By Scott Shreffler

The University of Louisville has been selected to participate in a three-year, $2.6 million project aimed at increasing the completion rates of doctoral students. The project, spearheaded by the Council of Graduate Schools and supported by grants from Pfizer Inc. and the Ford Foundation, chose the University of Louisville as one of its 21 research partners from a highly competitive pool of applicants, university officials said.

Dr. Ronald Atlas, U of L’s graduate school dean, spoke about some of the specific goals of the program. “One of the aims of the program is to get a good handle on actual degree completion rates for a variety of disciplines, both nationally and here at U of L, especially for women and minorities.”

According to the Council of Graduate Schools’ press release announcing the project, the rate of Ph.D. attrition can be as high as 50 percent in some fields. The program will attempt to reduce this number through several different means of intervention.

Each participating university will create and enact its own intervention strategies. It will then evaluate the information collected and pass it on to the other universities involved. For the duration of the program, participating universities will be in contact on a regular basis through the aid of e-mail and Web sites. These communiqués will help the universities share information, data and results to determine which programs are working most effectively.

One means of intervention includes an increase in peer mentoring. The plan provides for bringing back alumni to the university to help in the mentoring process, among other things, Atlas said.

By extending the mentoring process beyond the borders of the university, students of all disciplines will have a chance to see how their chosen doctoral degrees have been put to use by others, and will be made aware of the  different career paths that are open to them.

One of the main groups targeted by the program is women. Many women who are also attempting to raise a family find it hard to finish their doctoral thesis.

“I have known many female students who have completed the research aspect of their thesis,” Atlas said. “The only thing left to do is to sit down and write it.”

One idea floating around about how to increase female doctoral completion is to provide funds to cover up to six months of daycare. Reducing the cost of child care will hopefully give the female student the ability to focus on and complete her Ph.D.         

For more information on the project, go to http://www.phdcompletion.org.