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One Degree, Many Job Opportunities
Author(s) -
Bond Judith
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.29.1_supplement.96.2
Subject(s) - variety (cybernetics) , medical education , public relations , entrepreneurship , career pathways , psychology , political science , business , medicine , computer science , artificial intelligence , law
The objective of the PhD is to empower the recipient to generate new knowledge, NOT to train for a specific job. PhD training increases one's ability to: think critically about science and scientific knowledge, understand state‐of the art technologies, advance science, solve problems, design experiments, communicate, recognize what is feasible, make conclusions on the basis of what we know from data, envision what is possible. These are powerful, important skills and abilities needed by society, and yet only 1% of American adults have a PhD. A few decades ago a large percent of PhDs in biomedical sciences went into tenure‐track positions in research‐intensive universities; the percentage has been decreasing, and some scientists/administrators are calling for producing fewer PhDs in the biomedical sciences. Alternatively, institutions, faculty and trainees are exploring and implementing programs that lead to a wide range of appropriate careers and jobs for PhDs including teaching at all levels, working in industry/biotech, research administration and management, regulatory agencies, public health, science testing, science policy, intellectual property, and entrepreneurship. Graduate programs and individuals are increasingly implementing curricular changes to prepare PhD candidates for a variety of jobs and helping graduates find satisfying career paths that use their scientific training.