Research Doctorate Programs in the United States: Continuity and Change

Doctoral programs at U.S. universities play a critical role in the development of human resources both in the United States and abroad. This volume reports the results of an extensive study of U.S. research-doctorate programs in five broad fields: physical sciences and mathematics, engineering, social and behavioral sciences, biological sciences, and the humanities.

Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States documents changes that have taken place in the size, structure, and quality of doctoral education since the widely used 1982 editions. This update provides selected information on nearly 4,000 doctoral programs in 41 subdisciplines at 274 doctorate-granting institutions.

This volume also reports the results of the National Survey of Graduate Faculty, which polled a sample of faculty for their views on the scholarly quality of program faculty and the effectiveness of doctoral programs in preparing research scholars/scientists.

This much-anticipated update of such an essential reference will be useful to education administrators, university faculty, and students seeking authoritative information on doctoral programs.

The quality of research-doctorate programs at U.S. universities can be credited in many cases for the cultural and technological development of our society. Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States reports the results of an extensive study of 3,634 programs at 274 institutions in 41 disciplines within the broad fields of Arts and Humanities, Biological Sciences, Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, and Social and Behavioral Sciences. This book updates and expands upon the widely used An Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States, published in 1982. In addition to providing current data on measures used in the earlier study and introducing other measures of research-doctorate programs, the book examines changes in size, quality, and structure of the nearly 2,000 programs participating in both studies. Quantitative data on research grants, publications, citations, awards and honors, and the characteristics of program graduates are reported, along with the results of the National Survey of Graduate Faculty, which yielded ratings of the scholarly quality of program faculty and the effectiveness of programs in education research scholars/scientists.