Graduate School Crush

Report Outline
Rising Pressure On Graduate Schools
Demand for Highly Educated Manpower
Recent Innovations in Graduate Education

Rising Pressure On Graduate Schools

The great push for higher education is moving up the educational ladder to the graduate schools of the nation's colleges and universities. Not only are more and more high school graduates going on to college; larger and larger numbers of those who earn their baccalaureate are remaining in the academic community to work for advanced degrees. The 570,000 students enrolled in graduate schools in the academic year 1965–66 were double the number enrolled a decade ago—and more than five times the number enrolled in 1940.

Substantially increased and constantly growing demand for highly educated specialists underlies the expansion of enrollment in post-baccalaureate education. But there is concern, reflected in professional and scholarly journals and voiced at national conferences, that the country's higher education facilities will not be able to handle the number of students who must take advanced study if optimum goals for the American economy are to be realized. Opportunities for graduate study have been increasing in recent years, but authorities fear that the quality of education may suffer if expansion takes place too rapidly or if existing facilities are relied on to meet the needs of too many additional students.

The problem is particularly difficult to solve because the need to expand coincides with a wave of self-criticism, accompanied by growing advocacy of reforms, within the realm of graduate education. Although this situation is to some extent no more than the continuation of a longstanding debate among scholars, the issues in graduate education have never before been so directly pertinent to the national welfare. The graduate school is the prime training ground for scientists, technicians, teachers, and other cultural leaders. It is also an active participant in research and development projects of the first importance. Consequently, it must be considered today a major national resource.