Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the failed graduate school reforms of the past and presents a plan for a practical and sustainable PhD. For too many students, today's PhD is a bridge to nowhere. Imagine an entering cohort of eight doctoral students. By current statistics, four of the eight50%!will not complete the degree. Of the other four, two will never secure full-time academic positions. The remaining pair will find full-time teaching jobs, likely at teaching-intensive institutions. And maybe, just maybe, one of them will garner a position at a research university like the one where those eight students began graduate school. But all eight members of that original group will be trained according to the needs of that single one of them who might snag a job at a research university. Graduate school has been preparing students for jobs that don't existand preparing them to want those jobs above all others. In The New PhD, Leonard Cassuto and Robert Weisbuch argue that universities need to ready
Trade ReviewJust in time comes a new book that suggests a set of reforms and innovations meant to transform doctoral education into a more student-centered, career-diverse, socially engaged enterprise that enlarges the possibilities for students and expands the benefits for society.
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ForbesTable of ContentsIntroduction. Why We Need a New PhD and How We Can Create One
Chapter 1. Then and Now: Two Recent Eras of Reform
Chapter 2. Purpose, Then Path: A Practical Guide to Starting the Conversation
Chapter 3. Career Diversity: A Liberal Arts Approach to the PhD
Chapter 4. Admissions and Attrition
Chapter 5. Student Support and Time to Degree
Chapter 6. Curing the Curriculum and Examining the Exam
Chapter 7. Advising
Chapter 8. Students as Teachers
Chapter 9. Degrees: What Should They Look Like? What Should They Do?
Chapter 10. Public Scholarship: What It Is, Where It Came From, and What It Requires
Conclusion. From Words to Actions
Postscript
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
