When we meet on July 12, I propose we discuss doctoral education—its successes and its discontents keeping in mind that while the dropout rate at Berkeley is less than elsewhere, approximately 50% of all those beginning a doctoral program never finish it. Attached is the Berkeley Graduate Division Fact Sheet for 2018-2019. https://grad.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/berkeley_grad_profile.pdf
Compare the above to Northwestern University Graduate Division’s Academic Home Page: https://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/academics/phd-program-statistics.html in which exact data is available on admissions, acceptance, enrollment, perseverence, time to degree, degree attainment and employment. An illustration of the complete data set is found for Ph.D. Outcomes. https://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/documents/program-statistics/ALL_outcomes.pdf
The difference between the two is itself worthy of discussion about institutional presentation, but the likely topic of interest to participants is post degree employment. Again see the breakdown by Northwestern here: https://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/documents/program-statistics/ALL_Placement.pdf
Looking at history here is NWU data on degree completion; https://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/documents/program-statistics/H20PH_outcomes.pdf
On placement: https://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/documents/program-statistics/H20PH_Placement.pdf
A discussion of Ph.D. placement in the Social Sciences is in a Workshop Brief of 2017 from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2017. Graduate Training in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: Proceedings of a Workshop--in
Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
https://doi.org/10.17226/24891.
Finally, some reflections on how “alt-ac” careers can be handled: https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/april-2019/gains-and-losses-evaluating-what-matters-most-when-it-comes-to-career
There are a large number of questions around placement: Do departments prepare students for future employment? What kind of employment? What happens to students who do not finish a doctoral program? What kind of professional development activities are available to doctoral students? What kind of assistance is given to job searching Ph.D.s? What is the impact of ever rising expectations for publication before finishing the Ph.D.? The impact of the changing academic workforce with contingent faculty positions increasing?