Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs

1. Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs Lisa Gubaci November 1, 2011

2. Understanding Graduate Students

3. Why? What is so important about training Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows? What makes them worth the time and money?

4. Answer… Research and Reputation • it is central to the overall University mission • expenditures for 2009-10 totaled $1.14 Billion • excellence is a crucial element in educational rankings • creates collaborative and interdisciplinary initiatives

5. Still – Why? Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows are • The reason some faculty choose UofM • The reason faculty continue to obtain research funding • The reason some of our alumni give • Our next great generation that will continue teaching, life-saving research and mentoring

6. Purpose Graduate and Postdoctoral Programs (GAP) is the administrative home for • Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences (PIBS) • Office of Postdoctoral Studies. • Interdisciplinary graduate programs • Immunology, Cellular & Molecular Biology, Neuroscience and Cancer Biology (with Cancer Center) • Postdoctoral Research Training Program • MTrain

7. Purposecont’d • Program in Biomedical Science • Operates as a confederation of very strong programs coming together for the purpose of recruiting, admissions, training and mentoring of graduate students prior to when a student selects a degree-granting program.

8. Purpose cont’d PIBS was established to: • eliminate redundant activities and costs • create an environment for students to sample more than one program or have ability to switch programs • eliminate overly-compartmentalized training and establish interdisciplinary concepts. • utilize strength of current individual departments

9. Purpose cont’d • Outcomes: • Became the gateway to 14 Ph.D. programs offering students the freedom to choose the areas of research that interests them most. • Offers an active, research-rich environment with access to almost 500 top faculty and their labs from various departments • Supports a funding level of more than $330 million in NIH and other funding; Michigan ranks among the top 10 schools year after year • Passionate mentors that are well respected, well published researchers come to UofM to train and inspire the next generation • Diversity in all it’s forms is valued for the rich contribution it brings to our students, faculty and research

10. Purpose cont’d • Office of Postdoctoral Studies: • Established in 2008 to coordinate activities in the medical school centered on the issues and concerns of postdoctoral research fellows. • History of postdocs not receiving the institutional support and services provided to students, faculty or staff. • Mission is to enhance the experience of postdoctoral fellows while in training and to recruit outstanding postdoctoral fellows to UMMS. • Currently there are over 700 postdoc fellows at UMMS; 1,400 campus wide.

11. Purpose cont’d • Postdoctoral Research Training Program (for House Officers) : • Initiated in 1986 to provide House Officers with a full-time, 10-week introduction to cell and molecular biology in both the classroom and lab. It is open to MDs throughout the Medical Center, and is a major component on many research training grants. • House Officers are introduced to problem solving exercises in cell and molecular biology led by a group of ‘top-tier’ faculty in basic and biomedical sciences.

12. Purpose cont’d • MTrain • Provides a unique workspace for proposed and active training grants • A repository to collect and manage information from the participating faculty and their trainees • Ability to generate select, required tables for NIH training grant submissions

13. Products and Services • Program in Biomedical Sciences • Recruiting • Admissions and application processing • First-year funding • Coordination of core institutional requirements (orientation, radiation and lab safety, and training in Responsible Conduct of Research) • Mentoring & Guidance (e.g., Individual Development Plan – IDP)

14. Products and Services cont’d • Office of Postdoctoral Studies: • Recruiting postdoc scholars to the UMMS • Monthly orientation for all newly appointed postdoc fellows • Seminars, expert panels and symposia focused on career options and career planning • Support to the UM-Postdoctoral Association (PDA) • Networking events for postdoc fellows across campus • Support the training efforts of UMMS faculty

15. Products and Services cont’d • MTrain: • Repository for training grant material • Data collection site • Tool for producing NIH training grant tables for submission

16. STAKEHOLDERS • Program in Biomedical Sciences • Students • Faculty • Ph.D. Programs • Medical School and the University of Michigan

17. STAKEHOLDERScont’d • Office of Postdoctoral Studies: • Postdoctoral Fellows • Faculty • Medical School and the University of Michigan

18. STAKEHOLDERS cont’d • MTrain: • Training grant directors and administrators • Medical School and the University of Michigan

19. Staffing Trends Before After 1 Associate Dean 1 Assistant Dean 2 Directors Postdoctoral Studies Post-baccalaureate Academic Enrichment 6 Staff FTEs (.5 funded by NIH grant) • 1 Director • 2 Associate Directors • 4 Staff FTEs • Several temporary staff during peak recruitment and admissions

20. Current Tactical Initiatives • Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies • Developing business plan for new post-baccalaureate program • For students that want to apply to Medical School, but lack the basic science courses required

21. Current Tactical Initiatives cont’d • Program in Biomedical Sciences • Major efforts are recruitment and admissions • Current and future endeavors is to find a way to survey results and create better efficiencies, training needs and capacities. • Stretch first-year support from 10 months to 12 – 14 months • Sync better with training grants • Ultimate goal is to get students to candidacy • Working on business plan to become a pre-candidacy program

22. Current Tactical Initiatives cont’d Office of Postdoctoral Studies • Expand pool of training grant-eligible applicants and underrepresented minorities • Postdoc Preview weekend • First year of three-year experiment

23. Current Tactical Initiatives cont’d Postdoc Preview weekend • First year of three-year experiment

24. Current Tactical Initiatives cont’d • Mtrain • Concept is a great one, but we are not using it to its fullest advantage yet. • Create process to remind mentors and trainees to update data on a yearly basis • Usable data depends upon them for data input and updates • Good system for graduate training grants, but not good for postdoc training grants • Work to find a way to better utilize system for postdoc fellows

25. Opportunities for Collaboration & Synergy What can you do for me?

26. Opportunities for Collaboration & Synergy • Program in Biomedical Sciences • Need for collaboration with tenure home • Graduate students may be a new concept-training of staff may be needed • Student financial commitments can become a source of contention • Need for direct contacts for collaboration on issues and solutions. • Often the issues relate to students getting paid on time

27. Opportunities for Collaboration & Synergy cont’d • Office of Postdoctoral Studies • Closer collaborations with departments • Faculty member within each department to serve as a liaison • Role would include research and career trajectory and health and well-being • Do departments currently assign this role to a faculty member; if not, how can we help? • International postdocs make up half (about 350 out the 700 at UMHS). • Underserved; can this be rectified with a faculty liaison position?

28. Opportunities for Collaboration & Synergy cont’d • Create a process to integrate the Individual Development Plan (IDP) • Create process for it to be done during the yearly reappointment and salary increase process. • Staff member within each department to serve as a liaison • Do not currently have an easy way to identify newly hired postdocs • Do not currently understand departmental processes • Do not currently have a mechanism for problem solving • Are postdocs receiving notice of varied funding opportunities • Are postdocs applying for funding of their own? • If not, why not? • How successful are they? • We have no way to track this information

29. Annual Awards • Excellence in Teaching & Service: • Lev Prasov – Human Genetics • Award for Excellence in Research: • J. Chad Brenner – CMB • John Prensner - MCP

30. Organizational Structure • (Org Charts/FTEs)

31. Key Performance Indicators • Program in Biomedical Science • Indicators are: • Number of domestic applications/number of underrepresented minorities within applicant pool • Quality of cohort (research experiences, GPA, letters of recommendation) • Diversity of cohort (demographics and research interests) • How widespread the geographic distribution (nationally) • Ratio of offers made to acceptances • Where did our students get other offers (what other schools did they have to choose from)?

32. Key Performance Indicators Data Reviewed: Success rate in getting our students through the program (our mentoring, using IDPs, and attrition rate). • Measures Performance: • We are successful when: • Our students reach • candidacy. • Being successful in PIBS means departmental and • Interdepartmental • training grants are • successful.

33. Key Performance Indicators • Office of Postdoctoral Studies: • Indicators are: • The number of new postdocs at orientation – are we getting everyone? If not, why not? • Level of participation in career development events • Measures performance by asking, ‘Did we enhance their training and guide them without directing them?’ • Data reviewed on a regular basis is exit interview comments. Only data available and is it not reliable because most postdocs do not complete the survey.

34. THE END….