Spotlight on CGS Best Practices
Daniel Denecke, CGS Associate Vice President, Programs and Best Practices, provides insight on the CGS Best Practice process. CGS Best Practice initiatives address common challenges in graduate education by supporting institutional innovations and sharing effective practices with the graduate community. These programs have provided millions of dollars of support for improvement and innovation projects at member institutions.
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What role have private companies played as partners in CGS Best Practices?
Private companies have collaborated with CGS beyond financial support for Best Practice projects across a range of topics including financial education (TIAA-CREF), Ph.D. completion and attrition (Pfizer Inc.), global metrics for quality in graduate education (ProQuest), the selection and admissions process (Hobsons), and the future of graduate education (ETS).
Private funders can help enhance our research capacity and significantly expand project communications.
Our financial education initiative that arose in partnership with sustaining member TIAA-CREF is a good example of how such a partnership can be mutually beneficial. The complementary forms of expertise our two organizations bring to the project have resulted in a high visibility intervention into the national conversation about student debt that highlights the key role graduate schools and companies, working together, can play as part of the solution.
What are the benefits to a private company of partnering with CGS on a Best Practice project?
Most importantly, such partnership provides an opportunity to establish a more meaningful connection with the graduate community.
CGS is seen by members as more than simply a member association that facilitates dialogue among deans on improving operations. While that is a valued role, we are also viewed by deans and more broadly by the public as the leading research organization and think tank on graduate education. Partnering with CGS on a Best Practice project provides companies with an opportunity to be recognized within the graduate community as thought leaders who are committed to helping position universities for the future.
Our Best Practice projects address some of the most pressing challenges facing universities and the nation. Partnership also can help an organization build its reputation in the community through its support of evidence-based efforts to benefit students and improve the graduate enterprise.
By joining in the conversation with graduate education leaders, companies have also refined their products and services, incorporated new research questions into their R&D agendas, and devised new product streams and strategies. Other benefits to companies have included opportunities to co-present with CGS staff and other graduate deans at national and regional meetings, speaking opportunities for corporate partner CEO’s and other leaders to share the company’s broader vision with CGS members, and substantial collaborations on press outreach, and social media related to these projects. We also recognize these partnerships and the important financial contribution with a variety of opportunities for logo placement and co-branding.
How does CGS set priorities for Best Practice projects?
We look for overlap among pressing issues or challenges facing the graduate community; issues upon which graduate schools and graduate dean leadership can effect change; and issues in which national coordination and thought leadership would be valuable. We keep our ears out for voices from many sectors in seeking to identify the next priority area, and are always open to dialogue with our partners and fresh ideas to strengthen graduate education.
What research priorities will CGS pursue in the coming year?
CGS has a number of active research projects in areas such as preparing future faculty to assess undergraduate student learning, and financial education. We have also begun work on a new grant from the National Science Foundation to identify best practices in graduate student professional development. As part of this project, we will be conducting in-depth interviews with employers with a broader goal to improve the way we currently prepare graduate students in STEM fields for non-academic careers.
We are also seeking this year to build on the priorities identified through our Understanding PhD Career Pathways project, chiefly to develop better ways to track our graduate students through the life cycle of their subsequent careers. In addition, we are actively thinking about new opportunities for research projects that will help universities scale-up and enhance programs to prepare graduate students to be successful future faculty.
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