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Geriatrics Expert Named
Education
| Doctoral Program Restructured
To Enhance Educational Experience |
In early 2007, Lee Goldman, M.D., EVP for Health and Biomedical Sciences and Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine, requested such a reassessment. “The concern was that with 10 individual graduate programs operating largely independently, there was a risk of inconsistent admission standards and a potential for teaching inefficiencies,” says Richard Robinson, professor of pharmacology at P&S and associate dean of graduate affairs. Faculty frequently complained of being asked to give the same lecture in different courses, and students complained of hearing the same lecture multiple times.
The Office of Graduate Affairs, under the direction of Dr. Robinson and Fred Loweff, assistant dean of graduate affairs, formed a planning committee and sought input from graduate directors, from the Committee of Basic Science Chairs, center and institute directors at P&S and from peer institutions. A reorganization plan was presented to Dr. Goldman in July 2007 and implemented in advance of the current recruiting season, which is selecting the fall 2008 incoming class.
The new organizational structure is shown in the accompanying chart. Several of the existing programs are now tracks or specializations under two umbrella programs, while new tracks have been defined under other programs. This is not intended to be an inflexible structure. Many faculty in the first umbrella, the “Cell” group, conduct translational research intended to further understanding of disease mechanisms and therapies. Similarly, many faculty under the “Disease” umbrella conduct basic research into fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms. And, faculty in both programs engage in research that encompasses neurobiology or informatics, the other umbrellas. In reviewing the existing programs, however, it was obvious that both in terms of the interests of the applicants they attract and core teaching requirements, the programs fall into a fairly natural division of four groupings.
“The intent was to bring together those programs with sufficient overlap of needs and interests that they could find common ground and form a truly coherent educational mission. In this way, there are minimal institutional barriers to the free movement of students, and ideas, between programs and labs,” Dr. Robinson says. Such movement is hindered if students are required to take highly specialized and narrow courses in their first semester, locking them into a specific discipline. The second phase of the reorganization involves a complete reassessment of first-year core courses, which will be complete by the time the first group of students recruited under this structure arrives this fall.
“These and other aspects of the reorganization ensure that there will be more central oversight and standardization of recruiting, admissions, teaching and research progress,” Dr. Robinson says. “The Coordinated Doctoral Programs will become truly coordinated in more than just name.”
| Restructured Tracks for the Coordinated Doctoral Programs In Biomedical Sciences Cellular, Molecular, Structural and Genetic Studies  Biochemistry and Molecular BiophysicsCell BiologyGenetics and DevelopmentMicrobiology, Immunology and InfectionMechanisms of Health and Disease Cellular Physiology and BiophysicsNutritional and Metabolic BiologyPathobiology and Molecular MedicinePharmacology and Molecular SignalingNeurobiology and Behavior Animal Models of Nervous Systems DisordersCellular and Molecular NeuroscienceNeural DevelopmentNeurobiology of Behavior and CognitionTheoretical NeuroscienceBiomedical Informatics BioinformaticsClinical InformaticsPublic Health InformaticsTranslational Informatics |
