Graduate education at Georgetown is the vehicle we use to educate the professional and academic leaders of the future, at deeper and more sophisticated levels than can be done at the undergraduate level.
One of the strategic goals of a modern research university must be continual improvement in graduate education. At Georgetown a key unit for the support and promotion of graduate education is the Graduate School. Therefore, over the coming weeks we will launch a university wide discussion about the future of the Graduate School at Georgetown.
The Graduate School supports master’s and PhD education on the Main Campus and at GUMC. Assisted by an executive committee of tenure-line faculty, it reviews proposals for new graduate programs and reports of external review panels of existing graduate programs.
The school is the central administration hub of applications for graduate programs, the dispersal of graduate student fellowships, the personnel actions for research assistantships, academic affairs (including academic integrity issues), tracking academic progress of graduate students, and liaison with the Graduate Student Organization.
The school oversees multiple internal research support mechanisms for faculty, under the guidance of a faculty research steering committee. The school provides administrative support for external research grants for the main campus and the Law Center. This includes pre-award proposal preparation activities (e.g., budget formulation), award administration, compliance, and post-award contracting. It also includes faculty assistance for hiring, purchasing, reconciliations, financial reporting, and award close out.
Finally, the Graduate School is also the administrative home of the Georgetown University Press, the program on Communication, Culture, and Technology, the Institute for Soft Matter Synthesis and Metrology, the PhD program in Global Infectious Diseases, and the Center for Population and Health.
We will launch a university-wide discussion of the future of graduate education and the graduate school with the following specific goals in mind:
- Improve alignment of undergraduate and graduate activities
Many departments and programs offer both undergraduate and graduate education. Faculty in these programs often mix their teaching across the two groups. Chairs/directors of such programs tackle the problems of tradeoffs between support for the two classes of programs. Indeed, this creative tension of optimizing both undergraduate and graduate student experiences can lead to solutions that are not possible with disintegrated attention. The decision regarding the graduate should enhance this alignment. - Strengthen graduate education for the benefit of the larger university
Graduate programs are valuable components to the intellectual prowess of a university. Master’s programs often provide their graduates important professional advancement; some are net revenue generators for the university. PhD programs define Georgetown’s contribution to expanding human knowledge and to defining the intellectual leadership of the future world. Both the inputs (selectivity, quality of entering students, grant funding supporting graduate student experiences) and the outputs (external awards given to graduate students, placement of graduates, time to completion) must be continuously tracked in order to guarantee optimal uses of scarce university resources. New graduate programs need quick, effective review on costs and quality issues. The decision regarding the graduate school should enhance the effectiveness of ongoing evaluation of programs. - Increase research/scholarship among faculty
The graduate school is a key source of internal support for junior faculty and others seeking small grant funds for research. The graduate school also assists in pre- and post-award activities. Scholarship and research is critical for a world-class faculty. The graduate school decision should enhance the effectiveness of such support. - Integrate research into undergraduate and graduate experience
Research activities among undergraduate and graduate students will be key to giving them lifelong skills necessary to continuous learning. Such learning is advanced when undergraduates work jointly with graduate students and faculty in shared scholarship. Any decision regarding the graduate school should enhance the integration of undergraduate and graduate student research experiences. - Increase the attractiveness of the best students to Georgetown graduate programs
Effective outreach to potential graduate student applicants can increase the quality of enrolled students. Allocation of graduate student funding should maximally increase the quality of inputs and outputs of graduate programs. Graduate student life at Georgetown needs directed attention, with services offered by the University that maximize the chances of students succeeding. The decision regarding the graduate school should lead to a strengthening of this process. - Strengthen the support of interdisciplinary graduate programs
One key to increasing the stature of Georgetown will be the creation of new interdisciplinary programs at the graduate level that address new needs of the society. Any decision regarding the graduate school should enhance the likelihood of this happening.
We have articulated a variety of alternatives for the functions of the graduate school. Over the coming weeks we want to evaluate each of these options on the stated goals above and refine them. Next week’s blog post will review the first edition of those options.
We will announce a town hall for all of us to discuss how best to achieve these goals. Later we will have separate meetings with faculty in each of the schools relevant to the decision.
I would like to echo the OP’s #6. Although it would present logistic difficulties, the Medical Center needs to be moved to another campus. Moving would allow both the space and personnel growth the school needs to be competitive. I always thought the research park the FDA is trying to make outside Silver Spring sounded enticing, but that is only the opinion of one lowly internet commenter.
On an unrelated note, I have a couple questions for you Mr Groves.
First, when you say Georgetown should increase the research/scholarship among faculty, how can this be done while maintaining the “student-centered”-ness of the university? To explain myself, it seems like expecting faculty to be outstanding scholars while expecting them to develop relationships with students in small classes are contradictory. The easy solution would be to hire more adjunct faculty, but I didn’t think that was desirable by anyone.
Second, I would like to hear what you think about satellite campuses. Necessary? Desirable? Antithetical to the campus-centered atmosphere Georgetown is trying to create?
Just a quick comment concerning research and teaching. Great teaching comes from great research. 9 times out of 10, the faculty that best connect with students and inspire them to do high-quality work are the faculty that are fully engaged and excited about the research they are doing. The answer is not hiring more adjuncts. Rather, the answer is hiring faculty with active research agendas that maintain, year-after-year, high teaching evaluations.
Great thing to look at. I am sure we will be looking at where we need to be in like twenty years. Forward thinking on this will be crucial.
Here are some thoughts about the Graduate School and graduate education at Georgetown:
1. Georgetown’s undergraduate education is highly rated, as are its law degrees and certain signature master’s degrees such as the MSFS, MA in Security Studies and the MPP. However, practically none of its Ph.D. programs are rated in the top 20 (with the possible exception of Linguistics and Neuroscience). In order for GU to become a truly great university, it needs to have distinguished departments and Ph.D. programs. Georgetown main campus Ph.D. programs, which have the best chance of breaking into the top 20-25 in the foreseeable future include: Linguistics, Government, History, Philosophy and Economics.
2. In order to have distinguished departments and Ph.D. programs, GU needs to increase its faculty salaries, which at present are about 15% lower than at top universities, and establish a sizeable number of additional faculty chairs and professorships. It also needs to increase the number of fellowships at the graduate level and make these highly competitive in terms of benefits provided. In a 2010 study of Ph.D. programs conducted by NRC, GU did not do as well as hoped for, because among other reasons, in the case of most its departments the proportion of Ph.D. students receiving full fellowship funding was smaller than at top rated departments of leading universities. For these reasons, the capital campaign goals of raising serious funds for faculty salaries, chairs and professorships, graduate fellowships, and research should receive high priority on par with the goal of raising funds for undergraduate scholarships.
3. In order to attract the best possible graduate students, help them develop their potential, and place them in good jobs in academia and outside of it, additional funds should also be raised to support dissertation fellowships and grants, travel grants, and for awards for outstanding dissertations and for excellent teaching by TAs.
4. In view of the cap on main campus enrollment, careful thought should be given as to where to increase enrollment. In my opinion priority should be given to existing programs, including Ph.D. programs, enabling them to achieve their optimum development. If some additional space is left before reaching the cap, it should be allocated to carefully prioritized programs. A few priority interdisciplinary Master’s degree programs may be chosen, as well as possibly a very few Ph.D. programs such as in Mathematics and Statistics. New master’s degrees intended to bring in additional revenues and aimed primarily at working adults should be offered off campus or through the School of Continuing Studies. Interdisciplinary master’s degrees can be successful at GU, as in the case of the MA in CCT and the MAs in Area Studies, and become increasingly a characteristic of the school, but only high quality disciplinary Ph.D. programs can bring true distinction and prominence to the University.
5. The “boutique” approach to graduate education at GU is sound in view of the limitations in resources and space. Georgetown cannot hope to offer graduate education in all fields, neither can it, as a former graduate dean pointed out, have graduate programs and faculties as large as those of large public universities such as Berkeley or Michigan, except in a very few fields such as Linguistics and Government. In any case it is not necessarily in GU’s interest to become a degree mill. Also, a rapid increase in graduate enrollment would place it on a collision course with its neighbors. Instead, GU should endeavor to provide outstanding graduate education in a finite, carefully selected number of fields, and seek to recruit, nurture and retain the best possible faculty in these fields.
6. If the medical school and graduate biomedical programs move to another campus, this would allow new graduate programs to be initiated without hitting the cap, and provide enough space to meet the physical needs of the main campus. However, this would make coordination and cooperation between biomedical graduate programs and Main Campus graduate science programs more difficult. In choosing a new campus site, the faculty of both the main campus and the medical center should be consulted so as to minimize the difficulties of coordination and disruptions caused by moving certain graduate programs to a new campus.
7. It is correct to say that the Graduate School Dean performs an essential role in administering research programs, graduate fellowships, and graduate student life, etc. At present the Arts and Sciences Departments belong to Georgetown College and are under the purview of the Dean of Georgetown College. In order to have the optimum development of the Arts and Sciences Departments’ graduate programs, the Graduate School Dean should receive greater recognition and be assigned a greater role in the development of graduate programs and faculties, as his viewpoint may be somewhat different and would complement that of the Dean of the College.
8. Most schools at Georgetown have a board of advisors or board of visitors that provides outside advice and help in fund raising. These boards have made a significant contribution in the case of the College, SFS, MSB, etc. Serious thought should be given to establishing a board of advisors or visitors for the Graduate School. Such a board could provide independent advice about the present state and future direction of graduate education at GU, as well as raising funds. Granted that undergraduate alumni contribute more to their alma mater than graduate alumni, but writing off the latter leads to a negative self-fulfilling prophecy. I believe Dr. David Lightfoot was correct in reaching out to graduate alumni during his deanship.