Kate Korgan, Emily Lin, Valarie Burke, and Katelyn DiBenedetto (all Graduate College) will conduct research involving current and past UNLV Ph.D. students as the result of a $50,000 grant awarded to the Graduate College by the Council of Graduate Schools. They will be participating in the Understanding Ph.D. Career Pathways for Program Improvement project, a multi-institution effort to collect and analyze data on Ph.D. career pathways in STEM and humanities fields. The project — launched in 2017 and funded by the National Science Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation — includes, among others, Brown University, the University of Notre Dame, Emory University, the University of California system, the University of Virginia, and New York University. With the addition of UNLV this year, approximately 30 universities are part of the project.
During the next two years, the UNLV researchers will survey current Ph.D. students as well as alumni who earned their degree three, eight, and 15 years ago. The large pool of aggregate data will allow project participants to analyze Ph.D. career trends and strengthen career services, professional development opportunities, and mentoring for doctoral students. The data also will allow the Graduate College to communicate the career trajectories of Ph.D. alumni to current and prospective students, helping them make more informed Ph.D. program selections.
DiBenedetto is a postdoctoral scholar.
