Minutes
University Council on Graduate Education
November 6, 2006
Fletcher School
Medford
Present: David Walt (chair), Arthur Donahue-Rolfe, Larry Feig, Shafiqul Islam, Ayesha Jalal, Bill Moomaw, Peter Walker, Vin Manno
The Council members met with the Provost’s Council to discuss implementation of the recommendations in the document, “Operational Changes to Build Excellence in Graduate Education.” Each Dean described what had been done to meet the goal of enhancing the quality of doctoral education at the individual schools.
Much of the UCGE meeting was spent discussing the Provost Council meeting. Several observations were made.
Perhaps most significant fact was that there was a meeting where the topic of doctoral education was the main agenda item.
There is uneven engagement by the schools with the issues raised in the document, and they are at different places in addressing them.
Can the process of “renewing” faculty to support doctoral education be accelerated?
The university’s reputation is tied to high quality research.
There were some common themes:
The expense of PhD programs is high (and research is a money sink)
Agreed that Tufts cannot do doctoral education on the cheap without additional resources.
Challenge of rewarding faculty for mentoring doctoral students
Many doctoral programs have an interdisciplinary character, and there seems to be increasing acceptance of them, but schools lack a clear sense of how to evaluate them relative to more traditional disciplinary based programs
Questions were raised among the UCGE members about several topics.
How are new capital funds being raised and allocated for graduate research and education?
Why is there such a large difference between the treatment and publicity concerning the assessment of graduate education and the way the undergraduate review was treated?
It was noted that there is no direct way for the UCGE document to be made operational at the level of Deans, chairs and faculty.
The question of whether to follow up by meeting with a group of deans, or to go to each school and meet with chars and program directors instead. The sense was that the latter would be more productive.
What is the basis of faculty evaluation? Following a discussion of differing practices at each school, it was decided that it was essential to meet with deans and chairs to develop a strategy. The need to engage faculty who have fallen away from research was voiced, and specific goals for schools were described in percentage terms of faculty active in scholarship and faculty active in research and grants.
On the topic of how best to improve graduate education, it was noted that Sackler has put together a set of best practices, and Friedman a PhD handbook. We discussed the merits of putting together a list of best practices or an operational document for guidance based upon actions in different schools.
Need to set goals for next 5 years, and make clear to all what long term goal of the university is relative to graduate education
How will contributions in support of graduate education be rewarded?
Outside review of PhD programs. Internal assessment of programs every five years.
Project how program will look in 5 years.
Have a clear sense of how to rank faculty on teaching, research, mentoring and financial support.
Will get a list of best practices from Vin, and we will edit and add our own contributions. This list is not binding, but a guidance document.
Ask Provost what he believes will improve graduate education at the doctoral level.
Discussed the upcoming assessment of the Provost Fellows scholarship effectiveness. Agreed to keep stipend levels where they are awaiting outcome of assessment of effectiveness. Announced upcoming Provost Fellows breakfast.
Topics for future meetings included the following.
Self evaluation of existing programs (5 year cycle)
Explore the relative roles of programs relative to departments (interdisciplinary)
Why do a PhD at Tufts? What is collective reputation?
Role of individual faculty
Role of research centers in graduate education
Need to resolve barriers across departments and schools
Creation of new PhD programs
What is relationship between undergraduate and graduate education? Explore other universities.
