A plethora of national studies of graduate education over the past two decades has yielded similar recommendations for reform, but very little action. Beginning with the seminal 1995 NAS study, “Reshaping the Graduate Education of Scientists and Engineers,” two fundamental truths have been recognized and echoed in most of the subsequent studies, including a study by the American Chemical Society published nearly two decades later, "Advancing Graduate Education in the Chemical Sciences." First, most STEM Ph.D. recipients do not pursue careers in academics, indicating a broader range of instructional options is required. Second, it takes too much time to complete a Ph.D., and a concerted effort is needed to reduce the time to degree (TTD). Many reasons can explain why the numerous studies have not gained traction. Unresolved natural tensions exist between some of the recommendations, for example, how non-academic career development is to be achieved while reducing the TTD. Also, paths forward to implement the recommendations have not been provided, sustained efforts have not followed the studies, no go-to place exists to share best practices, and the unique challenges/traditions of individual disciplines and institutions are not often recognized. Although all these reasons deserve consideration, in this report we focus on perhaps the most important reason for why these studies have not produced action: the entire community of stakeholders in the graduate education reform movement has not generally been consulted/engaged during or after the studies to learn if they agreed with the recommendations. We recently asked the entire community of stakeholders of chemistry doctoral education – undergraduates who plan to go to graduate school, graduate students in various stages of their studies, recent graduates and postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and administrators – to indicate their level of support for the conclusions and the accompanying recommendations of the ACS study (http://chemistry.graduate.education). The more than 1300 respondents to the survey revealed that some ACS study recommendations are universally popular, others were less popular; however, of particular interest are the controversial recommendations, as disagreement between groups of stakeholders could foretell conflict and therefore barriers to reform. In addition to summarizing the results of the survey, a path forward towards implementing the recommendations of the 2012 ACS study is discussed.

Mantras for graduate education reform: Why the prayers aren’t answered

256th National Meeting (2018)

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