From the beginning, Stanford broke with convention. With strong roots in Western soil, the founders sought to grow new traditions, opening the young University’s doors to able students regardless of gender, economic status or religious denomination and declaring a commitment to producing “cultured and useful citizens.” That initial vision marked the beginning of a 114-year history of taking risks and blazing trails.
Following the landmark report of the Commission on Undergraduate Education in 1994, we continued to shape that vision through innovations focused on the undergraduate experience. We will soon conclude our Campaign for Undergraduate Education (CUE), an effort to create permanent funding for those enhancements.
It is now time to seize another opportunity, one that presents itself in the area of graduate education. Once again we must draw deeply from our history and heritage, and set a compelling vision for the future. Just as we committed ourselves to undergraduate education a dozen years ago, we must make a similar commitment to build a better graduate program and establish our leadership role in graduate research and education.
A little more than 50 years ago, a new generation of University leaders decided that Stanford should aspire to be among the world’s great research universities. Increased government funding for research, together with the growth of the West after World War II, helped propel a determined effort to improve and expand the University’s graduate offerings, raise the quality of the faculty and enhance the University’s facilities. This effort set in motion Stanford’s rapid rise to the top rank of universities in the world.
Our graduate programs grew largely through independent decisions and actions of departments and programs. As a result, the depth and strength of many of our departments is unparalleled, and we are committed to strong individual departments as we go forward. At the same time, we must ask how Stanford can employ the broad excellence of the University to best prepare our graduate students to make a positive difference in an increasingly complex world.
Last fall, I appointed a blue-ribbon Commission on Graduate Education that included faculty from across the University, the president of the Graduate Student Council, a former trustee and senior staff to think broadly about this challenge. The charge to the commission noted the increasing scale and complexity of contemporary issues, the changing nature of professional and academic career paths and the continuing need for Stanford to use its overall excellence in an effective and efficient manner to prepare its graduate students to be future leaders.
The commission embraced a bold vision of Stanford’s future as a top international university. Although its formal recommendations will be issued later this fall, I would like to summarize the commission’s proposals.
- Foster intellectual innovation: Stanford should create new programs that aid in the development and evolution of graduate students and faculty, and encourage educational initiatives that cross disciplines.
- Maximize the graduate experience: Stanford should work to improve graduate students’ leadership skills to prepare them to make an impact on the world. The University must also increase and enhance diversity in its graduate student body to help prepare students for a diverse global society.
- Improve organizational flexibility: Stanford must rethink how it organizes graduate study to provide a more global view and a focus on graduate issues from advising and mentoring to residential life.
The commission discussed many innovative approaches, including the development of cross-department, cross-school courses and workshops to increase students’ exposure to other disciplines and ways of thinking. It also considered development of a “leadership” curriculum that could be offered to all graduate students as a complement to discipline-based studies. This curriculum might include classes in public speaking and writing, management practices, international relations and negotiation skills.
One member of the commission, discussing the possibility of a senior position that oversees this area, noted that Stanford needs someone who goes to sleep at night and wakes up in the morning thinking about graduate education, just as the vice provost of undergraduate education does for our undergraduates.
We have the ability, the commitment and the foresight to take our graduate programs to the next level, just as we did with our undergraduate programs. Such a transformation will benefit our students—and through their contributions, the world.
