Who Gets Our Ph.Ds?
For FY2012, the Maryland System total of research doctorates was 831. Let’s hope they all got the jobs they wanted! But what’s especially interesting is the local/foreign split: One-third of the degrees were earned by those from other countries. Among those of the USA, the race/ethnicity breakdown was Euro 44%, African heritage 10%, Asian heritage 6%, and Latino/a 3%. Females outnumbered males except among the foreign students. The more-females-than-males holds up at the master’s and bachelor’s levels. That should not be a surprise given the disproportionate dropping out of males in secondary schools.
What Should a Dissertation Be?
Most faculty members with a Ph.D. completed a research or equivalent dissertation, perhaps 300 or 400 pages. But change is taking place. A doctoral student at Michigan State contributed an article to The Chronicle of Higher Education (15 February 2013) entitled “The Dissertation Can No Longer Be Defended,” touching on some challenges that perhaps should be less so: the time it takes to complete the dissertation, the attrition caused by the requirement, and the less relevance of the work to non-academic careers. So what should be substituted? Perhaps a set of scholarly or even journalistic publications—but does the candidate have to wait for the actual publication or at least the acceptance? Articles published where, reviewed by whom? What about a paper joint with the supervising professor? What about other media? Can a feature documentary meet new requirements?
Why Go to College?
Those of us who are, let us say, “mature,” might remember the years when going to college was to get away from home and/or to pursue enlightenment. (Or is that a romanticization?) In any case, the current students have different reasons. UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute reports: “Incoming students persist in putting a premium on job-related reasons to go to college. Continuing to rise is the importance of going to college in order to get a better job, which rose two percentage points this year to an all-time high of 87.9%, up from 85.9% in 2011 and considerably higher than its low of 67.8% in 1976. … In the minds of today’s college students, getting a better job continues to be the most prevalent reason to go to college. Also at an all-time high as a reason to go to college is ‘to be able to make more money.'”
We wonder: with the emphasis on jobs and income, how should universities respond? Should we move in the direction of a trade school? Some of us respond: horrors! But a job and money probably don’t call for many courses in art, history, and philosophy, to name a few disciplines that are less tightly linked with careers. In more career-oriented disciplines, should we downplay the history and ethics of the careers so that they spend more time with wrenches and calculators? Will the differences between community colleges and universities narrow?
The report is at http://heri.ucla.edu/monographs/TheAmericanFreshman2012.pdf.
Completing College
An amazing 46% of students who enroll in higher education do not complete their degree work within six years … and most probably never do. For African-Americans, the did-not-complete figure is 63%; for Latino/as it is 58%. (Source: HCM Strategists, The American Dream 2.0.) So what? “Whereas we used to lead the world in the percentage of young adults with postsecondary credentials, we now trail 13 other nations. Unless we get more of our citizens through to graduation, society will become divided between the postsecondary haves and have-nots, and the economy will struggle to move forward.” (ibid) Will we give more academic and financial support to help students through, or will we make graduation easier? A bet on the latter is probably advised.
Maryland is no exception to the disappointing college completion figures. At one of our System campuses, only about one in eight students completes his or her education within six years. This dropout problem is becoming a matter of considerable concern in higher ed circles and beyond; Governor O’Malley has asked campus leaders to address the problem. After all, we are losing a potential campus and national resource. Also, the student who drops out might be heavily burdened with loans that are hard to repay without the credential. The default figure for the country is now about $7.7 billion!
Recently, a collaborative report of six higher education associations produced a report, College Completion Must Be Our Priority. It seems that one-on-one help is not of the highest priority; after all, it’s expensive. But the report does seem to favor more online courses, more courses shaped to meet the needs of non-traditional students (surely UMUC is a leader in this), and more credit for non-academic experience. Non-academic experience? Might that cheapen the degree?
Boys and Girls
Various Census data have been analyzed by the Population Reference Bureau to determine who receives bachelor’s degrees. The research focus was people 25 to 34 years of age. The results may not be surprising, but they should be worrisome. Overall, in the USA 36% of females and 28% of males have the degree. What’s going on with males? And why aren’t both percentages higher?
The good news is that 64% of female and 61% of male Asians have the degree. Great work. Congratulations. All other race/ethnic categories lag. Among Euro-Americans, the MF figures are 33% and 42%. What’s wrong, white guys? But the very bad news is for African-Americans, 16% and 23%, and Latino/as, 11% and 16%. The low Latino/a percentages in part reflect the challenges facing immigrants (plus, of course, money and other barriers); and the nation’s agenda should include making English language education more accessible and effective.
This led to looking at enrollments at the system universities. What percentage of Euros are male? Here are the Fall 2011 data from the Euro-male-deficient campuses: Bowie (30%), Coppin (35% of a very small N), Salisbury (42%), Towson (38%), and UMB (30%). But it’s another story at Frostburg (49%), UB (50%), UMBC (57%), UMCP (55%), UMES (50%), and UMUC (53%). Reader: suggestions for an explanation of the differences?
Maybe we should be more concerned by the absence of Black males. At the system level, males are 49% of the Euro total, but males are only 37% of the Black total. To fill out the rest: males are 45% of the Latino/a total, and males are 51% of the Asian total. Of course, the percentages to some extent reflect the secondary school graduations. In Maryland, the male graduation rates of 2009-2010 cohorts are Black=57%, Latino=62%. and Euro=81%. At nearby DC, the Black male graduation rate is 38%.
Counties in Maryland differ. For instance, Montgomery County’s Black male graduation rate is 74% (at the top nationally), whereas the figure for Prince George’s County is 55%. Well, they are better than Detroit, which has a 20% graduation rate for Black males; in Philadelphia, the figure is 24% and in New York City it is 28%. Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!.
Looking at one local school, High Point High School, promotion from 9th to 10th grade was only achieved by 66% of Blacks and 59% of Latino/as.
Prejudice? Maybe some. But the Maryland data on the national assessment of educational progress in 2011 for grade 8 reading have more scares. Those males at or above “proficient” are Blacks=17%, Latinos=29%, and Euros=45%. So the gap at the university level can be traced to the secondary school level and beyond. Also, the MF gap may well be a reflection of prevailing subcultures including the role of males, and for the future of our country we’d better figure out how to change.
Source of secondary school data: http://www.blackboysreport.org/urgency-of-now.pdf
Source of university data: http://www.usmd.edu/usm/statistics/
Fisher
In October 2012, justices on the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Abigail Noel Fisher v. University of Texas about race-based affirmative action ion admission decisions. Should race/ethnicity be a factor in admissions? Ms. Fisher sued the university claiming she would have been admitted except that she was Euro and some non-Euro students with weaker credentials were admitted due to UT’s affirmative action policy. The Court’s decision should be announced shortly. What if the Court strikes down all race-conscious admission policies? Do we then go to the top 10% of high schools?
How to Choose a College
Frank Bruni, writing in the New York Times (6 January 2013), advises college-seekers not to look for a sense of comfort and/or safety. The seekers tend to want a campus that offers “what they’re familiar with, gravitating to the same schools that their friends are or duplicating their parents’ paths. And there’s so much lost in that reflex, so much surrendered by that timidity. If you’re among the lucky who can factor more than cost and proximity into where you decide to go, college is a ticket to an adventure beyond the parameters of what you’ve experienced so far. It’s a passport to the far side of what you already know. It’s a chance to be challenged, not coddled. To be provoked, not pacified.” Now it’s our job as faculty members to do the challenging!
Universities do hustle students; after all, if the students don’t come, we close the doors and lock up. Some students make a choice based upon the quality of the field they plan to enter, some respond to football or basketball victories, and some decide on the basis of housing. That’s why new and fancier housing is spring up on Maryland’s campuses and across the country. Increasingly, the housing is linked to community and the academy; at Michigan state, the housing becomes a “neighborhood” where there is tutoring, a health clinic, and even Zumba exercise classes! Maybe the neighborhood helps with the dropout problem.
Where Are the Smartest Students?
Dr. Daniel Sternberg at Lumosity has studied the “smartness” of students at various colleges and universities. Students at 400 institutions were included in the testing of various cognitive skills including attention, memory, speed of processing, problem-solving, and flexibility. The top-ranked institutions (starting at the top) were MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Northwestern, Yale, Washington U. in St. Louis, Dartmouth, Wellesley, Rose-Hulman, and Duke. Maryland institutions were not highly ranked (St. Mary’s=81, UMBC=100, UMCP=114), so if the rankings are valid, maybe that shows that we are great educators overcoming the handicaps brought to campus by our students. As in many domains, the more the more.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-smartest-colleges-in-america-2012-11#ixzz2HFhXUzVt
What Leads to Middle Class Jobs
John Friedman, in the New York Times (13 January 2013), writes: “The mantra that if you ‘just work hard and play by the rules’ you should expect a middle-class lifestyle is no longer operable. Today you need to work harder and smarter, learn and re-learn faster and longer to be in the middle class. The high-wage, middle-skilled job is a thing of the past. Today’s high-wage or decent-wage jobs all require higher skills, passion or curiosity.” Does one necessarily get higher skills, passion or curiosity at a university?
What Majors Lead to Jobs
Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce has published Hard Times: Not All College Degrees Are Created Equal (2012), an exploration of the prospects of various majors conducted early last year. The report clearly shows that college degrees lead to reduced unemployment rates, but that the job success rates vary considerably depending upon the major. For instance, “The unemployment rate for recent graduates is highest in Architecture (13.9%) because of the collapse of the construction and home building industry in the recession.” But that study is not up-to-date. A more current report is for California (see table, where we arbitrarily selected six majors). But note that employment doesn’t indicate work in one’s major field. Lots of the employed are waiting on tables.
Where Are the Law Students?
The Law School Admissions Council reports that applications for Fall 2013 are expected to be only half of the number in 2004. One commentator referred to the change as popping the profession’s bubble. Are the costs of a law school diploma too high? Are the career prospects too dim? What difference does the prestige of the law school make? A comment a few years ago from the California publication, Above the Law: “Desperate times call for measures to take advantage of the desperate. Why pay California lawyers $10 an hour when they’re willing to work for free? And not just willing, but eager to provide their services on a volunteer basis.” The New York Times (31 January 2013) quotes law professor William D. Henderson of Indiana U: “Thirty years ago if you were looking to get on the escalator to upward mobility, you went to business or law school. Today, the law school escalator is broken.”
Are jobs drying up? And if so, where might law graduates get employment? In firms opened by law schools! At least that’s the idea of some law schools. They set some of the graduates up in an office and assign mentors. Often, the work is for nonprofits and the poor, so organizations and individuals who may have a hard time retaining a lawyer in a traditional practice will be able to say, we’re represented. Most situations have plusses and minuses!
How Students Help the Team
Ah, Kansas! A University of Kansas Jayhawks fan took a photo of her abundant breasts covered somewhat by her Jayhawks shirt and electronically sent the photo around to (so she thought) help a university’s sports team. Ah, “Everything’s up to date in Kansas City, they gone about as fer as they can go.” May this fan’s tactics not arrive in Maryland.
– Compiled and edited by Bill Hanna
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