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 | Educating Scholars: |
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. Ronald G. Ehrenberg is the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics at Cornell University and director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute. Harriet Zuckerman is senior vice president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and professor emerita of sociology at Columbia University. Jeffrey A. Groen is a research economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Sharon M. Brucker is a project coordinator at the Survey Research Center of Princeton University. "The right combination of money and policies can make real progress in reducing the time to degree for earning humanities doctorates, but the six-year humanities Ph.D. is probably not in the cards. Those are among the key findings of one of the most ambitious efforts ever to reform the humanities Ph.D., as discussed in one of the most thorough (and frank) evaluations of such an effort. . . . [Educating Scholars] closes by noting that 'intensive critical attention' to graduate education has been shown to make a difference in completion and time to degree. And the book notes just how formative graduate education can be: 'The education scholars receive stays with them; its influence flows into their teaching and research and finally to the successive generations of their students.'"--Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed Endorsements: "Educating Scholars tells the story of one of the most ambitious educational experiments attempted in the past twenty-five years at America's top universities. The authors take us on a journey into the training of humanists and the efforts to transform some parts of their experience. It is full of interesting ambitions, fascinating information and ideas, false starts, unexpected encounters with changing conditions in the academic marketplace, and a set of results that were largely unanticipated. If you are interested in the humanities and in our nation's best universities, this is the book you must read."--Jonathan Cole, John Mitchell Mason Professor of the University and former Provost and Dean of Faculties, Columbia University Subject Areas: | |||||
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