US National Academies report recommends changes to graduate STEM education
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US National Academies report recommends changes to graduate STEM education www.nap.edu
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he frontiers of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have been advanced by generations of students who have earned graduate degrees and become experts and leaders across STEM. But a new report from the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (Academies) has recognized a significant evolution across the STEM enterprise, and has recommended a number of changes to better align US graduate education in STEM with the needs of the future. The report, titled Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century, acknowledges that the United States STEM education system has “served the nation extremely well” and points out substantial benefits to the economy, environment, national security, and public health. In addition, the report characterizes STEM education in the United States as the worldwide “gold standard,” citing the large number of international students who choose to pursue STEM degrees in the United States as an important indicator. But despite the strength of these programs, the report mentions a number of recent surveys and studies that suggest graduates are not prepared to successfully apply their expertise across the broad spectrum of STEM-based careers. Three of the members of the Academies committee responsible for the report—Melanie Roberts, Kate Stoll, and Christine Ortiz—weigh in on the relevancy and challenges of tackling graduate STEM education reform. “Given that we have entered a new, technologydriven era since the last National Academies report on graduate education was released over two decades ago, it is important to revisit how the system is working,” says Roberts, Director of State and Regional Affairs at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. According
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to the report, the efficacy of graduate STEM programs has been impacted by a range of factors, including innovation- and technology-driven changes in workforce needs, significant shifts in the demographics of graduate student programs, and continuous growth in jobs that require proficiency in STEM. “The issues this report seeks to address have been brewing for years, but the confluence of changes in the scientific enterprise, technology, and demographics make this report urgent and timely,” says Stoll, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Washington Office Senior Policy Advisor. Roberts also points out the increasing number of calls for graduate STEM education reform over the last several years, a factor that she believes “demonstrates the need for serious study and conversation about whether and how to update the system.” While the graduate STEM education system is ripe for reform, the challenges are complex. Roberts and Stoll both point to the incentive system within academia—specifically the emphasis on publishing as the primary means to measure success—as a significant challenge. There is no doubt that the process of publication is an important part of a graduate STEM education, but the report recommends ex
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