Brown University is participating in a national initiative that aims to increase completion rates in doctoral programs. Funded by Pfizer Inc. and The Ford Foundation, the Ph.D. Completion Project is administered by the Council of Graduate Schools. In total, 29 universities have received funding under the two phases of the project.
This major initiative in graduate education is designed to address issues of doctoral attrition and completion in the sciences, engineering and mathematics, and the humanities and social sciences. The universities will collect and submit data on doctoral completion and attrition; implement interventions, or initiatives, in areas such as selection, mentoring, and financial support; and develop rigorous assessment strategies to measure the impact of these interventions.
At Brown, the following nine graduate programs participate in the effort:
Anthropology
Biomedical Engineering
Engineering, Other Programs
Chemistry
English
Geology
History
Pathobiology
Psychology
In the Fall of 2007, the Graduate School began focusing its interventions on supporting students at “critical transitions” during their early and middle years in academic programs. The new strategies include an emphasis on monitoring milestones of academic progress; improving the process of advisor selection, especially for entering cohorts of women and minority students; and fostering a research environment by assisting students with grant-writing and identifying funding sources.
In the Fall of 2008, the Graduate School established new services for graduate students making the transition from research to writing their dissertation. In collaboration with the Writing Center at Brown, the Graduate School is providing three specially trained dissertation writing coaches, as well as a workshop, offered each semester, on how to translate research into coherent and effective writing. Students who wish to work with a coach should contact the Writing Center to schedule an appointment.
Please visit http://www.phdcompletion.org/ for more information and additional participating universities.
