(Updated 12 September 2011)
The College of Liberal Arts, in collaboration with the Graduate School, is developing a set of measures intended to strengthen the profile of doctoral students who are about to enter the academic job market. Because teaching is likely to remain the primary activity of most of our graduates, we are increasing our efforts to prepare students for teaching and to highlight their training and experience as instructors.
Toward that end, the Graduate School has agreed to create the Graduate School Teaching Fellowship, which will be awarded yearly to a select group of graduate students. CoLA will pilot this initiative in 2011-2012 with doctoral students from Comparative Literature, Government, History, and Linguistics.
The fellowship will come in the form of a $5,000 stipend, given to a doctoral student slated to teach an upper-division undergraduate seminar. The topic proposed for the course will be grounded in the fellow’s dissertation project and draw on her/his expertise, with the expectation that it will contribute to the teaching mission of the department.
(Posted May 2010)
The Survey of Earned Doctorates is distributed yearly to new research doctorates in the United States. Questions are asked about educational histories, funding sources, and post-doctoral plans. Results are published each year with a two-year lag; 2008 results have just been published.
The results of the survey shed light on realities for new PhDs. Responses to certain questions provide information that is critical for doctoral students as they progress through their programs and prepare for their futures, inside or outside of academe. The following data are of particular interest:
How many new PhDs pursue careers in academe?
All fields: 51.1%
Social Sciences: 61.9%
Humanities: 85.8%
Upon graduation, what is the most common primary work activity for Liberal Arts PhDs?
Most new doctorate graduates with definite plans for post-graduation employment report that teaching will be their primary work activity.
Teaching, Research, and Other Activities: How do they figure in post-graduation employment plans?
Among anthropologists, political scientists, and sociologists, 55% list teaching as their primary work activity. 63.6% of economists plan for research and development to be their primary work activity, and 40.9% of psychology graduates plan to go into professional services as their primary work activity.
Of humanities graduates, 75.4% plan to teach as their primary work activity, while 13.6% report research and development as their primary work. The remaining 11% plan to work in management or administration, professional services, or primary/secondary education.
University of Texas graduates are included in these data. All UT graduates are invited to participate in this study, and we are eagerly awaiting a report on UT graduates specifically. This report will make it possible to see where UT graduates stand in relation to the national averages.
Data do not allow us to ascertain the extent to which these results reflect job availability versus preference. At any rate, if the national data point to teaching as the primary activity of graduating doctoral students in both the humanities and the social sciences, is teaching part of your plan? How prepared are you for teaching?
Citations available upon request.
The PhD Completion Project is a seven-year study conducted by the Council of Graduate Schools in partnership with more than twenty universities. The project examines retention and attrition and seeks to evaluate and promote practices that improve completion rates for underrepresented minorities and women.
The Council of Graduate Schools has released four volumes on their preliminary findings. Their most recent publication, Ph.D. Completion Project: Policies and Practices to Promote Student Success, reports on activities that are improving completion rates in doctoral programs at participating institutions. Here are some of the “promising practices” they have identified by category:
• Mentoring and Advising: Findings emphasize the importance of communication about expectations, milestones, and tracking student progress through annual reviews. Colleges and universities demonstrate their commitment to mentoring by pairing students with well-trained faculty and peer mentors, as well as by encouraging women and minority students to participate in programs outside of their departments.
• Financial Support: Findings suggest that universities and colleges should prioritize financial support by offering more of the available funding to doctoral students over masters students, offering summer support and health insurance, and allocating more financial support to programs with high completion rates.
• Professional Development: In addition to recommending programs that allow dissertation writers to connect and collaborate, the study recommends that colleges and universities guarantee that students will have opportunities to develop teaching skills.
