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| 2003
Fall Forum - Preliminary Report on 2003 ANDP Survey |
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SUMMARY
| FALL
FORUM
Preliminary Report
on 2003
ANDP Survey
Ed Stricker, Professor, University of Pittsburgh
Neuroscience Departments and Programs are relatively new entities, being virtually unknown 35 years ago. By now they are plentiful, diverse in organization and goals, and still evolving. For years the ANDP has attempted to monitor that evolution by characterizing the departments and programs along several important dimensions so that we can know ourselves better (i.e., bench-marking) and present ourselves better to our colleagues, our deans, our students, and to the federal agencies that support our predoctoral and postdoctoral training programs. In addition, these surveys provide unique information about the numbers of students, postdoctoral trainees, and faculty, curricular emphases, funding sources, and manpower needs in the field. Five surveys have been conducted to date, in 1986, 1991, 1996, 2000, and 2002. In the Fall of 2003 a new survey was begun.
By early November 2003 we have received about one-third of the responses we expect to receive. The presentation at the ANDP Forum (shown in summary fashion in the ten slides accompanying this
text) was based on the more complete data set from the 2002 survey with regard to the issues of greatest relevance to this Forum. Note that a full report of the 2002 survey is available at the ANDP web site, and that the preliminary results from the ongoing survey generally are consistent with earlier values. Note also that the values given are derived from member programs in institutions in the United States and Canada but for issues regarding U.S. citizenship.
(Accompanying slides -
ppt
version or pdf version)
1) Graduate student citizenship. Historically, about 80% of the graduate students in U.S. training programs in neuroscience are U.S. citizens.
2) Minority graduate students. Historically, members of U.S. minority groups constitute about 20% of the graduate students who are U.S. citizens.
3) Graduate student placement. Historically, 60-70% of students, after training in neuroscience and upon graduation with a Ph.D. degree, take a postdoctoral position and continue their training.
4) Postdoctoral trainee citizenship. Historically, there has been a progressive increase in the number of postdoctoral trainees in neuroscience who are not U.S. citizens, from 40% (in 1991) to 60% (in 2002).
5) Postdoctoral trainees, placement. Historically, 30-40% of trainees in neuroscience accept a faculty position when they leave a postdoctoral position. In addition, there has been a progressive increase in the number who leave one postdoctoral position to accept another such position, from 20% (in 1991) to 35% (in 2002).
6) Program hires faculty? Historically, only 60% of graduate neuroscience programs hire their own faculty. The fact that many programs do not do so requires that neuroscience trainees have expertise and interest in some allied field (e.g., pharmacology) to be an attractive candidate to departments in that other discipline.
7) Faculty citizenship. Historically, about 95% of tenure-stream faculty members in neuroscience programs are U.S. citizens.
8) Faculty gender. Historically, about 80% of tenure-stream faculty members in neuroscience programs are males.
9) Minority faculty. Historically, 90-95% of tenure-stream faculty members in neuroscience programs are Caucasian. Of the minority faculty members, 60% are Asian Americans, 25% are Hispanic Americans, and less than 10% are African Americans.
10) Summary.
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Most graduate students are Caucasian, U.S. citizens, whereas most postdoctoral fellows are not U.S. citizens.
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After graduation, most students become postdoctoral fellows.
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Most postdoctoral fellows leave either to take a faculty position or else to take another postdoctoral position.
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Many graduate programs do not hire their own faculty.
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Most tenure-stream faculty in graduate programs are male, Caucasian, U.S. citizens.
General Note. A great many programs now encourage the recruitment of women and U.S. minorities into faculty positions, and a gradual shift in the profile of faculty members suggests that this policy is in fact increasing diversity, as intended. It should be recognized that surveys will suggest that such shifts are occurring very slowly not because the policy isn't working well but because new hires represent such a small fraction of the entire faculty pool.
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