The Graduate Student Experience

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The Graduate Student Experience

• Leaders Forum
• March 27, 2008

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Agenda The Graduate Student Experience

• Welcome
• The Strategic Importance of Graduate Studies
• Paul Davenport
• Overview of Graduate Studies Alan Weedon
• Graduate Student Recruitment and Retention
• Clare Tattersall
• Graduate Student Professional Development
• Nanda Dimitrov
• The School of Graduate and Post-Doctoral Studies
  Tom Carmichael

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Context for Todays Topic

• The Strategic Importance of Graduate Studies
• Paul Davenport, President and Vice-Chancellor

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Overview of Graduate Studies at Western

• Alan Weedon
• Vice-Provost (Academic Planning, Policy and
  Faculty)
• Acting Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies

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Westerns Mission and Purpose

• Providing the best student experience at a
  research intensive university
• Creation, application and dissemination of
  knowledge (through teaching and research)
• Preparing the next generation of knowledge users
  and creators

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Different Contributions to the Western Mission
and Purpose

• Faculty creating and transferring knowledge
• Undergrads knowledge users of the future
• Grads (masters) specialized knowledge users of
  the future
• Grads (PhD) knowledge creators of the future
• Staff supporting and enabling all of the
  above

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Graduate Study at Western

• 1878 1950 Undergraduate focus
• 1950 Faculty of Graduate Studies created
• 1970 2008 Expansion of PhD-qualified
  faculty numbers, and undergrad and grad
  enrolments

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Probationary and Tenured Faculty at Western1985
- 2007
Source Western Corporate Information 1985
1999 UCASS Data 1999 2006 Western Human
Resources Information Systems 2007
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Full-Time Doctoral Enrolment at Western
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Full-Time Masters Enrolment at Western
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Full-Time Undergraduate Enrolment at Western
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• Video The Graduate Student Experience

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Table Dialogue

• Hearing from your guest Graduate
• Student
• Who I am what Im working on why I chose
  Western.

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Graduate Student Recruitmentand Retention
Creating the Best Student Experience

• Clare Tattersall
• Coordinator, Graduate Student Recruitment
  Retention

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Graduate Student Recruitment

• Recruitment takes place at all levels
• Individual Faculty members
• Programs
• Departments
• Faculties
• Central Initiatives campus wide events,
  marketing campaigns and promotional publications

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Graduate Student Recruitment

• Our Success in Recruitment is a Direct Result of
• Our Collaborative Efforts
• Everything from faculty research areas, program
• design, to campus facilities, housing, and
  student
• services has an impact on a students decision to
• attend Western
• I have been offered 2 positions at U of T for
  Graduate Studies, but I'm sure you'll be happy to
  hear I've decided to stay here at UWO

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Funding our Graduate Students
Our Doctoral Funding Guarantee Western
guarantees minimum annual funding for doctoral
students, from all sources, of 12,000 plus
tuition. Average Annual Funding for Western
Graduate Students
Degree 2004 2005 2006
Masters 18,857 19,626 20,625
Doctoral 24,362 25,091 26,757
After attending the Showcase I have put Western
as my 1 choice for Graduate Studies. I feel
that you care for your students and their
contributions.
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Who Are Our Graduate Students?
Total Students International International Masters International Doctoral
4499 15.28 11.54 22.10
Average Age of Grad Students
Masters Doctoral
Min 21 22
Max 66 67
Average 29 32
I was impressed with the research being done on
your campus and realized UWO is ideally where I
would like to attend school
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Who Are Our Graduate Students?

• Graduate students are researchers,
• teachers, junior colleagues, and
• students.
• They are a vital part of all aspects of our
• institution.

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Graduate Students at Western
2007/08 Western Graduate students were awarded
CIHR 430,000 32 Students
NSERC 2,800,000 156 Students
OGS 3,100,000 294 Students
SSHRC 3,000,000 187 Students
OGSST 800,000 56 Students
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Graduate Students at Western
Graduate students are an essential part of our
undergraduate student experience
Term of Grad TAs of Grad Students that are TAs
Fall 2006 1602 38.33
Winter 2007 1596 38.77
I was able to make it in from Nova Scotia, and
it was well worth the trip. The speakers were
clearly passionate and committed to the school
and to making the student experience the best it
can be. The refreshments were excellent, and the
overall tone was very positive and welcoming.
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P.S. Grad Studies at Western beats the socks off
grad school at the other universities I applied
to.
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Table Dialogue

• Hearing from your student guest
• How the Graduate Student Experience differs from
  the Undergrad Experience

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Graduate Student Professional Development

• Nanda Dimitrov
• Associate Director, Teaching Support Centre

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Growing the next generation of scholars
Producers of knowledge
Consumers of knowledge
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Key stages along thegraduate journey
First TAship
Research funding
First course
Research Proposal
First conference
Data collection
Comprehensive exams
Start thesis writing
Writing the last chapter of the dissertation
The dissertation Journey Dr. Sally Jensen,
2000 http//www.dissertationdoctor.com/journey.htm
l
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Key stages along thegraduate journey
The dissertation Journey Dr. Sally Jensen,
2000 http//www.dissertationdoctor.com/journey.htm
l
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Progress through the stages of graduate education

• Unique skills are required at each stage
• Expectations differ at each stage
• The chance of giving up is greatest at transition
  points between the stages

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360º programs

• Complement disciplinary expertise
• Provide critical communication, writing
• and professional skills
• Enable new scholars to disseminate their
  research, teach and collaborate successfully
• Similar initiatives in Canada, UK, Australia

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Graduate Supervision

• Workshops for faculty and students
• Focus groups
• Survey research on supervision
• Next Supervising international students

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• Collaborative Initiative
• Faculty of Graduate Studies
• Teaching Support Centre
• SDC, Career Centre, Western Libraries,
• Ombuds Office, SOGS, Communications and many
  other colleagues across campus

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Table Dialogue

• The challenges I face as a Graduate Student
• What can we, as leaders, do to support Graduate
  Students and help ensure the Best Graduate
  Student Experience?

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The School of Graduate and Post-Doctoral Studies
Why, What, When?

• Thomas Carmichael
• Dean, Faculty of Information and Media Studies

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Thank You

• Todays Presenters
• Video/Production Team
• Student Guests
• Facilitators
• Reminder
• Copies of todays slides are available on
  Leaders Digest website
• Next Leaders Forum May 2, Research at
  Western, The Great Hall
• Please fill out Forum Evaluation on your tables