Update on Special Committee on Graduate Education (SCGE)

The Special Committee on Graduate Education (SCGE) will mainly focus on programs offering PhD research degrees, particularly those that the National Research Council has identified as central to its assessment of graduate education in the United States. The committee is aimed at moving forward not backward, meaning they are not tasked with evaluating the wisdom of past actions. There are four subcommittees which include:

• Graduate student financing


• Facilitation of the graduate student experience and ensuring program quality


• Graduate program enrollment management


• Oversight of, and advocacy for, the visibility and quality of graduate education

The goal of the committee was to have membership representation from the top ranked NRC graduate programs, and each college with a PhD graduate research program. Individuals were selected by Graduate School staff and the FCC.

The subcommittees started meeting in late September, and they will be done formulating their preliminary recommendations by the end of October. The entire SCGE will meet twice in November to consider these preliminary recommendations and to decide on the final SCGE committee recommendations. The final report will be delivered to the Provost and FCC by December 1, 2013.