The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) hosted a workshop, "A Fresh Look at Ph.D. Education," on Monday, March 31, 2008. The workshop convened leaders in graduate education, both in the U.S. and internationally, and representatives of federal agencies and disciplinary societies to focus on some key issues that will influence the future directions of doctoral education in the U.S.

The workshop was comprised of two sessions. The morning session focused on what we know about Ph.D. completion and on approaches by universities and federal agencies to try to improve the completion rate in the U.S. It featured a talk by Robert Sowell, CGS Ph.D. Completion Project Director, on program and demographic data from the Project. As well, representatives from NSF and NIH shared reports on their completion studies. Finally two graduate deans discussed what they have done to increase completion at their universities.

The afternoon session focused on new approaches to the education of Ph.D. students from both an international and a domestic perspective. We were pleased to have as guest speakers for this exciting and thought provoking session: Yehuda Elkana, Rector of Central European University, Budapest, who spoke on embracing contradiction in the education of new Ph.D.s; Mary Ritter, Pro-Rector of Postgraduate and International Affairs at Imperial College, London, who addressed the new focus on building transferable skills in Ph.D. education in the U.K.; and Crispin Taylor, Executive Director of the American Society of Plant Biologists, who talked about Ph.D. education from the perspective of students and postdocs.

The workshop agenda and presentations of the invited speakers and participants are available on-line. Also, please see A Fresh Look at Ph.D. Education, a report by Lewis Siegel. In additon, The Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) and Inside Higher Ed both published articles on the workshop.