Association of American Universities Committee on Graduate Education: Report and Recommendations.

N

29

Policymakers

Doctoral Degrees; Doctoral Programs; Educational Policy; Educational Trends; Employment Potential; Foreign Students; Government School Relationship; Graduate Study; Higher Education; Tables (Data); Trend Analysis

This report presents recommendations for best practices in graduate education, especially Ph.D. or doctoral programs. Discussion of the national perspective reviews trends, including the rapid growth of graduate education since World War II, the large number of Ph.D.s awarded by U.S. universities to foreign students, and the increasing number of Ph.D. recipients who are still seeking postgraduate commitments or have postdoctoral rather than professional appointments. Discussion of the institutional perspective stresses the need for student interests to be of paramount importance in designing a graduate curriculum, problems with policies governing federal support of research assistantships to graduate students, and the need for universities to track placement of their Ph.D. students at least to their first professional employment. The 19 recommendations address the following topics: recruitment and admissions; financial support; graduate curriculum; faculty mentoring; data for institutional policymaking, program evaluation, and student advising; program evaluation; policy implementation and maintenance; and external support for graduate education. Tables summarize data on doctorate recipients by discipline, gender, ethnicity, and nationality; academic employment of recent Ph.D.s by broad fields; career plans of doctoral students at graduation; and foreign students. (Contains 11 references.) (DB)

1999

ED428644