SIF32 A&S Doctoral Student Support Enhancement

Project Manager: Ian Baucom, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

The purpose of this project is to provide financial support to attract high-achieving doctoral students to the University.

BoV Approved: September 2016

Project Dates: 10/19/2016 – 10/18/2019

Total Funding: $4,800,000

Executive Summary

The academic eminence of the University rests in its ability to attract and retain faculty in the arts and sciences at the highest levels of research productivity, and such faculty are drawn to institutions with vibrant doctoral programs. Competitive financial support for doctoral students is critical to recruiting strong applicants and launching them on rich research careers that reinforce the University’s standing in a variety of ways, including reputation-based rankings. The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has identified four areas of investment that are necessary to achieve this dynamic more broadly across its doctoral programs so as to capitalize on parallel investments in developing the faculty. This project is directly aligned with the strategic vision and competitive positioning of the University to address the long-term goal of reputational advance. The Graduate School in the College of Arts and Sciences utilized this award to provide offers of financial support to doctoral students upon admission at a level that recruited the strongest candidates in an international pool to work with our faculty and enable these students to make high-quality and timely degree progress that is positioning them for successful career outcomes.

Current Status: Completed

Achievements:

A total of 73 fellowships were awarded during the three-year SIF award period. Completion rates, professional development opportunities and initial employment for these students were monitored. Fellows took strong advantage of this supported time to advance their professional development, cumulatively logging 40 accepted publications (mostly journal articles), another 24 publication submissions and 87 conference presentations (including moderating panels and serving as respondents). 56 fellows were actively on the job market during the fellowship year itself.  Of these, approximately 20% secured tenure track job appointments at strong institutions.

The PAC performed the final review of this award in August of 2020 and determined that it was highly successful. The dissertation completion fellowship initiative, which offered a 6th year of support to students for the completion of their dissertations, was so successful that it is being continued through the PhD Plus component of SIF145.