Symposium on Graduate Education
Journeys in Graduate Study: Exploring Ways to Improve the Graduate Student Experience
A symposium for graduate faculty, students, and alumni
Monday, February 20, 2006, 1:00-5:00 p.m.
Illini Union Rooms A,B, & C
A surprisingly high proportion of doctoral students never complete their degree. Why do students leave? Is some attrition okay? This event, sponsored by the Graduate College, will explore what faculty and students can do to proactively improve the graduate student experience.
The symposium is free and is open to all University of Illinois graduate students, faculty, postdocs, and alumni, as well as interested members of the community. It will feature keynote speaker Dr. Chris M. Golde, a Senior Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where she is research director for the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate. For the last decade her research has focused on doctoral education, particularly the experiences of doctoral students. Her dissertation work was on doctoral student attrition, and she is the lead author of At Cross Purposes: What the Experiences of Today's Doctoral Students Reveal about Doctoral Education, the 2001 report of the national Survey on Doctoral Education and Career Preparation, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts (www.phd-survey.org). She was the featured respondent for the Chronicle of Higher Education colloquy about doctoral student attrition (January, 2004). She is co-editor, with George Walker, of Envisioning the Future of Doctoral Education. Preparing Stewards of the Discipline, published in late 2005.
