What Happens in Grad School Shouldn’ t Stay in Grad School: Thoughts on Necessary Cultural Change
Rosemary G. Feal
Abstract of Presentation
We are in an era of hyper-specialization even though the academic job market cannot accommodate these specialized Ph. D. recipients in sustainable academic positions. In general, graduate students receive little training( or encouragement) to explore opportunities other than the scholarly reproductive choices made for them by their graduate advisors.
The hyper-specialized Ph. D. program provides students with some essential skills that would serve them in jobs beyond the academy, but rarely are those skills formally identified and cultivated. Several shifts need to happen if we are to move away from the current model. The first is recognition on the part of graduate schools and graduate programs that we have a responsibility to our students to inform them about current employment prospects and conditions and prepare them for their post-Ph. D. years. xv