A new Chronicle of Higher Education article (subscriber log-in required) spotlights a Brandeis University initiative to decrease the time to degree of PhD candidates by requiring commitment agreements from those granted selective one-year dissertation fellowships. The MLA’s executive director, Rosemary G. Feal, sees graduate programs developing “a network of approaches” to “create situations where students are supported” and notes the usefulness of explicit expectations and a regular structure for dissertation writers.
MLA Cited in Article about Time-to-Degree Initiative
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Seems like another attempt by progressives to denigrate higher education. “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”
If the MLA wants to speed up time to degree, it should address the eroding place of literary studies & the humanities in general in American public discourse. If there were more places for the doctoral candidates to go, they would speed up their completion in general. But, it is easier, it would appear, to lean on the next generation than for this generation to meet its social, professional, and economic imperatives.