Envisioning the Future of Doctoral Education: Preparing Stewards of the Discipline - Carnegie Essays on the Doctorate

"Anyone who cares about the next generation of the professoriate must read this book! Its thesis—that Ph.D.'s are "stewards of their disciplines" as well as experts in their field—produces insightful essays with critiques of current doctoral education and suggestions for change. Walker's four-step approach outlines the way departments can redesign doctoral education to enhance both professional expertise and the 'stewardship' of future Ph.D.'s."
--Katharine Lyall, president emeritus, University of Wisconsin System

"It has been 102 years since William James described doctoral education as 'the Ph.D. octopus.' Calls for reform have come repeatedly in the intervening years, but none, regrettably, have evaluated the problem and sought solutions by working with and through disciplines and departments. This book proposes ways to do just that by suggesting goals for making the doctoral experience more meaningful to those who deliver it and those who receive it."
--Donald Kennedy, president emeritus, Stanford University, and editor-in-chief, Science magazine

"The doctorate must be regarded as a great success story in American education, and yet it is continuously being subjected to serious questioning, if not outright condemnation. Maybe it is too important not to be constantly subject to efforts to improve it. Maybe the questioning is truly an expression of the spirit that should infuse doctoral education--the spirit of questioning, of skepticism. Maybe the current wave of questioning is another indication that we are living in times of great change--as of course we are. The Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID) is a notable effort in terms of the truly fundamental questions that drive its conception--questions ranging from what constitutes knowledge in the discipline, to what it really is that the students will need from their doctorates to enter professional lives based on it, to the importance of stewardship of the discipline both in intellectual and moral terms. In this volume of essays, commissioned for the CID, the authors focus on these questions and offer suggestions to guide thoughtful reform."
--Nils Hasselmo, president, Association of American Universities