America must revamp its graduate education system to prepare the next generation of scholars for much broader roles in industry and government, President James J. Duderstadt said at University Graduate Exercises.
Speaking to doctoral and master's degree candidates and their families May 3 at Hill Auditorium, Duderstadt recalled that when he graduated 30 years ago in California, new PhDs faced employment problems similar to those experienced by graduate students today.
"While the rumors of PhDs driving taxicabs were a bit exaggerated, it nevertheless was a time of some concern," Duderstadt said. Although overall unemployment rates for
recent PhDs are low, he said, there are far more seekers of jobs as professors in
academe and in basic research than there are positions available.
Contributing to the oversupply of PhDs are changes in universities, industry
and government due to the end of the Cold War; rapid growth of international
competition in technology-based industries, and constraints on research spending.
"We as a nation have not paid adequate attention to the function of the
graduate schools in meeting the country's varied needs," he noted. The majority of
PhD programs are geared to train the next generation of academicians, he noted, but
he said that role was too narrow and that graduate education must also serve
the needs of the more than half of the new PhDs who will be in non-academic,
non-research settings.
Faculty should help graduate students find jobs, Duderstadt said, and
academic departments need to provide more up-to-date and accurate information about
career possibilities.
Duderstadt, a member of the National Science Board, the nation's principal
body for policy concerning research and education, suggested that universities:
Design PhD training programs that emphasize disciplines at the borders
between fields and encourage interdisciplinary work.
Develop degree programs that respond better to the needs of industry.
Encourage graduate students to participate in 3- to 6-month internships off campus.
Control the time to degree, which has steadily increased during the past two decades and has doubled in some cases to 10 years.
As part of the redirection of PhD training, the nation needs to shift away from research assistantships, which link graduate training with funded projects, and back
to fellowships and traineeships. Many of the nation's fellowship programs were
dismantled in the 1970s, Duderstadt noted.
He also proposed that the nation and universities examine the need for
fixed times to degrees such as one to two years for a master's degree for those
planning on further professional education, four years for a doctorate for those
interested in non-research or non-academic careers, and utilizing postdoctoral fellowships to obtain the highly specialized training necessary for research or academic careers.
The nation also needs to develop a human resources policy, Duderstadt
asserted. "It is alarming to note that the United States has not had a definite, coherent policy for human resource development for decades---since the massive efforts represented by the GI Bill in the 1940s and the National Defense Education Act in the 1960s."
On a personal note, he encouraged the graduates "to be creative and
imaginative. Try something new before you fall into the same ruts that have trapped the rest of us."
. . . June 1996