An item from a neo-liberal… This one is an item from a business professor with little direct experience in education, but who believes free market economic principles are the answer to education’s (and pretty much all other society’s social) problems.
You’re on the free list for The Future of Education.
The Future of the Ph.D.
On our latest episode of Future U., Jeff Selingo and I delved into the future of graduate education, specifically around the Ph.D. As our guest, Len Cassuto, a professor at Fordham University and author of the new book The New PhD: How to Build a Better Graduate Education, shared, “graduate school… is in the ICU… needful of attention.”
This is a topic that matters.
As Len shared:
“Ph.D. education in particular… is the straw that stirs the drink. It’s the oldest and most prestigious degree. What happens on the Ph.D. level trickles down through the entire higher ed system and through there down to K-12. And so when we’re talking about changing the Ph.D., we are talking about high-impact change. And so even though Ph.D.s are not numerous compared to the numbers of other students in the system, if you’re changing doctoral education, you are making notable change to the whole system.”
It’s badly broken and in need of repair. Among the many stats we share in the podcast was this one from Jeff: “about 50% of PhD students will not complete the PhD, and among those who finish, about 50% will not get academic jobs. “
Len didn’t just offer diagnosis. Far from it. He offered several solutions, which Jeff and I then debated in the back half of the episode.
I played the role of skeptic. Although I like the thrust of Len’s solutions, I was skeptical that they could be easily implemented. Or that the value of the Ph.D. outside of academia could be as high in the humanities as it is in the STEM fields. Jeff pushed back in thoughtful ways.
The result of all that is a delightfully fun conversation you can listen to here.
Western Governors University Sage Advice Podcast
Finally, I appeared on the WGU Sage Advice podcast with Chris Bonnell, which you can listen to here at “The Future of Learning Through Disruptive Innovation with Michael Horn.”
Longtime subscribers know of my fondness for WGU. In this episode we talked about:
- my own educational and career journey
- the new book I’m working on
- what disruptive innovation actually means in education and how WGU is a great example of it
- disruptive innovation’s inherent inclusivity
- and AI and how it can help personalize learning.
Thanks as always for reading, writing, and listening.
© 2024 Michael Horn
12 Unique Blogs Are Written By Professors
Virtual School Meanderings 
Leave a comment