The New PhD

The New PhD
Author: Leonard Cassuto
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2021-01-19
Genre: Education
ISBN: 142143976X

By fixing the PhD, we can benefit the entire educational system and the life of our society along with it.

Toward a Global PhD?

Toward a Global PhD?
Author: Maresi Nerad
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Total Pages: 320
Release: 2011-12-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0295800488

Universities and nations have long recognized the direct contribution of graduate education to the welfare of the economy by meeting a range of research and employment needs. With the burgeoning of a global economy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the economic outcome of doctoral education reaches far beyond national borders. Many doctoral programs in the United States and throughout the world are looking for opportunities to equip students to work in transnational settings, with scientists and researchers located across the globe. Nations competing within this global economy often have different and not always compatible motives for supporting graduate training. In this volume, graduate education experts explore some of the tensions and potential for cooperation between nations in the realm of doctoral education. The contributors assess graduate education in different systems around the world, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, the Nordic countries, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Many factors motivate the need for a global understanding of doctoral education, including the internationalization of the labor market and global competition, the expansion of opportunities for doctoral education in smaller and developing nations, and a declining interest among international students in pursuing their graduate education in the United States.

Fast and Curious

Fast and Curious
Author: Robert L. Hampel
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2017-12-15
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1475836945

This book examines four types of shortcuts in the history of American education—streamlined paths to vocational success, cultural sophistication, college credentials, and the efficient use of English. The chapters profile Norman Rockwell, the Harvard Classics, Cliff Notes, speed reading, a Doctor of Arts diploma for college teachers, and other riveting examples of time-savers that attracted millions of ambitious Americans since the late 19th century.

In Pursuit of the PhD

In Pursuit of the PhD
Author: William G. Bowen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 465
Release: 2014-07-14
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1400862477

What percentage of graduate students entering PhD programs in the arts and sciences at leading universities actually complete their studies? How do completion rates vary by field of study, scale of graduate program, and type of financial support provided to students? Has the increasing reliance on Teaching Assistantships affected completion rates and time-to-degree? How successful have national fellowship programs been in encouraging students to finish their studies in reasonably short periods of time? What have been the effects of curricular developments and shifts in the state of the job market? How has the overall "system" of graduate education been affected by the expansion of the 1960s and the subsequent contraction in enrollments and degrees conferred? Is there "excess capacity" in the system at the present time? This major study seeks to answer fundamental questions of this kind. It is based on an exhaustive analysis of an unparalleled data set consisting of the experiences in graduate school of more than 35,000 students who entered programs in English, history, political science, economics, mathematics, and physics at ten leading universities between 1962 and 1986. In addition, new information has been obtained on the graduate student careers of more than 13,000 winners of prestigious national fellowships such as the Woodrow Wilson and the Danforth. It is the combination of these original data sets with other sources of national data that permits fresh insights into the processes and outcomes of graduate education. The authors conclude that opportunities to achieve significant improvements in the organization and functioning of graduate programs exist--especially in the humanities and related social sciences--and the final part of the book contains their policy recommendations. This will be the standard reference on graduate education for years to come, and it should be read and studied by everyone concerned with the future of graduate education in the United States. Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Inside Graduate Admissions

Inside Graduate Admissions
Author: Julie R. Posselt
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 263
Release: 2016-01-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0674915666

How does graduate admissions work? Who does the system work for, and who falls through its cracks? More people than ever seek graduate degrees, but little has been written about who gets in and why. Drawing on firsthand observations of admission committees and interviews with faculty in 10 top-ranked doctoral programs in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, education professor Julie Posselt pulls back the curtain on a process usually conducted in secret. “Politicians, judges, journalists, parents and prospective students subject the admissions policies of undergraduate colleges and professional schools to considerable scrutiny, with much public debate over appropriate criteria. But the question of who gets into Ph.D. programs has by comparison escaped much discussion. That may change with the publication of Inside Graduate Admissions...While the departments reviewed in the book remain secret, the general process used by elite departments would now appear to be more open as a result of Posselt’s book.” —Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed “Revealing...Provide[s] clear, consistent insights into what admissions committees look for.” —Beryl Lieff Benderly, Science

Daring the Doctorate

Daring the Doctorate
Author: Ada Demb
Publisher: R&L Education
Total Pages: 185
Release: 2012-12-15
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1610486951

One of the best kept secrets about doctoral education is the large proportion of students who are mid-career. Yet, few researchers focus on these students. Daring the Doctorate is the first major work to address the life circumstances of these mid-career doctoral students. Based on the experiences of fifteen successful graduates, the author develops perspectives and frameworks to assist those contemplating doctoral study, as well as faculty and staff advisors and even recent graduates who wonder whether only they found the road to graduation so complicated. In this thorough guide to the doctorate degree, study participants speak freely about their reasons for pursuing doctorates, as well as the financial, personal, intellectual and professional challenges they faced. Their circumstances reflect a variety of situations: single, married and partnered; some mothers and fathers; male and female; some as young as twenty-six, and others approaching their middle ages. We learn about their passion for learning, about guilt and isolation, the time pressures, the exhilaration, and key supporting roles played by family, peers, advisors, mentors, Wizards and Guardians. We come away with a profound appreciation of the courage and tenacity of these talented individuals and a better understanding of how to help others like them succeed.

Cornell

Cornell
Author: Glenn C. Altschuler
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 545
Release: 2014-08-12
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0801471885

In their history of Cornell since 1940, Glenn C. Altschuler and Isaac Kramnick examine the institution in the context of the emergence of the modern research university. The book examines Cornell during the Cold War, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, antiapartheid protests, the ups and downs of varsity athletics, the women's movement, the opening of relations with China, and the creation of Cornell NYC Tech. It relates profound, fascinating, and little-known incidents involving the faculty, administration, and student life, connecting them to the "Cornell idea" of freedom and responsibility. The authors had access to all existing papers of the presidents of Cornell, which deeply informs their respectful but unvarnished portrait of the university. Institutions, like individuals, develop narratives about themselves. Cornell constructed its sense of self, of how it was special and different, on the eve of World War II, when America defended democracy from fascist dictatorship. Cornell’s fifth president, Edmund Ezra Day, and Carl Becker, its preeminent historian, discerned what they called a Cornell "soul," a Cornell "character," a Cornell "personality," a Cornell "tradition"—and they called it "freedom." "The Cornell idea" was tested and contested in Cornell’s second seventy-five years. Cornellians used the ideals of freedom and responsibility as weapons for change—and justifications for retaining the status quo; to protect academic freedom—and to rein in radical professors; to end in loco parentis and parietal rules, to preempt panty raids, pornography, and pot parties, and to reintroduce regulations to protect and promote the physical and emotional well-being of students; to add nanofabrication, entrepreneurship, and genomics to the curriculum—and to require language courses, freshmen writing, and physical education. In the name of freedom (and responsibility), black students occupied Willard Straight Hall, the anti–Vietnam War SDS took over the Engineering Library, proponents of divestment from South Africa built campus shantytowns, and Latinos seized Day Hall. In the name of responsibility (and freedom), the university reclaimed them. The history of Cornell since World War II, Altschuler and Kramnick believe, is in large part a set of variations on the narrative of freedom and its partner, responsibility, the obligation to others and to one’s self to do what is right and useful, with a principled commitment to the Cornell community—and to the world outside the Eddy Street gate.

Educating Scholars

Educating Scholars
Author: Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2009-09-28
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1400831520

Meeting the challenges faced by today's U.S. doctoral humanities programs Despite the worldwide prestige of America's doctoral programs in the humanities, all is not well in this area of higher education and hasn't been for some time. The content of graduate programs has undergone major changes, while high rates of student attrition, long times to degree, and financial burdens prevail. In response, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 1991 launched the Graduate Education Initiative (GEI), the largest effort ever undertaken to improve doctoral programs in the humanities and related social sciences. The only book to focus exclusively on the current state of doctoral education in the humanities, Educating Scholars reports on the GEI's success in reducing attrition and times to degree, the positive changes implemented by specific graduate programs, and the many challenges still to be addressed. Over a ten-year period, the Foundation devoted almost eighty-five million dollars through the GEI to provide support for doctoral programs and student aid in fifty-four departments at ten leading universities. The authors examine data that tracked the students in these departments and in control departments, as well as information gathered from a retrospective survey of students. They reveal that completion and attrition rates depend upon financial support, the quality of advising, clarity of program requirements, and each department's expectations regarding the dissertation. The authors consider who earns doctoral degrees, what affects students' chances of finishing their programs, and how successful they are at finding academic jobs. Answering some of the most important questions being raised about American doctoral programs today, Educating Scholars will interest all those concerned about our nation's intellectual future.

Transgressive

Transgressive
Author: Rachel Anne Williams
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2019-05-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1785926489

How do I know I am trans? Is trans feminism real feminism? What is there to say about trans women's male privilege? This collection of insightful, pithy and passionately argued think pieces from a trans-feminist perspective explores issues surrounding gender, feminism and philosophy and challenges misconceptions about trans identities. The book confronts contentious debates in gender studies to alleviate ongoing tension between feminism and trans women. Split into six sections, this collection covers wider issues, as well as autobiographical experiences, designed to stimulate the reader and encourage them to actively participate.

Mastering Your PhD

Mastering Your PhD
Author: Patricia Gosling
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2010-11-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3642158471

"Mastering Your PhD: Survival and Success in the Doctoral Years and Beyond" helps guide PhD students through their graduate student years. Filled with practical advice on getting started, communicating with your supervisor, staying the course, and planning for the future, this book is a handy guide for graduate students who need that extra bit of help getting started and making it through. While mainly directed at PhD students in the sciences, the book's scope is broad enough to encompass the obstacles and hurdles that almost all PhD students face during their doctoral training. Who should read this book? Students of the physical and life sciences, computer science, math, and medicine who are thinking about entering a PhD program; doctoral students at the beginning of their research; and any graduate student who is feeling frustrated and stuck. It's never too early -- or too late! This second edition contains a variety of new material, including additional chapters on how to communicate better with your supervisor, dealing with difficult people, how to find a mentor, and new chapters on your next career step, once you have your coveted doctoral degree in hand.