Strengthening Graduate Education

Our distinction as a research university is shaped by the quality of graduate students we attract and enroll. Although the schools and departments must naturally assume leadership in this area, university-wide values for our aspirations to excel in graduate education are important, and we must explicitly recognize the essential role that graduate students play in our research mission and the contribution they can make to our undergraduate endeavors.

We must effectively recruit the highest caliber graduate students to Rice. While this depends primarily on the quality of our faculty and the opportunities that they can create for graduate students, we must assure competitive financial support, generate appropriate teaching opportunities, and create attractive campus amenities. We have already taken measures to ensure that our level of graduate student stipends and other support are more in line with the competition, and we hope to take additional steps in this direction over the coming years.

Postdoctoral students (those having recently earned their PhD) also play an important role in building our research infrastructure and in enhancing education at all levels. This population already makes a significant contribution by working with and teaching undergraduate and graduate students, and we should increase the number of postdoctoral associates and instructors in our programs commensurate with our growth in funding. To enhance our ability to recruit the best postdoctoral fellows, we should pursue an endowed named postdoctoral program of distinction as a critical part of our research fundraising efforts.

Although departments are the focus of graduate recruiting, a university-wide effort to advance Rice’s reputation as a graduate institution will be critical to our attracting the best and brightest students in the coming decade. Our strategy should be to make “Rice” a recognized name, known widely for its quality of education at all levels. We must actively support departmental and school-based recruiting of graduate students to assure the most effective communication of Rice’s programs and offerings. This requires assessing our recruiting strategy and infrastructure and making the required changes to market Rice as an outstanding choice for graduate studies in those areas in which we excel.

Each of the departments will need to examine their programs, ensuring that we offer the best curricula and research opportunities for our students. Advancing in rankings will be critical to achieve the level of recognition that will attract the most talented students. Some departments may choose to focus on a postdoctoral program in lieu of a graduate program, deciding that the resources are more effectively deployed at this higher level. We must assure space and support for departments with strong graduate and research programs and support interdisciplinary graduate programs in emerging areas that have dedicated faculty engagement.

Our ability to attract high-caliber graduate students requires providing these future professors with appropriate teaching opportunities to develop their pedagogical skills. This experience is valuable not only for those who wish to enter the academy—indeed, it is critical for those seeking academic jobs—but industry expectations also are such that our graduate students must be able to communicate their knowledge effectively to a broad spectrum of audiences. We believe that teaching experience will make our graduates, future teachers, and others more successful in the different kinds of careers they pursue upon graduation.

Although providing graduate students with more teaching opportunities is imperative, the teaching of undergraduates by faculty is a fundamental Rice value that cannot be compromised. Undergraduates indicate that graduate students can be an important aspect of Rice, adding significantly to their experience and enhancing the curricular offerings. In general, graduate students who teach upper-level courses in their area of expertise receive excellent evaluations, suggesting undergraduates often value talented teaching by graduate students as much as teaching by tenure-track faculty. Preparing graduate students to teach more effectively enhances both the undergraduate experience and the value of our graduate training. Graduate students can (and do) lead small study sections in larger introductory courses, and experiences such as these could be enhanced by the departments.

Determinations about graduate student teaching are (and should be) made at the departmental level. There are, however, a variety of ways we can enhance our undergraduate curricular offerings and provide graduate students critical experience in teaching without reducing our commitment to undergraduate teaching by full-time faculty. We might also explore opportunities for graduate students to teach courses through the residential colleges, in specialized programs focused on skills training or discipline-specific pedagogy, or in new summer programs.

As is already the case in many departments, an integral and highly efficient mode for expanding the undergraduate research experience is for graduate students to supervise, teach, and mentor undergraduates in research experiences. This process may include graduate students teaching a seminar or course in their own research area, supervising undergraduates in a faculty member’s research program, or advising and providing assistance to undergraduates as they navigate methodological and technology issues pertaining to their research.

In moving forward, we must assure that graduate students engage as full participants in our community. Our goals are to provide graduate students in the coming years with a significant improvement in campus amenities, including eating facilities, as the plans for the Central Quadrangle and recreation center take shape. Additional housing should be constructed, perhaps by including graduate students along with undergraduates, in an off-campus facility near the campus. We are also working to provide graduate students with more adequate space where there are pressing needs.

The Call to Conversation has made clear our need to foster a sense of community and greater interaction of graduate students with each other and with undergraduates. Building the appropriate bridges between the graduate and undergraduate population is an important step in this direction, whether this occurs through formal classroom instruction and research supervision or through more informal involvement in the residential colleges.