A scholar may have ambitions for a Ph.D., but the nitty-gritty requirements of attaining that degree can halt the progress of even the most diligent scholars.
Doctoral programs should reevaluate their dissertation and foreign language requirements, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching said in a set of recommendations for nationwide reforms.
The full report, to be released early next year, includes suggestions such as revamping faculty-student advising relationships, broadening fields of study and changing graduation requirements. "We're all waiting with extremely bated breath to see the book itself and to see the more specific recommendations that they're making," said David Redman, the Graduate School's associate dean for academic affairs. "We're reasonably satisfied that we're attacking current problems."
Degree requirements in the Graduate School, Redman said, vary by department based on what is appropriate for that particular field of study.
The report is aimed at "creat[ing] environments in which all qualified students can succeed in the fullest way, becoming responsible stewards of their disciplines, academic citizens and contributors to the larger society," a description on the Carnegie Foundation's website said.
De-emphasizing or eliminating the dissertation requirement for receiving a Ph.D. is one of the study's most revolutionary suggestions. As interdisciplinary fields of study become more popular, the report contends, a focused research project like a dissertation is no longer relevant.
Joseph Younger, a doctoral candidate in the history department, said being required to write a dissertation is an important part of his academic program and will benefit him even when he has found a job. "Junior faculty draw upon the research they've done in graduate school in that pre-tenure phase," he said. "It sort of carries over."
Katharine Moore, a doctoral student in the chemistry department, noted that some schools allow students to publish several research papers instead of writing a thesis. As a student of the natural sciences, Moore supported that option because a science dissertation is really "the sum total of all your papers kind of mushed together."
Redman said that the scope and requirements of a dissertation already vary by department. The economics department, for example, requires its candidates to write three shorter papers rather than one long dissertation.
But, he added, "doing away with the dissertation is not one [reform] that I think is very likely to happen either at Princeton or generally in the graduate education community."
Moore also appreciated the report's recommendation to eliminate foreign language requirements. Languages have become less relevant in the sciences, she said, noting that her department long ago eliminated its foreign language requirement. She said that many science students were encouraged to learn German and Russian because some science articles were written in those languages. "But now," she said, "everything's written in English."
She was quick to note, however, that required courses outside of the chemistry department were still important to her graduate education. A required class in mechanical and aerospace engineering was "very, very, very, very, very difficult" but instrumental in giving her perspective. "They teach you how to think," she said.
Some of the Graduate School's policies have drawn disapproval from other groups as well, with the Graduate Student Government (GSG) strongly criticizing the Graduate School's advising system, which has been one of the GSG's targets for reform.
Daniel Raburn, the GSG's press secretary and a fifth-year astrophysics graduate student, said that the inaccessibility of faculty advisers was a problem for graduate students, particularly in the humanities, where professors are known for frequently taking sabbaticals.
"We've been trying to encourage the Graduate School to have more of a formalized system for making sure that faculty are accessible," he said.
The Carnegie Foundation's report has recommendations for those problems too, suggesting that students work with multiple advisers.
"It would increase the likelihood that at least one mentor would be in the country at [any given] time," Raburn said.
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