1. How can we expand the pool of high quality graduate students attracted to our programs? In the area of student support, how can we use our existing resources more effectively and how can we increase our resources?

• Expand pool.
• More proactive about the Davis advantage (for example program breadth); faculty visits to prospective institutions; invite undergraduate advisors from other institutions to campus for Graduate Education Information Day.
• Package our programs better - Web (important in today’s information exchange -extensively discussed), publications - "better marketing".
• Increase/improve personal contact with prospective students.
• Talk to our graduates about "testimonials" linked on Web; recruit students through our alumni.
• Bring prospective students to campus to improve "capture rate"; group felt the need to get the best.
• Faculty follow-up on accepted students.
• Resource uilization.
• Sister programs should cooperate in bringing prospective students to campus; share the cost; small investment ($100 of dollars) versus 5 year cost for support ($100-150,000).
• Active solicitation of endowments for specific things, e.g., student recruitment, equipment purchase; need for a graduate program development officer (not complete agreement on this); graduate programs need to solicit endowment funds from program alumni; identify faculty who are "good at this" and recognize their activities in this area (merits and promotions).
• Graduate Studies needs to be an information "clearing house" - a centralized place for information; provide leadership to graduate programs that can cooperate; provide staff support and advice to graduate programs.
• Administration needs to make a greater commitment to raise funds for graduate education.
• Look at sister institutions who are successful; what are they doing that we are not; what kind of structures do we need to have in place that we don’t have.
• Programs "need to take a chance" in making multi-year offers of support and overextend offers; programs can’t be conservative.

2. What kinds of curricular change/innovation should be considered in our programs?

• Coordinate admission process, e.g., general admission in biology for all biological science programs and create of core graduate courses serving related graduate programs.
• Coordinate graduate programs with other campuses, long distance learning, virtual university, regular courses at other campuses.
• Create certificate programs; money raising; attractiveness to foreign students; recruitment of graduate students into regular programs.,
• Need to reconsider the part-time graduate student and their place at UC Davis.
• Increase development of designated emphases.
• Catalog listing of graduate courses is "a disaster" for graduate education. Catalog is designed for undergraduate programs and courses.
• Increased emphasis on and redesigning of master’s programs; which ones are best suited to UC Davis.

3. What kinds of mentoring work best? What steps can be taken to improve mentoring?

• Peer mentoring - coupling senior graduate students with new students.
• Advisory committees (3 person) are advantageous.
• Choice of major professor after 2-3 quarters, but students need a "program home" prior to major professor selection.
• Group recognized the difference in mentoring between science/non-science programs.
• Atmosphere of department/program needs to be collegial, "friendly", and accessible to graduate students.

4. What kinds of placement efforts, both academic and non-academic, work best? What can we do to improve what we do in this area?

• Create a directory of graduating students from a given graduate program that can be circulated to prospective employers; cost underwritten by the private sector; use Web instead of hard copy although hard copy has its place; placing graduate students and marketing program at same time.
• In biological sciences, major professor plays primary role in placement.
• Students need to create own Web pages to "advertise themselves".
• Use of alumni, e.g., private sector, to advise/alert students regarding job opportunities.
• On campus job fair for graduate students.

Office of the Chancellor | Contact Information | Current Issues | Speaking Out | Staff and Organization | Philosophy of Purpose | Principles of Community | Administrative Resources Modified: 07/29/2003 02:04:58 PM Comments: