US looking to reform doctoral education

Published 05 December 07 09:14 AM | robyn.owens 

A new post on the Inside Higher Ed site reviews a book just released by the Carnegie Endowment for the Advancement of Teaching on Reforming the 'Formation of Scholars'. It talks about the appalling attrition rate in doctoral education (cited at about 50% in the States), the lack of focus with qualifying exams, the difficulty in risk management with single advisors, and the lack of preparation for the sorts of jobs doctoral graduates actually end up doing. Its recommendations are basically about re-building intellectual cultures - I like this idea and know of some Schools here at UWA that have done a great job in creating a culture of shared ideas and excitement about the creation of new knowledge.

What, in your mind, should we do to build vibrant intellectual cultures? 

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# sky said on December 5, 2007 1:28 PM:

I think a focus on some of the subtleties of academic life would help, including the architecture (both literal and metaphoric). In my department there doesn't seem to be much interaction in unstructured settings, and I think it's partly because there isn't a shared tea-room or lounge or anything like that on the floor. It sounds like a  minor thing, but visiting NIAS (in Bangalore) I was struck by how much of a difference it makes to have a canteen where everyone from the Institute comes for lunch...it means that people mix and talk and share ideas, and have more of an idea about what's going on and where they could make new links to other people's work.

# Robyn's Blog said on December 12, 2007 12:21 PM:

Since my last post I've been thinking about what would represent a good research culture, at least from

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About robyn.owens

I started my academic life doing a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics at UWA before going to Oxford to complete an MSc and a DPhil, also in Mathematics. I then spent three years in Paris at l'Université de Paris-Sud, Orsay, continuing research in mathematical analysis and going to lots of movies before returning to UWA to work as a research mathematician. I have lectured in Maths and Computer Science at UWA, as well as for short periods at Berkeley, The University of Canterbury in Christchurch, and Prince Songkla University in Thailand. My research has focussed on computer vision, including feature detection in images, 3D shape measurement, image understanding, and representation.