Assessment Details
Academic Year: 2019-2020 Level: Graduate
Campus Department: Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences [UG and Grad]
Program Type: Major [UG] / Program [Grad]
Program Name: English PhD (Link)
Description of Data Collection:
Every student has a graduate faculty advisor. Students who are teaching also have a teaching mentor. Both write annual reports on the students’ progress each year.
Every student takes 3 oral exams: a minor field, a major field, and a dissertation prospectus exam. The exams are graded as follows: pass, fail, or pass with distinction. Exam committees normally consist of 3 faculty members, and the chair of the exam committee reports any problems to the PhD Director.
The PhD Director meets with each student one-on-one every summer (and more often if necessary) to assess progress and answer questions. This year, beginning in mid-March, the
PhD Director met with each student virtually or on the phone to check in on their well-being and progress, answer questions, and assure them that the University will do its best to support them in this difficult time.
Dissertation committees normally consist of 3 faculty members, all of whom must agree that a dissertation fulfills the requirements for the degree.
Student cv’s are collected in order to keep track of conference presentations, publications, and awards. This year one student, Megan Lease, won a Donald J. White teaching award and Alex Moskowitz was awarded a dissertation fellowship for next year. Megan Crotty was on a Clough Center fellowship this year. All PhD students are active in presenting their work at conferences and in publishing.
Data on job placements is collected by the Assistant Director. This year Scott Resnick accepted a tenure-track position at SUNY-Plattsburgh. He also had an offer from the University of Dallas. Colleen Taylor was awarded an NEH postdoc in Irish Studies at Notre Dame. There were 6 job-seekers on the market, 3 of whom conducted very restricted searches.
Over the last two years, we have sought permission to hire a GA for Alumni Outreach and Research to gather and organize evidence about learning outcomes and career paths, maintain active links with graduates, and disseminate information to prospective students. We continue to think that this is a resource we need.
Review Process:
The Graduate Program Committee meets each year after commencement to review the above data, to evaluate the program’s achievement of each learning outcome, and to make recommendations to the whole department for improvement. This year we will continue to discuss possible curricular changes to respond to changes in the job market, the growth in digital humanities, and increasing interest in additional credentials such as certificates. We will also continue to discuss the structure of TA-ships and the possibility of making internships available to some students. And we will discuss the implications of the current pandemic for the PhD program, including topics such as the possibility of impending hiring freezes, opportunities and challenges offered by remote teaching, possibilities for remote conferencing and networking, and training for remote job interviews.
Resulting Program Changes:
About 10 years ago the program reduced the number of exams and added a dissertation prospectus exam to encourage more rapid completion.
Every 2 years we now offer (and require) the Advanced Research Colloquium, which trains students in conference submissions, publishing articles, job market preparation, and dissertation writing. This year we will be reviewing that curriculum in light of the developments listed above under 3).
The program keeps statistics on students’ progress, publications, fellowships won, and placement.
The Assistant Director of the PhD program is in charge of job market and placement assistance. He or she meets with job seekers individually, reviews job market materials such as cv’s, cover letters, and teaching portfolios, and arranges mock interviews.
Last year (2019) we hired a PhD student to assemble a dossier surveying what other humanities graduate programs have done with regard to alternative career preparation; this document will continue to help guide future curricular innovation in this area.
We continued to plan graduate writing workshops and next year we will offer another innovative course entitled “English Language Training for Graduate Level Students: Focus on Speech and Presentation Skills.”
This year (2020) recruitment was surprisingly successful, despite the fact that most of it had to happen remotely. We made 12 offers for a yield of 5. Most admitted students who declined to come here cited concerns over the stipend amount, which is lower than that offered by many of our peer institutions. In order to continue to recruit excellent students and to maintain their success in getting grants, publishing, and on the job market, we need to remain competitive with other area schools in this regard. We hope to work with the deans on this issue in the coming years. We are, however, grateful that the stipend amounts that were promised admitted students will be paid as promised.
Note: This year (2020) in particular we look forward to further discussions of how the University can maintain and extend its support for PhD students. Economically, PhD students are exceptionally vulnerable members of the BC community. Many undergraduate students receive some financial help from their families; most PhD students, who are older, do not. Many PhD students rely on part-time jobs on campus to supplement their stipends; a number of these jobs are currently suspended, and their futures are uncertain. We hope to suggest concrete, financially feasible steps the University can take to help PhD students through this uncertain time.
Finally, the English department’s PhD program had a very successful year this year (2020), despite the challenging conditions. Scott Resnick accepted a tenure-track job at SUNY-Plattsburg and Colleen Taylor was awarded an NEH postdoc at Notre Dame. Megan Lease won a Donald J. White Teaching Award. The PhD students, and in particular Kelsey Norwood and Megan Crotty, did exceptional work helping faculty transition to teaching remotely. And we successfully recruited our target class of 5 incoming PhD students for next year.
Date of Most Recent Program Review:
About 10 years ago the program reduced the number of exams and added a dissertation prospectus exam to encourage more rapid completion.
Every 2 years we now offer (and require) the Advanced Research Colloquium, which trains students in conference submissions, publishing articles, job market preparation, and dissertation writing. This year we will be reviewing that curriculum in light of the developments listed above under 3).
The program keeps statistics on students’ progress, publications, fellowships won, and placement.
The Assistant Director of the PhD program is in charge of job market and placement assistance. He or she meets with job seekers individually, reviews job market materials such as cv’s, cover letters, and teaching portfolios, and arranges mock interviews.
Last year (2019) we hired a PhD student to assemble a dossier surveying what other humanities graduate programs have done with regard to alternative career preparation; this document will continue to help guide future curricular innovation in this area.
We continued to plan graduate writing workshops and next year we will offer another innovative course entitled “English Language Training for Graduate Level Students: Focus on Speech and Presentation Skills.”
This year (2020) recruitment was surprisingly successful, despite the fact that most of it had to happen remotely. We made 12 offers for a yield of 5. Most admitted students who declined to come here cited concerns over the stipend amount, which is lower than that offered by many of our peer institutions. In order to continue to recruit excellent students and to maintain their success in getting grants, publishing, and on the job market, we need to remain competitive with other area schools in this regard. We hope to work with the deans on this issue in the coming years. We are, however, grateful that the stipend amounts that were promised admitted students will be paid as promised.
Note: This year (2020) in particular we look forward to further discussions of how the University can maintain and extend its support for PhD students. Economically, PhD students are exceptionally vulnerable members of the BC community. Many undergraduate students receive some financial help from their families; most PhD students, who are older, do not. Many PhD students rely on part-time jobs on campus to supplement their stipends; a number of these jobs are currently suspended, and their futures are uncertain. We hope to suggest concrete, financially feasible steps the University can take to help PhD students through this uncertain time.
Finally, the English department’s PhD program had a very successful year this year (2020), despite the challenging conditions. Scott Resnick accepted a tenure-track job at SUNY-Plattsburg and Colleen Taylor was awarded an NEH postdoc at Notre Dame. Megan Lease won a Donald J. White Teaching Award. The PhD students, and in particular Kelsey Norwood and Megan Crotty, did exceptional work helping faculty transition to teaching remotely. And we successfully recruited our target class of 5 incoming PhD students for next year.
Attachments (if available)