVC and Equine Guelph, which offers continuing education programs in equine science and business management. I am currently completing the Equine Science Certificate, and plan to go on to enrol in the Equine Science Studies Diploma. The courses are unique in that they are offered entirely online, making them appealing to horse owners ordinarily unable to access a university and to students without access to horses. Kemptville College, which partners with Equine Guelph, also has onsite degree, diploma and certificate programs specific to various aspects of the equine industry.

So You Want to Get A Ph.D. in the Humanities?

This video, mocking those in pursuit of a humanities doctorate, has been circulating on a number of sites (Inside Higher Ed; The Valve) this week.

Graduate Education Happenings at Memorial

The most recent edition of The Gazette, Memorial University's newspaper, reports on a number of important achievements in graduate education this semester. Graduate enrollment has increased by 10.3% over last year, with a total of 2,954 registrations, of which 1,677 students are studying full-time, and 1,277 on a part-time basis. Dr. Noreen Golfman, dean of the School of Graduate Studies, says that rising enrollment can be attributed to a number of factors, such as ..."the excellent graduate programming Memorial has to offer, the superior research carried out by faculty at this institution, the competitive funding and tuition made possible by support of the provincial government and our more aggressive approach to recruiting the best and the brightest graduate students."

Memorial has created the first online Masters in Physical Education (MPE) degree to be offered in Canada. The program was created and is delivered by the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation (HKR), Distance Education and Learning Technologies (DELT), and the provincial government's Department of Education. The new program received the Innovative and Creative Programming award this year at the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) international conference in San Francisco, CA. DELT also received an award for its social media marketing via Facebook. Memorial's distance education offerings are the largest among Canadian comprehensive universities.

E-Learning: The Horizon and Beyond

This week I attended and presented at Edge Conference 2010, an international conference on the use of technologies in K-12 and Post-Secondary Education. The event was hosted by Memorial University. My presentation focused on the impact of high school distance e‐learning experience on post‐secondary participation and perception of distance education. I presented on behalf of our research team which also included lead researchers Dr. Dale Kirby and Dr. Dennis Sharpe; fellow Ph.D. student, Monique Bourgeois.

Heard it through the grapevine? Not with CCR

A new initiative from Memorial University's office of Student Affairs and Services is in the works. The Co-Curricular Record(CCR)reads like an academic transcript and documents a student’s involvement on campus throughout the year, accounting for various kinds of out-of-class learning. The service will be available to both undergraduate and graduate students, and will be extremely useful when applying for jobs, scholarships and awards, and building professional portfolios. Memorial is one of the first Canadian universities to implement the CCR; as Noreen Golfman, the Dean of Graduate Studies notes, it is an invaluable resource for grad students, many of whom participate in such activities as organizing conferences and running departmental societies, and until now, have not received 'credit' for these contributions to their university community. CCR is a formal method for communicating with potential employers and a launchpad for networking; it will be launched in fall 2010.

U.S. Doctorate Program Assessment

Yesterday the National Research Council released a report entitled A Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States. According to the report brief, this assessment consists of data on over 5,000 doctoral programs in 62 fields at 212 universities, and includes "information on faculty research productivity, institutional support for students, and the diversity of faculty and students, among many other characteristics."

The assessment provides data for each program on 20 characteristics, which were collected from the academic year 2005-2006 through questionnaires sent to doctoral faculty, as well as heads of doctoral programs, administrators, and students. Information on characteristics such as publications and citations came from public sources and uses a considerably longer timeframe.Data on these 20 characteristics also served as the basis for the illustrative rankings included in the assessment.The report also offers illustrative ranges of rankings for each program on three separate dimensions of doctoral education- research activity, student support and outcomes, and diversity.

Finally, the report examines findings and trends in doctoral education. Some interesting points are as follows:

-The number of students enrolled has increased in engineering (4%) and in physical sciences (9%) but declined in the social sciences (-5%) and humanities (-12%).

-On average programs in all fields have experienced a growth in the percentage of female students. The smallest growth (3.4%) was in the humanities fields, which were already heavily female, while the greatest growth (9%) was in engineering - to 22% overall.

-Over 50% of students complete their degree in six years or less in the agricultural sciences and in engineering. In the social sciences 37% complete in six years or less, while the same percentage of humanities students complete by eight years.

-The majority of students in the five fields surveyed for the report (chemical engineering, physics, neuroscience, economics, and English) were "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with the quality of their program. Over 60% in most fields felt they benefited from the program's intellectual environment, but only 40% or less of were satisfied with the program-sponsored social interaction.

According to the news release, the assessment is designed to help universities evaluate and improve the quality of their programs and to provide prospective students with information on the nation's doctoral programs.

Further information, and a download of the full report, can be accessed here.

Global Perspectives

A lucky group of Ph.D. students at Virginia Tech recently had the chance to explore higher education systems abroad, traveling to Switzerland and Italy as participants in a program that offers insights into higher education and the professoriate on the global scale. According to this article, the 13 graduate students from Blacksburg, Virginia were joined by seven counterparts from Universität Basel in Switzerland to participate in Global Perspectives, an interdisciplinary program developed by Karen DePauw, vice president and dean of graduate education at Virginia Tech.

“Global Perspectives enables graduate students to examine differences in academic practices worldwide and to develop innovative and effective approaches that foster international awareness and education,” said David Kniola, assistant director of Virginia Tech’s Office of Academic Assessment and a coordinator of the program.

As part of the program, students from Universität Basel traveled to the United States to visit several universities. The Virginia Tech Ph.D. students who participate in Global Perspectives are funded by the university’s Graduate School.