Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate

In 2002, the Neuroscience Graduate Studies Program at The Ohio State University was privileged to be selected as a partner program in the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate.  The Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate is a multi-year research and action project to support the efforts of academic institutions to evaluate and improve their graduate programs, with the goal of improving US graduate education.

A team of scholars headed by Dr. George Walker, a theoretical physicist and former Chair of Physics and Vice President for Research and Graduate Education at Indiana University put together surveys and meetings aimed at helping selected programs in neuroscience, chemistry, mathematics, history, english, and education undergo self-examination and reform as needed.  A major goal was to help define the goal of graduate education to produce “stewards of the discipline”.  The collaboration was intended to provide data for the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate while facilitating change in the selected programs.  The Ohio State University was the only institution to have participating programs in all six disciplines.

The Ohio State University Neuroscience Graduate Studies Program participated in this program from 2002 through 2005.  Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate meetings were held twice yearly at the Stanford University headquarters of the Carnegie Foundation, and each year at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.  The Neuroscience Graduate Studies Program sent a faculty and student representative to each meeting.  The Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate meetings were structured to allow comparison and interactions between the partner programs from different institutions.  Suggestions for action and change were brought back to The Ohio State University after each meeting. 

Local Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate activities included a faculty and student retreat (funded in part by the Hunt-Curtis Neuroscience Endowment at The Ohio State University), and faculty-student planning and work sessions.  One of the major activities, brought back from a Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate meeting at Stanford, was an exercise in ‘mapping neuroscience’.  Students and faculty generated graphic maps representing Ohio State University neuroscience and the field of neuroscience in general in order to examine our local goals in relation to national and international trends.  The mapping studies were presented by students as a poster at the national Society for Neuroscience meeting.

Recommendations for reform arising from the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate included a mentoring program for new students, restructuring and expansion of the Neuroscience Graduate Studies Program website, and various ways of making the doctoral examination process more useful.  Many of these improvements have now been implemented.

In summary, the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate provided a means of focusing attention on the purpose and product of The Ohio State University Neuroscience Graduate Studies Program in relationship to other neuroscience programs across the country.  Student involvement was very high, and served to catalyze interest in the future of neuroscience graduate education at The Ohio State University.

For more information on the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate, please visit the Carnegie Foundation web site.