Department/Graduate School Collaborations

Student Selection

Admissions Grid: For each new PhD student admitted, departments are asked to provide some background information in order to determine what factors are predictive of completion in graduate programs.

Campus Visits: Departments may request reimbursement for direct expenses related to group campus visits.

Mentoring

Annual Evaluations: Departments will participate in an online annual review of student progress that collects data and provides feedback to students.

Mutual Expectations for Mentoring Workshop: This workshop addresses mutual expectations within a mentoring relationship. It involves conversations between faculty and graduate students.

Conflict Resolution Workshop: Research indicates that students who leave doctoral programs cite poor adviser-student relationships as one of the reasons for failing to complete. Providing students with conflict resolution skills helps to develop and sustain more productive adviser-student relationships and reduce grievances.

Administrative Processes

Graduate Student Handbooks: Updated graduate handbooks that address key issues can begin to address confusion about policies and procedures within programs.

Exit Surveys: Doctoral students who complete their degrees are encouraged to fill out the Survey of Earned Doctorates as they are turning in their dissertations. But we also need to survey non-completers to gather information about their experiences to help us understand better why they are not completing their degrees. Exit surveys gather information from doctoral students who choose to leave before they complete the doctoral degree.

Program Environment

Graduate Colleague Circles: Modeled after the Faculty Colleague Circles program, the Graduate Colleague Circles program provides new doctoral students with an opportunity to be mentored by more advanced graduate students.

Department Initiatives: This is funding provided to departments in order to improve the program environment for doctoral students.