CENEAR 50 (34) 1-28 (1972)
Chemical and Engineering News 1155 Sixteenth St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036
Editorial
Editor: PATRICK P. McCURDY Managing Editor: Melvin J. Josephs Assistant Managing Editors: Michael Heylin, James H. Krieger, Brendan F. Somerville Senior Editors: Earl V. Anderson (New York), David M. Kiefer (Washington) Senior Associate Editors: Howard J. Sanders, Donald J. Soisson Staff Writer: Joseph Haggin Assistant Editors: Kathryn Campbell, Ernest L. Carpenter, Madeleine Polinger Jacobs, Richard J. Seltzer Editing Services: Joyce A. Richards (Head) Editorial Reference: Barbara A. Gallagher Production Manager: Bacil Guiley Associate Production Manager: Leroy Corcoran Art Director: Norman W. Favin Art/Production: Judy Bitting, Dawn Leland, Joe Phillips NEWS BUREAUS: New York: William F. Fallwell (Head). Chicago: Ward Worthy (Assistant Editor). Houston: Bruce F. Greek (Head). San Francisco: Thomas T. Bradshaw (Assistant Editor). Washington: Fred H. Zerkel (Head), Thomas E. Feare (Assistant Editor) FOREIGN BUREAUS: London: Dermot A. O'Sullivan (Head). Tokyo: Michael K. McAbee (Head) ADVISORY BOARD: Aaron M. Altschul, Alfred E. Brown, Norman Coggeshall, Marcia Coleman, Herbert S. Gutowsky, Anna J. Harrison, James D. Idol, Jr., Norman Kharasch, Gerald D. Laubach, Lawrence Lessing, Norman J. Lewis, Paul Oreffice, Michael N. Papadopoulos, Rustum Roy, Herbert L. Toor
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Facing reality in graduate education It's been clear for some time that we must rethink, perhaps redesign, graduate education in chemistry. Numerous conferences have chewed on the subject. But it's all been rather unofficial and unfocused. Now, an official ACS body—the Committee on Professional Training—has come to grips with at least the core problems with last week's "Report on Doctoral Education: Facing the 1970's" (C&EN, Aug. 14, page 35), its first report on graduate education since 1964. The report should be required reading, for it focuses on questions whose answers will set the chemical stage for a decade or more to come. The main question, of course, centers on the current oversupply of Ph.D.'s and gross overcapacity of the institutions producing them in the face of shrinking R&D funds and a depressed job market. As the report notes: ' T h e present central issue . . . is that the sum of the projected aspirations of all graduate departments in the country far exceeds reality." Thus, the 181 universities in the U.S. offering the Ph.D. in chemistry produced 2149 Ph.D.'s in 1970-71. The top 20 schools, though, generated 680 of this total. Had all 181 departments matched this performance, the annual production would have been something like 6000! Clearly a mismatch against current demand. Obviously, there are too many doctoral programs. Equally obviously, a cutback is in order, and, indeed, it has already begun, in the form of declining graduate enrollments (down 30% in the past six years). The net result could be a Ph.D. production in 1976 of less than 1500. Ironically, a continuing decline in graduate enrollments could actually produce a shortage by the end of the decade. So the situation is anything but clear and simple. Given the nature of the graduate production pipeline, balancing supply with demand in any given year will be a neat trick. But we must try to learn how to do it. More important than mere numbers in the long run, however, is quality. The CPT study points out that far too many students have been leaving without their degrees, an indication, presumably, that too many marginal students had been admitted in the first place. The report urges tightened admission policies and screening. It also deals with a related factor—an increasingly heavy influx of foreign students—calling for reductions, since, as the report claims too large a proportion in any one department can tend to lower quality. The report is perhaps strongest where it calls for redesign of graduate training itself to more closely match new needs. It points out that, whereas relatively many Ph.D.'s in the 1945-68 period landed academic positions, such employment, including spots in four-year and junior colleges, will be available to probably no more than 15 to 20% in the coming 10 years. The remaining 80 to 85% must gird themselves for nonacademic careers, and their training must reflect this. Noting the increasing emphasis on environmental questions, health care, development of new structural materials, as well as work in agricultural and food science, the report urges broadening graduate training accordingly, albeit still maintaining thesis research as the central element of the Ph.D. program. It also favors closer academic-industrial ties. Finally, the committee deals at length with the necessity to upgrade faculties themselves, citing this as the "real challenge of the 1970's." Thus, the report suggests, tenure positions should be made much more carefully than in the past, staff size should be closely regulated, facilities should be carefully designed, with close attention to instrumentation and libraries. And, institutions should foot a substantial portion of the costs themselves without undue reliance on outside funds. Beyond this, the committee sees utility in surveys of existing practices, but questions feasibility of formal monitoring. The CPT report leaves us with no pat solutions, to be sure. But at least it's a reasonable start toward facing reality. Patrick P. McCurdy C&EN EDITORIALS REPRESENT ONLY THE VIEWS OF THE AUTHOR AND AIM AT TRIGGERING INTELLIGENT DISCUSSION.
August 2 1 , 1972 C&EN
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