Assessment Details
Academic Year: 2021-2022 Level: Graduate
Campus Department: Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences [UG and Grad]
Program Type: Major [UG] / Program [Grad]
Program Name: Chemistry PhD
Description of Data Collection:
Graduate students in Chemistry typically serve as a teaching assistant for the first 1.5 years of their graduate studies. The student evaluation of their teaching is compiled and monitored by Prof. Lynne O’Connell, who is the chair of the undergraduate studies committee. At the end of the second year, each Ph.D. candidate is required to pass an oral qualifying exam, which assesses their research accomplishments, breadth of knowledge in chemistry, as well as their presentation skills. The oral exam committee rates the student in terms of their progress towards the learning outcomes described above. After passing the oral exam, each Ph.D. candidate is required to submit a yearly progress report, which documents their research progress within the past year, as well as a list of their publications and conference presentations. This progress report is read by another faculty member (the “reader”) in addition to the student’s research advisor. The reader determines if progress toward attaining their Ph.D. has been satisfactory. If not, the student is required to meet with their oral exam committee to resolve any issues that are affecting their progress. In addition to the oral exam, and annual meetings, students are also required to present a departmental seminar, and defend an original research proposal in years 3 and 4 of their Ph.D. studies. The seminar and proposal are evaluated by a panel of faculty, and if a student’s performance is deemed unsatisfactory, they will be required to repeat these assignments to attain the required standard.
Each Ph.D. candidate is required to present their thesis work in public, and also defend the dissertation in private settings with their thesis committee. The thesis committee rates the degree of accomplishment in terms of the learning outcomes. Placement data for graduate students are recorded annually. A number of strategies have recently been put in place to encourage students to apply for external fellowships, including a Scientific Communications course that guides students through proposal writing. Accordingly, the Department now compiles a list of fellowship applications submitted as well as their outcomes.
Review Process:
Relevant committees and faculty members assesses the student at the different career stages described above, and records the evidence in a report to the Graduate Studies Committee, which oversees the graduate curriculum and recommends updates when needed. The Graduate Studies Committee typically consists of three faculty members that meet several times a year. The committee examines various data points, including teaching evaluations, the attrition rate of students, the faculty reader’s feedback on the yearly progress reports, the average time to degree, and the success rate of student placement. As described above, these data should reflect on the students’ accomplishment in teaching and research. The committee reviews these data in order to identify programmatic weaknesses and to formulate recommendations for improvement.
Resulting Program Changes:
In 2018, the Department faculty approved a major curriculum change to the PhD program in Chemistry. Under the updated curriculum, a first-year graduate student is no longer required to take all three of the core courses offered by the department. Instead, the student will choose two out of three core courses that best match his/her personal interest in research. Further, recognizing the increasing importance of communication skills, a semester-long new course titled “Scientific Communications in Chemistry” has been established and is required for all first-year graduate students. This renewed focus on improving students’ written and oral communication skills has enabled a significance increase of fellowship applications by the Chemistry graduate students in 2019, 2020, and 2021. In 2019, the Chemistry Department had one successful NSF Fellowship, as well as an Honorable Mention, ending an eight-year drought of NSF Fellows in our department. In 2020, three students received Honorable Mentions for the NSF.
To further strengthen students’ communication skills and to foster creative thinking, the Department has adopted another curriculum update that took effect beginning in Fall 2020. The new curriculum incorporates two new requirements, a Departmental Seminar and an Original Research Proposal, to replace the current Cumulative Exams. After thorough deliberations, the chemistry faculty concluded that the new requirements would be a more powerful mechanism for training graduate students to tackle the increasingly complex problems in chemical sciences, and better prepare them for careers in industry and academia.
Date of Most Recent Program Review:
In 2018, the Department faculty approved a major curriculum change to the PhD program in Chemistry. Under the updated curriculum, a first-year graduate student is no longer required to take all three of the core courses offered by the department. Instead, the student will choose two out of three core courses that best match his/her personal interest in research. Further, recognizing the increasing importance of communication skills, a semester-long new course titled “Scientific Communications in Chemistry” has been established and is required for all first-year graduate students. This renewed focus on improving students’ written and oral communication skills has enabled a significance increase of fellowship applications by the Chemistry graduate students in 2019, 2020, and 2021. In 2019, the Chemistry Department had one successful NSF Fellowship, as well as an Honorable Mention, ending an eight-year drought of NSF Fellows in our department. In 2020, three students received Honorable Mentions for the NSF.
To further strengthen students’ communication skills and to foster creative thinking, the Department has adopted another curriculum update that took effect beginning in Fall 2020. The new curriculum incorporates two new requirements, a Departmental Seminar and an Original Research Proposal, to replace the current Cumulative Exams. After thorough deliberations, the chemistry faculty concluded that the new requirements would be a more powerful mechanism for training graduate students to tackle the increasingly complex problems in chemical sciences, and better prepare them for careers in industry and academia.
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