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The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation
Dr. Yong Chen, A recent School of Humanities event, "A Fireside Chat with Katherine Hayles and Henry Samueli", brought to campus two extraordinary individuals whose career paths offer insights for graduate students who are preparing to make their own career choices.
Their inspiring experiences illustrate the fluidity of the boundaries between the academy and industry, and challenge some of our inherited assumptions. For example, many of us, both students and faculty, have believed that a successful Ph.D. should find a tenure-track position in a research institution. Yet this belief does not reflect reality. As Denise K. Magner points out in a Chronicle of Higher Education article (April 28, 2000), "most Ph.D.'s never land jobs at research universities, yet their training is geared precisely toward such positions." In addition, a recent survey of more than 4,000 Ph.D. students at 27 universities, Chris M. Golde identifies a "three-way mismatch" among the purpose of graduate education, the aspirations of students, and the realities of the market place. Why are these mismatched? Discoveries such as these, and recent changes in the economy, have generated increasing discussion nationwide about the need to reform graduate education. This year UCI has been invited to participate in The Responsive Ph.D. Initiative, launched by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Besides UCI, 11 other universities have been invited, including Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Duke University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The purpose of the Initiative is to explore new paradigms and practices in an effort to enhance the value of graduate education for universities, society and students. Even before the Initiative started, UCI faculty and students had already started various programs to improve graduate education, such as HOT (Humanities Out There) and ArtsBridge. Programs such as these put us well on the path to bridging current gaps between the academy and the outside world. Because of its projected growth and the geographical location, UCI has a special opportunity and challenge to reform graduate education in ways that make it more exciting and relevant, and that give our students a stronger chance of success in their careers.
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Hayles is a chemist by training and worked in the private sector, but eventually became a successful professor of English. Henry Samueli is a former UCLA professor of engineering who went on to found Broadcom, an Irvine-based, multi-billion-dollar hi-tech company and one of the most talked-about success stories in the "new" economy.
In order to take advantage of these opportunities, we must question traditional assumptions. We need to develop a new culture and mentality, where a wider range of career goals are not only accepted but also encouraged and nurtured. Our ability to improve graduate education depends not only on faculty but also on students. At the end of the Fireside Chat, I asked Henry Samueli whether Broadcom is ready to hire graduate students from non-engineering and non-technical fields like history and sociology. His response was, "that is a great question." Apparently, he was interested in the question but was not ready to give a certain answer. It will take time for people like him to realize the value of our Ph.D.s in non-engineering fields and think of appropriate ways to employ them. At the same time, students themselves need to be ready, mentally and otherwise, to take advantage of opportunities not only at research institutions but also in many other areas outside the academy. Perhaps, we should stop thinking only terms of how to "find" a job, that is, locating something we assume has always been out there some where; instead, we should think more in terms of how to create opportunities for ourselves.