The National Research Council (NRC) Survey of Doctoral Program

The National Research Council (NRC) has launched its latest project to assess U.S. research doctorate programs. This is the most comprehensive survey of research doctorate programs in the United States. As of the end of July, 2006, over 200 institutions in the United States have committed to participate in the survey. Each participating university responds at an institutional level, at the program level and at the faculty level. Additionally, students in five selected fields will be invited to complete questionnaires regarding their programs.

The two previous assessments were conducted in 1982 and 1993. As in the past, the results of the new assessment will be used to inform the public and funding agencies of the quality of research doctorate programs at U.S. institutions of higher education. NRC plans to publish the results of the assessment where programs in each field will be rated and ranked. In the 1993 assessment, programs in a field were ranked based on peer assessment of scholarly quality of program faculty, a method known as a reputation study. NRC has adopted a new methodology that relies more on quantitative data. In addition to the four questionnaires, NRC will collect data on publications, citations, and dissertation keywords of programs. NRC is considering various technical procedures to aggregate the data.

The NRC anticipated that initial analysis would be completed and an online database made available to the public in 2007. In conjunction with the availability of the database, the NRC will issue a report describing how the database can be used. The NRC is also planning to conduct a second phase of the study during 2008 when a group of experts will analyze the data and write essays that will be part of a final report.

UC Davis Coordination

Jeffery Gibeling, Dean of Graduate Studies, has been designated to serve as the UC Davis Institutional Coordinator (IC) for this project. In that capacity, he will be the campus liaison to the NRC. He also serves as the UC Davis representative to the UC Systemwide NRC Working Group. Yuhang Shi, Director of Analysis & Information Services, Office of Graduate Studies, is the principal technical coordinator and contact person for the NRC Assessment Survey on the Davis campus. In July 2006, each eligible program was asked to name a Program Responder (faculty or staff) who will serve as the principal contact person for that program.

The Office of Graduate Studies, in conjunction with other campus units, will be responsible for filling in the data on the Institutional Questionnaire. The Office of Graduate Studies will pre-populate the data on the Program Questionnaire using the data from the campus student information system (Banner) and other databases. Each participating program will then verify the pre-populated data and fill in the remaining questions on the Program Questionnaire.

This Web Site

The purpose of this Web site is to provide local information for those programs who have accepted the invitation to participate in the NRC study. As the NRC continues to finalize the details of the survey and the data collection timetables, this information will be made available here.