The ASU Graduate College wants to make sure that a doctorate degree from ASU has value to prospective employers of graduates.
"Employers would like to see students study more broadly and be more able to adapt their disciplinary perspectives to complex problems in the world of business," Dean Bianca Bernstein said.
Currently the Graduate College is working to organize groups of students, professors, administrators and community members to develop strategies to improve the University's Ph.D. programs.
ASU was chosen in March by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation as one of 14 universities to enhance and develop their Ph.D. programs.
The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship, headquartered in New Jersey, is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the encouragement of education through graduate study fellowships and educational opportunities for women and minorities.
Some of the other schools chosen by the foundation include Yale, Princeton, the University of Michigan, Indiana University and the University of Texas, Austin.
Each selected university will develop strategies to enhance their Ph.D. programs. At the end of the 18-month program, each university will write and submit a report to the foundation based on their findings.
"We believe the necessary first step at ASU is to convene groups of students, faculty, administrators and employers to consider what we are presently doing in our doctoral programs," Bernstein said. "And what we can do to make the Ph.D. a more valuable asset."
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will work with the Graduate College to form the discussion groups and identify goals.
Each group is scheduled to meet in January and February to discuss, gather information and propose strategies for the change. In the spring, the groups will present a three- to five-page report for a panel discussion.
Along with the panel discussions, participants will be kept up-to-date on the activities of the project through a Graduate College interactive Web site.
In fall 2002, ASU panelists will write a final report that will include their findings and proposed strategies for change.
Then, the 14 schools will submit their findings to the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. The reports will be compiled into a book for other universities to use when addressing ways to enhance their doctoral programs.
Graduate College Associate Dean Maria Allison said the project would help determine what the University needs to do to make its degrees more comprehensive.
"ASU will develop its own response that is relevant to the concerns of the ASU community," she said. "We're going to ask Ph.D. students, faculty, administrators and community leaders to discuss ways that the Ph.D. might be made more valuable."
Allison added that the reports are a positive way to improve higher education through national discussion.
"It will increase ASU's national visibility because we are given the opportunity to provide input into the national dialogue about doctoral education," Allison said. "Their hope is that through this national dialogue, they can identify new and innovative models to improve doctoral education."
Reach Christina Higdon at grimm119@aol.com.
