PROFESSIONALIZING THE SCIENCE MASTER'S

Historically, enrollment in geosciences master's degree programs has been more stable than that at the bachelor's level, but low; fewer than 1,000 graduates per year. In this session, I and colleagues from Sloan Science Master's programs will propose a three-part strategy for increasing the value and popularity of the M.S in gesociences by means of 1) re-branding the degree as a professional science master's; 2) enlarging the catchment pool of potential enrolleess by opening the master's to chemistry, biology, physics, computer science, and engineering majors; and 3)expanding the range of careers and industries to which PSM geoscience graduates will be attracted and where their particular skill sets will be highly valued. In other disciplines, the new Professional Science Master's programs are launching graduates on a wide variety of careers in business, industry, consulting, and work in the public sector, careers that are closely allied with science (or mathematics) but not limited either to resesearch or technical problem solving in a single industry.

Professional Science Master's (PSM's)programs, now at more than 30 universities, and one wholly new graduate school dedicated to Biotech, are designed to be wholly self-contained not way stations on the path to the Ph.D. The programs offer graduate-level course work in science, mathematics, computational sciences, plus a two- to four-month internship in a private or public enterprise. In addition, professional master's candidates get exposure (in some locations a dedicated certificate program) to micro/macro economics, negotiation and consensus building, managerial accounting, the legal environment of vusiness (including intellectual property rights), and regulatory affairs. All programs are guided by business/industry advisory committees in order to build programs that fit employers' needs and expectations. The total number of Sloan-funded PSM's in the geosciences is currently eight and growing.