Beyond the( Problematic) RI Target: Graduate Education for a Range of Institutions
Dwight A. McBride Abstract of Presentation
Recent data says there is an increase in the number of things that people are doing with a Ph. D. Similarly, instead of cloning students in our own image, we should listen to what they are trying to accomplish and what they want to do with the Ph. D. Job market data from Northwestern shows that academic jobs have not declined, but tenure-track jobs have. Of our( Northwestern) Social Scientist graduates, about 40 percent who annually go on to academic appointment do so at public institutions, indicating a linked fate between publics and privates. Because the tenure-track market has been difficult to crack – sometimes taking 2-3 years to land such jobs – we’ ve seen a marked increase in postdoc and, in some cases, industry placements. And the data from Northwestern University over the past 10 years bears this out.
As to strategies we’ ve been using to try and help students prepare for and think about different options beyond the Research 1 university placement, three examples include an NIH-sponsored program running about 5 years called New- Start; a partnership with the Kellogg School on an 8-week course in management, entrepreneurship and leadership; and our Ready. Set. Go. summer program that helps students become better communicators around their work. This is true whether talking about science and research; government and policy; corporate finance; arts management; or people who steward the world’ s art and culture. All of these require a kind of training, a kind of expertise, and a kind of place that I think is important for doctoral-educated folk to occupy in a Democratic society. iii