Developing Intellectual Entrepreneurship

Doctoral programs do not adequately prepare students for the future. So says the recent study funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, "At Cross Purposes: What the Experiences of Today's Doctoral Students Reveal about Doctoral Education."¹ To solve this problem the University of Texas, which produces the largest number of Ph.D.s annually, established a professional development program (www.utexas.edu/ogs/development.html). Initiated in 1997, the mission of the University of Texas at Austin Intellectual Entrepreneurship Program is to help students realize the value of their expertise, discover their disciplinary identity, and become successful academic professionals. This program offers 16 cross-disciplinary, for-credit graduate-level classes on topics such as academic and professional writing, communication, pedagogy, consulting, ethics, technology, and entrepreneurship. In the past three years, over 1,000 students from 87 disciplines enrolled in these classes.

Courtesy University of Texas at Austin

Rick Cherwitz