IN THE SCIENCES

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IN THE SCIENCES

REPORT OF THE NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD

NATIONAL SCIENCE BOARD NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION 1969

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For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington D.C. 20402 - Price 40 Cents

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We have come to know that our ability to survive and grow as a Nation depends to a very large degree upon our scientific progress. Moreover, it is not enough simply to keep abreast of the rest of the world in scientific matters. We must maintain our leadership. The National Science Foundation will stimulate basic research and education in nearly every branch of science, and thereby add to the supply of knowledge which is indispensable to our continued growth, prosperity, and security.

Harry S. Truman May 10, 1950

• . . the process of basic scientific research and the process of graduate education in universities must be viewed as an integrated task if the nation is to produce the research results and the new scientists that will maintain the leadership of American science.

In this great endeavor, the partnership between the Federal Government and the nation's universities will assume growing importance in the future.

Dwight D. Eisenhower November 17, 1960

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Expansion of high quality graduate education and research in all fields is essential to national security and economic growth.

Means of increasing our supply of highly trained professional personnel to match the rapidly growing demands of teaching, industry, government, and research warrants our interest and support.

We need many more graduate centers, and they should be better distributed geographically. Three-quarters of all doctoral degrees are granted by a handful of universities located in ¹² States. The remaining States with half our population produce only one-fourth of the Ph.D.'s.

New industries increasingly gravitate to or are innovated by strong centers of learning and research. The distressed area of the future may well be one which lacks centers of graduate education and research. It is in the national interest to encourage establish

ment of these critically needed centers of advanced learning, especially in parts of the Nation now lacking them.

John F. Kennedy January 29, 1963

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• . The prosperity and well-being of the United States—and thus our national interest—are vitally affected by America's colleges and unversities, junior colleges and technical institutes.

Their problems are not theirs alone, but the Nation's.

We depend upon the universities—their training, research and extension services—for the knowledge which undergirds agricultural and industrial production.

Increasingly, we look to higher education to provide the key to better employment opportunities and a more rewarding life for our citizens.

As never before, we look to the colleges and universities—to their faculties, laboratories, research institutes and study centers- for help with every problem in our society and with the efforts we are making toward peace in the world. . .

Lyndon B. Johnson February 5, 1968

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Science has served mankind faithfully and well. It has dramatically extended the average lifetime, shortened geographi

cal distances, increased industrial productivity, reduced poverty, and in the long trial of war, contributed significantly to the cause of freedom. .

If science and technology were to founder or stagnate, many of our hopes would collapse. To the extent that we neglect this source of our greatness, and to the extent that we fail to preserve the conditions of openness and order that made our progress possible, we are living off the land of civilization without re- fertilizing it. .

Instead, we must bring about a new dawn of scientific free

dom and progress. As the world's investment in science expands, the impact of technological, progress will be more profound.

Scientific knowledge doubled between ¹⁷⁵⁰and 1900; again be

tween 1900 and ^1950;yet again between 1950 and 1960. By 1970

it is expected to double again. In twenty years the world may be as enormously different from today as ¹⁹⁶⁸is different from 1900.

Richard M. Nixon October ^{5, 1968}

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

January 24, 1969 My Dear Mr. President:

It is my high privilege to transmit to you this Report, the first to be prepared pursuant to Section 4(g) of the National Science Foundation Act, as amended by Public Law 90-407, which directs the National Science Board to assess the status and health of science, including such matters as national resources and man

power, in reports to be submitted to the Congress.

Since creation of the National Science Foundation in 1950, five consecutive Presidents have directed attention to the signifi

cance of science and science education to the national welfare.

Because the research intrinsic to graduate education is a major contributor to the national research endeavor, while producing the young scientists vital to our national future, the Board con

siders it especially appropriate that this first Report be addressed to matters of national policy for the support and strengthening of graduate education in the sciences and engineering.

Several thoughtful efforts to formulate national goals for higher education generally have recently been reported or are

presently in train; due consideration has been given by the Board to those relevant reports available at this time.

The National Science Board, necessarily concerned primarily with national policy affecting the sciences, believes however that the recommendations of this Report are as applicable, in general, to graduate education in the arts and humanities as to that in the natural and social sciences and engineering.

It is our hope that this Report will contribute significantly to planning for graduate education by the Congress, the Executive Branch, and all other public and private bodies so concerned.

Respectfully yours,

Philip Handler

Chairman, National Science Board The Honorable

The President of the United States

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The National Science Board has been greatly aided by the con

tributions of several former Members whose participation in the early discussions and decisions was invaluable in arriving at the present report. These individuals include Dr. Henry Eyring, Dr.

Katharine E. McBride, Dr. Edward J. McShane, Dr. Edward L.

Tatum, Dr. Ralph W. Tyler, and the late Dr. Rufus E. Clement.

The Board is also grateful to three consultants who joined with the Board Committee, charged with this report, in the many dis

cussions that resulted in the final document. These consultants are Dr. Allan M. Cartter (Chancellor, New York University), Dr. Frank W. Putnam (Director, Division of Biological Sciences, Indiana Uni

versity), and Dr. Charles P. Slichter (Professor of Physics, Univer

sity of Illinois).

In preparing this report the assistance of many individuals has been essential. The help and cooperation of many persons in the National Science Foundation, the Office of Education, the National Institutes of Health, the National Academy of Sciences - National Research Council, the American Council on Education, and other organizations in providing important information is gratefully acknowledged. In particular, the Board is indebted to Dr. Lawton M. Hartman, who served as the staff director for this report, and to Dr. Charles E. Falk (Planning Director, NSF), Dr. Louis Levin (Executive Associate Director, NSF), and Dr. William E. Rosen (Special Assistant to the Director, NSF) for their advice and counsel.

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SUMMARY

American science and engineering have achieved a position of great strength, the maintenance of which is vital to the future of the Nation. Yet a major source of this strength, the institutions of graduate education, has developed without the guidance and focus of an explicit national policy directed to its distinctive character, needs, and opportunities. The necessity for such a policy is evident in the challenge of the next decade:

Graduate education will be the fastest growing element of the educational process, with the number of graduate students expected approximately to double and to reach ^1.3million by 1980.

The cost of graduate education is increasing even more rap

idly and is expected to quadruple by 1980, possibly attaining an annual rate of $20 billion.

Rapidly growing enrollments and increasing costs are a!

ready over-straining the resources of most colleges and uni

versities; substantially increased funding from the Federal Government, unrelated to the present period of budgetary retrenchment, will be required if these institutions are to meet the expectations of American society.

The responsibility for implementing a national policy for gradu

ate education is shared by the educational institutions, State and regional organizations, and the Federal Government. Major recom

mendations to these three sectors include the following:

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

The paramount obligation of the educational institution is the maintenance of sound programs of education and research.

Institutions moving for the first time into graduate work, either at the level of the master's or doctoral degrees, as well as those considering the formation of additional graduate pro

grams, should base their decision on strong academic depart-

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ments, already in existence, and on the availability of adequate resources to be committed to the graduate program.

Programs which lead to the master's degree in both liberal arts colleges and universities should be strengthened and enriched.

Encouragement should be given to the development of multi

disciplinary graduate programs at both the master's and doc

toral level, adapted to the problems of a changing society, combining various of the natural, social, and engineering sci

ences, and, when appropriate, leading to the award of new types of advanced professional degrees, designed for the prep

aration of practitioners rather than research-oriented spe

cialists.

The expected general increase in graduate student enroll

ments, while a challenge to institutional capacity, constitutes an unique opportunity for substantial enhancement of the quality of graduate education in many institutions currently operating at subminimal levels.

The institutional characteristics of high quality graduate educa

tion are presented in this report in some detail.

STATE AND REGIONAL PLANNING

The markedly increased demand for graduate education expected in the next decade could be satisfied entirely by selective expan

sion of the programs of institutions already engaged in graduate education.

However, each State and each metropolitan area with a population in excess of 500,000 should have graduate educa

tional resources of high quality and of sufficient capacity to ensure full contribution to cultural, social, and economic development.

Those metropolitan communities and those States that are inadequately served today by graduate institutions should plan either the significant expansion and improvement of ex

isting institutions or the creation of new graduate institutions of high quality.

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The geographic distribution of Federal academic funding is heav

ily influenced by the geographic distribution of graduate educa

tional quality. A significant contribution to a broader distribution can and should be achieved by the strengthening of existing gradu

ate institutions and, where specifically needed, the formation of new institutions of high quality.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Federal support for the funding of higher education is espe

cially important at the graduate level. The Federal Government should accept a continuing responsibility for a significant, per

haps the major, share of the total support of graduate educa

tion. Such support should be made to graduate education, in its own name, as a distinctive educational process.

Federal support should supplement, not replace, non-Fed

eral sources of funding.

Academic research at the frontiers of knowledge, in its own right, is certainly in the national interest. It is, however, in

separable from the process of graduate education. For this reason, although research grants and contracts have played an unique role in bringing United States science to its present eminence, a major restructuring of the instruments of Federal support of graduate education is both timely and necessary for the major expansion expected in the next decade. Further, were appropriate mechanisms in operation, responsive to the character of graduate education, review by the Federal Gov

ernment, especially at times of fiscal constraint when reduc

tions of budget are inevitable, would be made in full aware

ness of the consequences of its decisions both to American science and to the educational programs of the Nation.

Six types of grant programs are proposed, in all but the first of which grants should be awarded on the basis of appropriate national competition:

1. Institutional Sustaining Grants - formula-based grants, including factors related to quality, to provide for fac

ulty salaries, a moderate base of student stipends, and

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general institutional expenditures related to graduate education.

Departmental Sustaining Grants - to assist especially with student stipends, the research needs of young inves

tigators, and the on-going expenditures of the academic department or organized multidisciplinary program.

Developmental Grants - to assist with the formation, expansion, or improvement of graduate institutions or programs.

Graduate Facilities Grants - to assist in providing the general facilities, specialized research facilities, and libraries required by graduate education.

Graduate Fellowships - prestige fellowships awarded competitively to a select group of graduate and post

doctoral students to assist in setting standards for un

dergraduate and graduate performance.

Research Project Grants - to provide for those direct expenditures for research that are not included in the types of grants summarized above to support the re

search efforts of individual investigators or appropriate groups thereof.

Specific Federal agencies should be authorized to administer the first five of these grant programs, each of which should receive specific appropriations annually. All Federal agencies should be encouraged to engage in programs of Research Project Grants.

These recommendations are made in the firm conviction that no instrumentality of society can contribute more importantly to the future strength and well-being of the Nation and its citizens than does graduate education. To realize this potential, however, will require the timely, vigorous, and informed efforts of all who can affect the process. Difficult decisions by legislators, administrators, trustees, and planners are needed if the goals and opportunities with which this report is concerned are to be achieved. But the re

wards attainable during the years ahead amply warrant the expen-

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diture of energy and funds that the undertaking will entail. Grad

uate education has served the Nation well; yet its opportunities for important service are just beginning.

Graduate education is interpreted in this report as including all provisions for formal education beyond the baccalaureate, usually leading to the award of master's or doctoral degrees, with the ar

bitrary exceptions of work leading to professional degrees in such specialties as medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, nursing, law, and theology. These fields would appropriately be examined in other studies, and the present report has been prepared with the knowledge that many such efforts have been completed or are in progress.

The conclusions and recommendations contained in this report reflect the statistical and other evidence, available in many quar

ters, concerning the status of graduate education in the United States. Important features of this information and its interpreta

tion are summarized in a publication entitled Graduate Education

—Parameters for Public Policy.

This report is primarily addressed to graduate education and academic research in the natural sciences, the social sciences, and engineering. However, many of the conclusions and recommenda

tions here presented also appear to be applicable to the arts and humanities.

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I

Graduate Education in American Life

Science and engineering in the United States have attained a po

sition of unprecedented strength. From fundamental research to the development of new technology, this Nation is today at the forefront of most major lines of endeavor. Important contributions are made daily to man's knowledge of man, his social institutions, and his universe, and to his ability to utilize this knowledge and understanding to secure a better world for his children, to improve his economic lot, to conquer disease, and to ensure a richer life for all citizens.

Understanding of the animate and inanimate worlds has ex

panded at a prodigious rate. A gene is no longer an abstraction but a chemical entity of defined structure. The innumerable chemical reactions which constitute the life of a living cell are being revealed.

The chemical basis for the wondrous process by which a single fertilized egg becomes an integrated mammalian organism is being unraveled. Efforts to understand that most resistant of all objects of scientific study, the human brain, are increasing in sophistication and are gradually revealing the physiological bases of behavior.

Powerful tools are being brought to bear to illuminate the intricate relationships within a biological community. The phenomena which govern the productivity of a lake or a farm, or which control popu

lations of plants, invertebrates, vertebrates, and of man himself are every day better understood.

Meanwhile, chemists gain more detailed insight concerning the atomic and molecular basis for chemical reactions, while they cre

ate new and more complex molecules whose properties are used to synthesize new fabrics, food, structural materials, drugs, and fuels. Physicists achieve increasingly penetrating understanding of the atomic nucleus and of matter in the liquid, gaseous, solid, and plasma states. Other physical scientists are concerned with the earth's interior and with the forces that determine the nature of the earth's surface, its weather, and its atmosphere, while their col-

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leagues conduct experiments to reveal ever more clearly the nature of the solar system and the universe.

In parallel, there has burgeoned an increasingly sophisticated effort in the social sciences, broadly concerned with man, his wel

fare, his behavior, and his interactions with his fellowmen and his environment. Analytical tools have been refined, quantitative con

siderations have become more frequent, and predictive capabilities more reliable, thus laying the foundation for major advances to

ward the solution of many of society's problems.

All Americans can well be proud of the scope and success of this diverse undertaking and of the contributions of the United States to scientific understanding.

While much of this impressive endeavor occurs in academic in

stitutions, it is scarcely an academic exercise. From observations and experiments, large and small, conducted in universities and research institutes, and in Federal and industrial laboratories, have come developments that have enriched and transformed daily life, mitigated the age-old struggle for existence, prolonged life, and contributed to the national security. Indeed, the products and consequences of American science and its associated tech

nology are to be seen at every hand. And there is ample reason to expect even greater benefits to come. Technological advance under

lies each new expansion of the economy, as witnessed by the spec

tacular growth of the electrical, electronics, chemical, communica

tions, transportation, and other industries. The general stability of the economy reflects the growing understanding of society in mod

ern economic terms, while the ever-growing labor force of trained scientists and engineers, whose efforts are responsible for the great success of the Nation's scientific and technical enterprise, attests to the strength of the American system of graduate education.

Not all of this activity has occurred without penalty. Nor have all citizens benefited in like measure. The pollution of the environment, the blight of the cities, and the plight of disadvantaged citizens across the Nation are reminders of the inadequacies of societal mechanisms and of incomplete understanding of society. They are reminders, also, of the limited ability to predict the conse

quences of changing technology and to plan accordingly. A major

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factor in future capability to undertake such planning will be the strength, scope, and success of graduate education in the relevant disciplines and in multidisciplinary programs.

Many of the contributions of science are being made in the insti

tutions of graduate education; virtually all are the work of the scientists and engineers who are the products of these institutions.

Today, as man's problems and his awareness of these problems multiply, there is an ever increasing need for the highly trained scientists and engineers that graduate institutions provide. The po

sition of the United States in the sciences and engineering is not static; it must continually be strengthened and enriched by the creative efforts of those who build on past accomplishment.

Ever greater numbers of highly trained individuals are required to staff the expanding educational system, to man the industrial, government, and nonprofit laboratories and hospitals, and to take positions in the engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and admin

istrative functions of industry. Increasingly, those trained in the natural and social sciences and engineering are finding appropriate places in the diverse activities of government, communications, journalism, recreation, public health, and foreign relations. Particu

larly striking is the appearance of practitioners of these disciplines in endeavors which have not, traditionally, employed them, e.g., physiologists in the aircraft industry, anthropologists in public health teams, sociologists and psychologists in the laboratories and personnel offices of large industry, and biologists and psychologists in the communications industry. While the front pages of the news

papers reveal the frustrations of the undereducated segment of American citizenry, the pages of employment advertising reveal both a diminishing market for unskilled and semiskilled labor and a shortage of highly trained scientists and engineers.

The enviable position of the United States in the sciences and engineering is relatively recent. Throughout the history of the Nation, important contributions have been made by many notable scientists and engineers. The remarkable development of scientific agriculture, created in concert by the agricultural schools of the Land Grant Colleges and by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, ranks among the greatest of American triumphs and has freed mil

lions to take their places in the labor force which operates American industry, thereby also accelerating the urbanization of the Nation with all of its attendant benefits and ills. Although scientists and

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engineers have traditionally responded to opportunities for public service, it was not until World Wars I and II that they were called upon to make massive and concerted efforts in defense of the United States. Since World War II, a matter of a little more than 20 years, American science and engineering have grown to their present unparalleled position of strength. This flourishing is due to a threefold wisdom: that of the American people who brought into being and nourished a diversity of public and private institutions of higher learning; that of the institutions themselves in sustaining a rapid rate of development; and that of the Congress in establishing such Federal agencies as the Office of Naval Research, the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Science Foundation, and the Na

tional Aeronautics and Space Administration, in encouraging the support of research and development by the Department of Defense, in strengthening the National Institutes of Health, and in sponsoring the support of research and development by many Federal agencies.

Before World War II, the costs of graduate education and its associated research were largely defrayed from the general re

sources of each university, with occasional critical assistance from philanthropic foundations. In the postwar period of dramatic growth, the support of graduate education has increasingly been accomplished through the judicious use of research grants or con

tracts from Federal agencies. Although addressed to the perfor

mance of defined research tasks, these contracts and grants have, in fact, been the major source of support of graduate education in the sciences and engineering. Without them, without the active, mutual involvement of Federal agencies and educational institu

tions, the development of American science and engineering to its position of present eminence could not have occurred.

Support of this endeavor by means of the research grant or con

tract has served American society well during this period when total costs of graduate education and academic research increased by almost twentyfold and the Government itself was viewed as the major potential user of the information to be secured, as well as a major ultimate employer, directly or indirectly, of the students to be trained. Such research contracts and grants to the institutions of graduate education are now awarded by the tens ofthousands an

nually. Experience has been gained in their administration, in their strengths and weaknesses, and in their relationship to the educa

tional process at the graduate level. Today, as the focus of research broadens to encompass the full utilization of the sciences and en-

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gineering for the welfare of individual Americans, the improvement of health, the structure of cities and their environs, and the opera

tion of the economy and society, it is also possible to look forward to a doubling of the graduate student population by about 1980 with, perhaps, an attendant quadrupling of the total costs of grad

uate education. The time seems opportune, therefore, to adopt such policies as may be required to assure that this growth occurs in a manner appropriate to the national interest, and to assure that the mechanisms for the financial support of this huge enterprise are appropriate to the national purpose.

Several specific circumstances prompted the selection of gradu

ate education as the subject of this report.

Although American civilization is increasingly dependent upon the institutions and the products of graduate education, and although present strength in science and engineering is due in large measure, directly and indirectly, to the contributions of graduate institutions, no clear national policy exists today to serve as a guide for the development and strengthening of graduate education, as such, in the United States.

It has long been a de facto American goal, and is now a stated national policy, to provide to all citizens the educational opportu

nity to develop their individual capabilities to the fullest. Approach to this goal has gradually resulted in the formation of institutions of higher education, and in particular graduate programs, in every State of the Union. The pattern of this latter development, repre

sented by the date of the first award of the doctorate in each State and the District of Columbia, is seen in Table ^1.Adherence to this goal, however, will present graduate education with a severe test during the next decade when, as in each preceding decade, graduate enrollments are expected approximately to double. This projected growth, at a rate significantly greater than that for higher education as a whole, is shown in Figure ^1.The magnitude of the total gradu

ate enterprise is further illustrated by the patterns of growth of the production of doctorates and master's degrees in the United States, as shown in Figures ²and 3. Graduate enrollments in science and engineering today exceed ^200,000.The next doubling of enroll

ments, therefore, will represent a far larger proportion of the popu-

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Table 1

SEQUENCE OF FIRST DOCTORAL AWARDS BY STATES

Total Total

Year State Year State

States States

28

1866 New York 2 1902 West Virginia 29

1861 Connecticut 1 1900 Iowa

1871 Pennsylvania 3 1914 North Dakota

1

31

1873 Massachusetts 4 Washington

1875 District of Col, 5 1915 Texas 32

1876 Michigan 6 1922 Ariiona 33

1878 Maryland 7 1926 Hawaii 1

35

1879 New Jersey Oregon

Ohio 10 1929 Oklahoma 36

Tennessee 1931 Vermont 37

1883 Indiana 1934 Florida 38

Missouri 13 1940 Georgia 39

North Carolina 1947 New Mexico

41

1885 California Utah

1� 15

Virginia 1948 Delaware

1�

43

1887 Louisiana 16 Wyoming

J

1888 Minnesota 17 1952 Alabama 44

1889 Rhode Island 18 1953 Arkansas 45

1891 South Carolina 19 1955 Alaska 46

1892 Wisconsin 20 1956 Montana 47

1893 Illinois 1959 South Dakota 48

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Mississippi 1960 Maine 49

1894 Kentucky 23 1962 Idaho 50

1895 Colorado 24 1964 Nevada 51

1896 Kansas

Nebraska 27

New Hampshire

Source: American Council on Education; Office of Education (DHEW).

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Figure 1

GROWTH OF GRADUATE ENROLLMENTS

Index 600

Fall�Graduate of Year�Enrollments

356,000 500-I 1960

1965 582,000 1970 816,000 1975 1,086,000 1980 1,385,000

400

Graduate Enrollments

300

200

100

1956�1960�1964�1968�1972�1976�1980 Fall of Year

The index has been computed by dividing the population (or enrollment) figure for a given year by the value for 1956 and multiplying by 100.

Source: Office of Education (DHEW); projections after 1976 by National Science Foundation.

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• ^••

Number of degrees awarded

-

I J� Figure2 1 I

^-

PRODUCTION OF DOCTORATES

30,000

0 0 00

- ⁰ 11

0 S S S S

10,000

S

- ^S

am

^'^S

1,000

300 06

S

-

Source: American Council on Education to 1962;

•� Office of Education (DHEW) after 1962 (including projections after 1966)

100

1880� 1900� 1920� 1940� 1960� 1980

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Number of degrees awarded

- Figure3

PRODUCTION OF MASTER'S DEGREES

300,000

0

- ^oco

0 0 S

S

- S

-

•%,

S

30,000

- S

%./.•

. .

•^S .

S

10,000

- .

- S

- ^S

- S

-

•^SS S .

3,000 S

S

- _{•SS S}.�S S.

Source: American Council on Education to 1962;

Office of Education (DHEW) after 1962 (including projections after 1966)

1,000

1880�1900�1920�1940�1960�1980

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lation and resources of the Nation than has been the case hereto

fore. Provision of the institutional capacity to meet this next decade of growth, while maintaining or improving the all-important quality of graduate programs, constitutes a major national challenge and an opportunity that will not recur in this century.

There are those who will demand documentation clearly indi

cating that American society will require the services of this greatly increased, highly trained population. With seeming logic, they may request a forecast, on rational premises, of the national require

ment, in ¹⁹⁸⁰or 1985, for organic chemists, economists, molecular biologists, anthropologists, electronic engineers, or other special

ists. But it is extremely doubtful that there exists an acceptable basis for such forecasts. Indeed, the creative innovations of gradu

ate education and academic research may even render one or more of such categories obsolete by 1980.

Accordingly, this report rests on the premises that: (a) In very large measure, it is the supply and contributions of trained indi

viduals that engender demand. (b) The current success of American science-based industry, in considerable degree, reflects the fact that industrial, Government, and academic laboratories employ not only the gifted few of high creative talent but substantially larger num

bers of competent, well-trained investigators and engineers who make it possible to capitalize on the unique contributions of that highly talented few. (c) The Nation has much yet to learn concern

ing optimal mechanisms for applying the natural and social sciences to the problems of a changing society; as this capability is attained, the demand for knowledgeable and skilled individuals will neces

sarily increase. (d) It is characteristic of well-trained scientists and engineers that they are flexible and can adapt themselves to chang

ing circumstances, applying their experience and habits of mind to new and different challenges. (e) The larger the number of qualified individuals given the opportunity to undertake graduate education, the greater is the likelihood of identifying and appropriately edu

cating those who will be the future leaders in all areas of human endeavor. (1) There is a continuously expanding and unmet need, in institutions which offer undergraduate education, for large num

bers of qualified teachers who have received sound, advanced train

ing in the sciences and engineering; providing these teachers with high quality graduate education is basic to the structure of tomor

row's society. (g) A foreseeable consequence of apparent over

production of graduate school-trained scientists and engineers, in 10

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the sense of national inability to employ some fraction of them in traditionally or newly acceptable types of positions, would be the upgrading of the teaching staffs of the Nation's secondary school system, an event which could only be deemed desirable in itself.

In short, the position taken in this report is that it is not possible to produce too many highly educated people in the United States as long as appropriate educational, standards are not sacrificed.

The changing needs of communities and regions throughout the United States extend from problems of economic and social development to the needs of all individuals to accommodate to the intellectual and emotional demands of a scientific and technological age, thereby compelling institutions with graduate programs con

tinually to appraise the adequacy, currency, and relevance of their programs. Conflicts can arise between the accelerating demands of public service and the conservative traditions of established aca

demic disciplines. In addition to the continuing obligation of the graduate institution to ensure the high quality of its advanced de

grees in traditional disciplines, it is increasingly important to design advanced programs in which the strengths of many disciplines are brought to bear on current and emerging problems of society, in

cluding, those that lead to new professional degrees for individuals who do not plan research careers.

The development of graduate education in the United States has been geographically uneven. Many private graduate institutions were established in centers of population, while the Morrill Act and the early orientation of public higher education to agricultural and mechanical" colleges resulted in the location of many of the now large State universities in rural settings. Although even public grad

uate education has more recently become increasingly urban, there remain many metropolitan areas that are inadequately served by graduate institutions, or not so served at all. Yet a maximum contri

bution of the graduate institution to society can be attained only through interaction with both the problems and the individuals of society. The educational and research programs of the university can stimulate and provide support for the local economy, par

ticipate in the solution of local social problems, and provide in

dividuals appropriately trained to function within the community.

Moreover, approximately one-half of the Nation's graduate stu

dents in science and engineering are part-time students, including an increasing number from industry, who must pursue their educa-

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Figure 4

PROJECTED COST OF GRADUATE EDUCATION

Expenditures for Educational and General Purposes (Current Dollars)

1956 '58 '60 '62 '64 '66 '68 '70 '72 '74 '76 '78 1980

Estimate of cost of graduate education and projection to 1979-80 by National Science Foundation.

Source: Office of Education (DHEW) projections for higher education to 1975-76; graphical extrapolation to 1979-80.

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Table 2

INCOME RELATIONSHIPS

Distribution of Current-Fund Income for Educational and General Purposes

PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES (1) Total Student Federal

Year State Other (2)

(millions) Fees Research

1951-1952 746 9.7% N.A. 50.3% N.A.

1953-1954 878 10.6 12.3% 51.4 25.7%

1955-1956 1,158 11.7 12.6 50.3 25.4

1957-1958 1,507 11.7 15.0 50.5 22.8

1959-1960 1,862 11.3 18.8 48.1 21.8

1961-1962 2,389 11.2 21.9 45.9 21.0

1963-1964 3,080 12.0 23.4 44.0 20.6

PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES (1) Total Student Federal

Year State Other (2)

(millions) Fees Research

1951-1952 478 30.3% N.A. 7.0% N.A.

1953-1954 520 34.2 20.9% 3.7 41.2%

1955-1956 625 35.1 20.9 3.6 40.4

1957-1958 789 35.1 23.3 2.9 38.7

1959-1960 1,030 32.9 29.6 2.9 34.6

1961-1962 1,336 32.1 32.5 3.0 32.4

1963-1964 1,669 29.7 35.2 2.7 32.4

Includes 88 publicly and 58 privately controlled institutions Includes endowment earnings and gifts and grants from individuals, philanthropic organizations, business corporations, and other pri

vate sources, etc.

Source: Derived from data made available by the Office of Education (DHEW).

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tions not far distant from their dwelling and working places.

In addition, the graduate institution has become an important focus of American culture, from the pursuit of natural science and social understanding to the expansion and intensification of efforts in the arts and humanities. In this sense, such an institution gener

ates much of the tone and quality of life for the immediately sur

rounding community. Accordingly, as many communities as possible should be enabled to share in these diverse benefits.

(5) Although graduate education will remain, numerically, the smallest element of the educational system, of necessity it will also remain, inherently, by far the most expensive element on a per student basis. Hence, if graduate enrollments do indeed double by about 1980, as now projected, and if the cost per student also dou

bles, as seems likely, the total cost of graduate education in the United States may be expected to increase to an annual figure of about $20 billion. A projection of this growth is illustrated in Figure

4. If advanced educational opportunity of high quality is to be made available to all qualified students, significant funding will be needed to supplement such sources as endowment income, tuition charges, philanthropic gifts, and State appropriations, which are, of neces

sity, heavily committed to primary, secondary, and undergraduate education. Trends during recent years in the relative behavior of selected, major elements of university income, shown in Table ^2, clearly support this conclusion.

In the last two decades the traditional means of financial support, particularly for the private institutions, have not grown at a rate commensurate with the rising aspirations of the American people and the increasing demands of all elements of American society for highly educated and skilled individuals. From all available in

dications, this disparity between institutional resources and soci

etal needs is fast increasing. The situation will become worse unless Federal funds, on a substantial scale, can be made available. His

torically, the financial support of educational institutions has been provided by the areas and populations that they have primarily served. In this sense, since virtually all graduate schools draw a large fraction of their students from a national base and since their graduates, in turn, are then redistributed nationally, there is a special logic in the argument that graduate schools should be that element of the educational system which, initially, should receive

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support from the Federal Government on such scale as to constitute a major fraction of its total financing.

Taken together, these circumstances suggest that the support and development of graduate education, despite its long history of successful growth and its evident contributions to the Nation, are among the most serious and important problem areas facing American society today. It is the purpose of this report to examine in some detail the measures believed to be necessary if graduate education is to serve the United States as well in the future as it has in the past.

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It

Characteristics of Quality in Graduate Education

The quality of an educational institution is a property of the total institution and thus reflects the concepts and the creative genius of those who establish or function within the enterprise.

As such, quality is not amenable to precise or quantitative deter

mination, nor can well-defined preconditions ensure the achieve

ment of high quality. Nevertheless, several indicators or operational characteristics of educational institutions or graduate programs appear to correlate well with measures of perceived quality. These indicators may assist in the appraisal of existing graduate programs or in the formulation of new programs. The following principles and minimal conditions are offered for the consideration of those responsible for planning or appraising institutional quality.

THE INSTITUTION

An educational institution can be effective in its service to society only through the achievement and preservation of high quality. The quality of an institution, however, is an attribute of the institution as a whole, viz., administrative policies, the faculty, the instructional process, research performance, and the student body. While institutions of inferior quality may contain individual students or professors of exceptional merit, it can hardly be expected that, in general, first quality products - graduates, research results, or services to the community - will be produced by inferior institutions. It is in the public in

terest that the quality of existing institutions be strengthened wherever possible.

Some measure of institutional specialization may be neces

sary in order to achieve peaks of excellence in all fields throughout the Nation. Whereas some disciplines are suffi

ciently fundamental to the general structure of the sciences and engineering that any institution aspiring to excellence must excel in them, strength in other disciplines may be justi

fied only in relatively few major centers.

328-298 0-69-5

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In order fully to meet their responsibilities for service to society, colleges and universities with graduate programs must retain the independence of decision necessary to maintain the integrity of the educational process. Whereas each institution needs to be perpetually alert to the advisability of adapting its programs to the changing needs of society, its essential autonomy should not be compromised by unrelated, external pressures generated by the administrative requirements of private, State, or Federal financial support.

THE FACULTY

Central to the quality of graduate education is the quality of the graduate faculty. As a general principle, the members of the graduate faculty should themselves hold the doctorate.

In general, a faculty of appropriate quality is possible only when institutional policies concerning compensation are such as to attract and retain professors of high quality. Members of the continuing faculty should not be expected to obtain part or all of their salaries from external sources.

The time required for an effective tutorial relationship with graduate students is properly part of the instructional duties of a professor and should be taken fully into account in estab

lishing faculty teaching assignments. The student-faculty ratio provides an approximate measure of this relationship, but it must be supplemented by consideration of the total pattern of obligations of individual faculty members.

To be consistent with its mission, the educational institution should ensure that all faculty members contribute directly to the intellectual environment of the graduate and postdoctoral students. A personal commitment to research and scholar

ship by each member of the graduate faculty is essential to competent graduate teaching. However, the establishment of numbers of research professorships, without formal teaching responsibilities, should be discouraged.

THE GRADUATE STUDENT

The establishment and control of appropriate admission standards is of primary importance, for the quality of the

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graduate student is a central determinant of institutional qual

ity. The maintenance of such standards serves, furthermore, to strengthen and raise the standards of the undergraduate institution. Graduate and undergraduate institutions thus share a common interest in the attainment of high quality.

Provision for the financial support of graduate students should ensure the continuity of education of those who are qualified to continue their progress towards advanced degrees.

It is not in the interest of the student, the quality of the gradu

ate program, the institution, or society to prolong unduly or to vitiate the student's educational opportunity for financial reasons. Graduate student stipends should be adequate to meet normal, modest living standards; funds should also be avail

able for student loans to meet unusual needs. In any event, the student's stipend should be regarded as a means for his personal support, not as a fee for service.

The doctoral student's educational experience necessarily involves a balanced program of formal study, seminars, tutorial instruction, and research participation. It is entirely appropri

ate, and in his own interest, that the graduate student be, during the course of his graduate work, student, research assistant, and teacher of undergraduates. Only the more able students, however, should be privileged to serve as instruc

tors, under faculty supervision, and this only when the oppor

tunity is consistent with their own development and career plans.

In the process of graduate education at the doctoral level, research and instruction are generally inseparable. The par

ticipation of graduate and postdoctoral students in research projects, in association with the faculty, is an integral part of their education.

Central to graduate education in the sciences and engineer

ing, particularly at the doctoral level, is the tutorial relation

ship between teacher and student. The support and conduct of research in graduate institutions should strengthen, not compete with, this important relationship.

Similar principles apply to the successful administration of programs leading to the master's degree. Although the large numbers of students involved in these programs often preclude

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a full tutorial relationship with each student, a close collabora

tion between one or more faculty members and the student and a continuing appraisal of his progress, as well as careful planning of his program to ensure balance between instruction and independent investigation, are essential to high quality.

The requirement of high quality for successful education applies equally to master's and doctoral programs. It is par

ticularly important that academic departments that offer both degrees make every effort to ensure the quality of the master's degree.

GRADUATE PROGRAMS

In general, an academic department of high quality that offers the doctoral degree will exceed a minimal critical size, in terms of the numbers of faculty members and graduate stu

dents. The existence of such a minimum is due to the essential contribution to a creative environment that results from full opportunity for inter-personal communication among peers.

Above such a minimum the actual size of departments may vary with their disciplinary scope. Thus, a relatively small group of faculty and graduate students may suffice for dis

ciplines such as geophysics, anthropology, biochemistry, or astronomy, while substantially larger minimal groups are nec

essary for comprehensive, structured departments of physics, chemistry, biology, economics, or mathematics.

For similar reasons, a doctoral program of high quality in a particular discipline is possible only when the institution also provides adequate coverage of closely related disciplines in allied departments of high quality. This is notably true in the sciences and engineering where individual disciplines are strongly dependent upon the information, techniques, and progress of related fields. Such a group of related departments, either in the natural or social sciences, should generally involve at least 50 faculty members and about 300 graduate students.

Such a minimal graduate institution, however, is necessarily of a specialized character; while it should offer advanced pro

grams in appropriate, central, basic disciplines, it cannot pro

vide full coverage of less closely related fields.

While retaining and building upon the wisdom of the past,

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the institution should ensure, through experimentation and continual appraisal, that its graduate programs, its degree structure, its exploitation of research opportunity and inter

disciplinary cooperation, and its interaction with the com

munity not only serve the contemporary needs of both the students and the public, but are being adapted to problems and purposes anticipated for the future.

RESEARCH

A doctoral program of high quality will produce research results of high quality. Evidence of such research quality is most readily found in the quality of an investigator's publica

tions and in the judgments of his peers, in institutions across the Nation; in general, the quality of an investigator's research is evident in his success in national competition for research project funds.

FACILITIES

It is essential to the achievement of high quality that the institution be committed to the provision of adequate facili

ties for graduate education. Of special importance are the libraries, computers, and other facilities needed for research.

Although standards for such facilities have not generally been established, institutions should not minimize these basic re

quirements or adopt inadequate standards for reasons of expediency.

FUNDS

A graduate program can maintain high quality only if it can be assured of continuity of essential financial support. Sig

nificant short-term variations in funding are especially serious, for they are destructive of morale. It is more difficult and re

quires a longer time to build high quality than to destroy it.

UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

In most institutions the graduate and undergraduate faculty are largely identical; graduate students and some postdoc-

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toral fellows frequently serve as teaching assistants. In con

sequence, the quality, the general liveliness of the graduate research program, and the extent to which it is engaged in frontier research and major societal problems necessarily have great impact upon undergraduate education in the same insti

tution. The enthusiasm, the profundity of thought, the clarity of insight, the breadth of vision, the problem-solving habits of mind can all be communicated to the undergraduate student in the same environment, albeit perhaps in lesser degree.

Moreover, this process extends beyond the campus of the graduate institution. It is the products of the graduate school who must become the faculty of the four-year college and of the junior college. And the quality of their graduate education will determine the nature and quality of the undergraduate education of their students in these institutions. And thus is a cycle completed, since these colleges constitute a major source of future graduate students whose capacities to profit by the opportunities available in graduate school are markedly affected by the quality of their undergraduate experience.

Accordingly, measures which strengthen graduate educa

tion also upgrade undergraduate education both in graduate and undergraduate institutions.

Several of the principles listed above relate uniquely to graduate education, several to the educational institution as a whole. As a distinct educational process, graduate education can properly be guided, planned, appraised, and supported as a separate activity.

It remains, however, part of the total institution, coordinate with undergraduate education, and must share the policies, standards, and purposes of the whole.

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a

A National Policy

for Graduate Education

The nature, magnitude, and support of graduate education in the United States today are, in large measure, the by-products of three national efforts that are historically unrelated, and that characterize in varying degree the activities of different types of both educa

tional and noneducational institutions. These efforts have been the national responses to public policies concerned with:

The provision of full educational opportunity for an ex

panding proportion of all citizens, a policy that, historically, has witnessed its nearest fulfillment successively in primary, secondary, and undergraduate education.

The full use of scientific and engineering resources in the public service, especially in support of the complex re

quirements of national security, agriculture, public health, and social welfare. This policy, which has been operative over the entire history of the Nation, has been most strikingly imple

mented during the past 25 years, and now requires a continu

ing relationship between educational institutions and national programs.

The contribution of American science and engineering to human welfare throughout the world and to the support by the United States of the aspirations of new and developing nations, a more recent policy that has seen the participation of the United States in many international undertakings.

While graduate education grew sturdily in the years before World War II, under the initiative of the States and of diverse private bodies, there existed no coherent, explicit national policy in this regard. And while Federal funds, quite deliberately, gave impetus to the postwar growth of graduate education, particularly in the sciences and engineering, there has been no overall plan for this endeavor. Each year these funds have increased, but only a small fraction of the total has represented funds deliberately ap

propriateciin support of graduate education ^{per se.}Instead, support

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has derived largely from funds appropriated to sustain the national efforts, for example, in defense, health, atomic energy, space, or even in fundamental research. Important beneficial, as well as potentially injurious, consequences to graduate education in the United States have resulted from this form of implementation of these three policies, in the absence of a directly implemented Federal policy to support graduate education.

Academic research in the sciences and engineering has ex

perienced a vigorous, dynamic growth in the United States.

In direct consequence, American science is at the forefront of most major lines of scientific endeavor, while the national scientific "labor force" is at an all time high. All Americans may well be proud of the scientific and technological accom

plishments of the last two decades.

Because the financial support of this research has been largely unrelated in concept to graduate education, much of the planning which has shaped academic science has occurred in a different context, viz., the procurement of research results which might find specific application to agency missions in the near or long-term future. The university has thus been forced to compete, in some part, with other types of organizations (e.g., industry, research institutes, non-profit organizations, and even Government laboratories) designed specifically to engage in research.

Potentially, the support of academic science and engineer

ing principally by Federal agencies whose primary missions do not directly involve education could have been divisive and distorting in its effect on the balance of graduate programs and their relationship to the educational process, progress in scientific disciplines, and the character of the relationship of universities to the problems of Federal agencies. Indeed, there are examples of universities in which certain graduate pro

grams have been patterned rather closely on the mission re

quirements of individual Federal agencies. The extent to which these problems have been generally avoided is a testimonial to those, both in Government and in the universities, who have administered these programs. Nevertheless, because of the necessary relevance of research funding to the missions of Federal agencies, and because an increasing proportion of the resources for graduate education depends upon such funding,

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IN THE SCIENCES

0

I 1Ii1ATht 1 MI

0.

IN THE SCIENCES

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

SUMMARY

CONTENTS

I

Graduate Education in American Life

1

1�

J

I J� Figure2 1 I

am

It

Characteristics of Quality in Graduate Education

a

A National Policy

for Graduate Education