1 / 20

Assessing Undergraduate Curriculum Through Student Exit Vectors

Assessing Undergraduate Curriculum Through Student Exit Vectors. Christopher M. Keane Leila Gonzales Cynthia Martinez 15 December 2008. The World has Changed. Historical counter-cycle of geoscience is not in effect Points people miss ~50% of Chinese manufacturing has gone offline in 2008

lbundy
Download Presentation

Assessing Undergraduate Curriculum Through Student Exit Vectors

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Assessing Undergraduate Curriculum Through Student Exit Vectors Christopher M. Keane Leila Gonzales Cynthia Martinez 15 December 2008

  2. The World has Changed • Historical counter-cycle of geoscience is not in effect • Points people miss • ~50% of Chinese manufacturing has gone offline in 2008 • Russian economic proxies show contraction of nearly 80% • Indian outsourcing growth ended 2 years ago • Our boom was built on credit and developing nation growth • This time it wasn’t commodity inflation….

  3. Decoupled from Commodities?

  4. But now coupled to Construction? • Largest environmental companies are construction-related • Bechtel, URS, etc. • Environmental activity is a COST-CENTER of construction • No credit = no building = no jobs • Obama stimulus likely a short-term boost

  5. Government 18% Petroleum 43% Academia 17% Exec. Management Mining 1% 12% Environmental 8% Other Services 1% Neither is totally true • Hiring has slowed substantially across sectors • Jobs will rise with renewed economic growth • Environmental jobs will rise with renewed growth • Gov. jobs will return with tax revenue • Academia is likely to continue to contract

  6. Problem of Exit Info • Only about 50% of departments conduct exit surveys of bachelor recipients • Little department tracking of employment and out-year status • Complexity of workforce data vs. precision of degrees

  7. Placement = Success? • Is a job placement really success? • Environmental Industry example • Environmental Science new hire • Weak math, little field work • Ill-equipped to move past entry level • 3-Year target “career” • Geology new hire • Better math, real field work • Flexible assignments

  8. Near Term Trends • The best grads with the best fundamentals will be hired • Likely hiring in environmental as a result of stimulus • But will the rat push through the snake? • System is warped – metrics will be a challenge beyond fundamentals

  9. Long-Term Trends • Strong core geoscience skills will be in demand • Energy • Water • Ability to integrate interdisciplinary collaboration will prosper • Will such skills be the success definition?

  10. Fallacy of a Fad? • Push towards “Environmental” across the board • What really need to do is push towards “Interdisciplinary”

  11. Solid Earth Environmental Physical Science Departmental “Focus”U.S. BS-Degree Granting 700 600 500 400 Departments 300 200 100 0 1980 1990 2000 Year

  12. Geoscience Theses & Dissertation Topics1950s vs 1980s Environmental/Hydro Economic Geology 1950-59 Geochemistry 1980-89 Geophysics Igneous/Metamorphic Stratigraphy/Paleo Sedimentary Geology Structure/Tectonics Other 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 Number of Theses and Dissertations AGI 1991

  13. Investment into Interdisciplinary Research

  14. Skill Portfolio Strategy • Academia functions in silos • Rest of the arena functions on problems • Problems are solved with a cohort with a set of skills • Environmental example • Engineering, biology, chemistry, hydrology, soils, geology, accounting, legal

  15. Where’s the next “Plastics” • Ye who fits into the most portfolios • One likely hot area: fluid dynamics • Waste migration • Water resources • Geothermal • Nuclear • Reservoir Characterization • Carbon Sequestration • Lots, and lots outside of core geo careers

  16. Australian Trends • Substantial drop in K-12 Earth Science exposure • Commensurate drop in new undergrads • Hot mining industry recruiting students BEFORE getting their bachelors • No grad students -> no new faculty • No new faculty == death of discipline

  17. South African Trends • Massive brain-drain post-apartheid • High sensitivity to job availability • Ease of migration • Students receive excellent bachelors, but exit country and do not return

  18. Sustaining the pipeline

  19. And the pipeline will further contract

  20. Whither the future? • Focus on how your students fit in the skills portfolio of the economy • The system is currently warped • Increases in job sensitivity may destabilize the pipeline • Fundamentals in math, geology, and field will prevail • Need longitudinal surveys!

More Related