The Responsive Ph.D.
Collaborating Organizations and Related Endeavors
The Responsive Ph.D. benefited greatly from a number of other national efforts to bring about change in doctoral education.
First, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation inherited significant progress on key issues from the Re-envisioning the Ph.D.Project, led by Jody Nyquist at the University of Washington. In April 2000, the Re-envisioning project culminated in a national conference featuring recent studies on doctoral education and landmark conversations between representatives from all sectors of society, invited to articulate their concerns and pursue future partnerships. The conference also pointed the way to a new future for the Ph.D. by showcasing promising practices in doctoral education aimed at creating more versatility for the doctorate.
Other national initiatives also informed the Foundation’s agenda:
- The Preparing Future Faculty effort, organized by the Council of Graduate Schools and the Association of American Colleges and Universities, works to expose graduate students to the different types of faculty roles within higher education settings.
- The Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate, organized by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and led by George Walker and Lee Shulman, seeks to analyze the structure and design of doctoral programs.
- The Center for Innovation and Research on Graduate Education, headed by Maresi Nerad at the University of Washington, aims to establish empirical bases for trend assessment, policy decisions, and innovations in graduate education through studies on graduate and postdoctoral education at the local, national, and international levels.
Other important endeavors in this area are led by the Council of Graduate Schools, the Association of Graduate Schools within the Association of American Universities, and the Association of American Colleges and Universities, whose leaders are playing a major role in shaping the future of doctoral education.