Astrobiology Student Focus Group Report

Two focus groups were held with Astrobiology graduate students in order to gain feedback on components of the AB program, including coursework, research rotations, international collaborations, interdisciplinarity, teamwork, interactions with faculty; and student recommendations for the AB program. In general, students offered positive feedback about the structure of the Astrobiology Program. They especially like the workshops, the seminar series and speaker lunches, and the core courses. They would like more interaction with other students and among the faculty, and they would like more guidance on setting up their rotations.

Blumenfield, T. & Sadrozinski, R. (2007). Astrobiology Student Focus Group Report.

Download: Astrobiology Student Focus Group Report

Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out: A National Survey of PhDs in Six Fields—Highlights Report

To assess the career path of social science PhDs and the quality of doctoral programs, the Center for Innovation and Research in Graduate Education (CIRGE) at the University of Washington, Seattle surveyed recent PhDs, asking them about the application of their education in their subsequent careers. This report concludes that students in social science PhD programs are well prepared for their careers in a number of ways, but they need additional training in essential professional competencies and better career preparation in order to fully utilize the knowledge and analytical skills they acquired during doctoral education.

Nerad, M., Rudd, E., Morrison, E., & Picciano, J. (2007). Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out: A National Survey of PhDs in Six Fields—Highlights Report. CIRGE Report 2007-01. CIRGE: Seattle, WA.

Download: Social Science PhDs—Five+ Years Out: A National Survey of PhDs in Six Fields—Highlights Report

Using an Alignment Model as a Framework in the Assessment of Doctoral Programs

To assist in addressing current issues in doctoral education, this chapter presents a particular framework for successful doctoral programs and discusses implications of that framework for program assessment. This alignment model suggests that successful doctoral programs involve a process of aligning program activities, students and faculty/staff in their specific contexts in order to achieve desired outcomes of helping students complete their degree in a reasonable time with a satisfactory experience and with the knowledge and skills necessary for a range of careers.

Wulff, D., & Nerad, M. (2006). Using an Alignment Model as a Framework in the Assessment of Doctoral Programs” in Peggy L. Maki and Nancy Borkowski, The Assessement of Doctoral Education, Virginia: Stylus.

Download: Using an alignment model

Paths and Perception: Assessing Doctoral Education Using Career Path Analysis

Uses the results from the PhDs – Ten Years Later survey in two disciplines, English and mathematics, to demonstrate the assessment value of understanding student career paths and student evaluations of doctoral programs in light of their career paths.

Aanerud, R., Homer, L., Neard, M., & Cerny, J. (2006). Paths and Perceptions: Assessing Doctoral Education using Career Path Analysis.” In Peggy L. Maki and Nancy Borkowski, Eds., The Assessment of Doctoral Education, Sterling, pp. 109-140, Virginia: Stylus.

Download: Paths and Perceptions

Globalization and Its Impact on Research Education

Observations on the impact of globalization on research training and promising practices for the doctorate of the future: 1) Globalization has not only brought a number of common trends to doctoral education worldwide but also has had differing effects on differing regions and on the more and more diverse doctoral student population worldwide. 2) Due to globalization, doctoral education is confronted with the tension between building a nation’s infrastructure—which means preparing for the next generation of professionals and scholars inside and outside academia—and the necessity of educating domestic doctorate students for participation in the international scholarly community. 3) We need to prepare our doctoral students adequately for times of globalization and an increasing national interest in the role of doctoral education for the knowledge economy.

Nerad, M. (2006). Globalization and Its Impact on Research Education: Trends and Emerging Best Practices for the Doctorate of the Future. In M. Kiley and G. Mullins, eds, Quality Postgraduate Research: Knowledge Creation in Testing Times, CEDAM, The Australian National University, Canberra.

Download: Globalization and its impact on Research Education

Feasibility of International Comparisons of PhD Program Time-to-Degree and Completion Rates

In attempting to compare doctoral times-to-completion and completion rates for institutions in different countries, it was found that issues of definitions and data availability are major stumbling blocks. National and institutional contexts also complicate matters. Because of these complications, comparisons are difficult to make, but it might be possible to account for these confounding issues to gain some insights from such comparisons.

Hall, F., Evans, B., & Nerad, M. (2006). Feasibility of International Comparisons of PhD Program Time-to-Degree and Completion Rates. Unpublished article.

Download: Feasibility of International Comparisons of PhD Program Time-to-Degree and Completion Rates

Evaluative Framework for International Collaboration

The evaluation research reported here had two central aims: To provide formative evaluation of two cases of international collaborations between U.S. and German doctoral programs and to use this experience to develop a framework for evaluation of international collaboration in doctoral-level science education that allows us to assess the benefits of such international collaborations to students, faculty and graduate programs. In the course of one year of a multi-method study we evaluated the international activities of two pairs of interdisciplinary science PhD programs in the U.S. and Germany that had established program-level international components. The guiding research questions were:

• What were the programs doing to foster international cooperation?
• What did faculty members, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students expect from program level international cooperation?
• How did faculty, postdocs and students experience participation in the international component of their doctoral programs?
• What were the hurdles for successful international cooperation? What were successful features of the international collaboration?

Sadrozinski, R. (2006) Evaluative Framework for International Collaboration: Final Report prepared for the National Science Foundation- www.cirge.washington.edu

Download: Evaluative Framework for International Collaboration

From Gradute Student to World Citizen in a Global Environment

Universities play a significant role in the production of new knowledge and training of future leaders. This applies particularly to doctoral education. Several countries have introduced innovative structures for training doctoral students which share many characteristics including international components and collaborations.

Nerad, M. (2005). From Graduate Student to World Citizen in a Global Environment, International Higher Education, 40, pp. 8-9.

Download: From Graduate Student to World Citizen in a Global Environment

From Doctoral Citizen to World Citizen

Empirical data on the outcome of doctoral education leads up to question whether we prepare our doctoral students adequately for the present andn future. We can use the current trend of globalization and the move to a knowledge economy to prepare our PhD students not just to be expert scholars, but also to become world citizens who are aware of the negative effects of globalization and who are equipped to operate as informed leaders and responsible citizens on the world stage.

Nerad, M. (2005). From Doctoral Citizen to World Citizen: The Chance for Innovative Doctoral Education, Miegunyah Lecture given at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Feb. 16.

Download: From Doctoral Citizen to World Citizen

CIRGE Charts Work/Family Paths of Female PhDs

Evidence from the survey, PhDs—Ten Years Later suggests that gender equality in the career paths of PhD recipients is still hampered by conflicts between family lives and career structures.

Rudd, E. and Homer, L. (2005). CIRGE Charts Work/Family Paths of Female PhDs. in Women in Higher Education, September 2005, pp 36-37.

Download: CIRGE Charts Work Family Paths