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The PhD Project
Synopsis
The PhD Project
is a comprehensive, long-range effort to substantially
increase minority faculty and, ultimately, student
representation in the nation's business schools, where
there is presently a near-total absence of minority
faculty members. The program draws more minorities into
doctoral programs in business, and works to ensure a high
completion rate among these new doctoral students, and
provide them with advanced skills and networking
opportunities to enhance their job search upon completion.
The PhD Project
covers all five major disciplines in business education.
Additionally, The PhD Project Minority Accounting Doctoral
Students Association, created in 1994, is an integral part
of the program. It is a peer organization providing
advanced skills, networking, mentoring, and linkages to
the American Accounting Association and many accounting
faculty.
The PhD Project
was conceived--and is today operated--as a collaborative
effort among the academic community, major businesses, and
non-profit professional and educational organizations. To
date 89 universities have participated in and helped fund
one or more of the program's conferences.
While there now
are only 388 minority business school faculty (with
doctorates) throughout the U.S., there are currently 375
minority Ph.D. students enrolled in a program, many of
whom were identified through The PhD Project. Assuming
that the minorities currently studying in business
doctoral programs graduate and become professors (this
group's dropout rate is four percent), a figure that took
decades to reach will have been doubled.
Most of these
doctoral students already are teaching in classrooms and
conducting research. Their teaching, their influence as
role models and mentors for students, and their other
academic work are all evidence of the program's results
and benefits. Results since the program's establishment in
1994 include:
- Extensive
outreach to prospective students: 200,000 direct mail
pieces, more than 33 million reached via advertising and
public relations
- 23,000
minorities expressing interest in earning a business
doctoral degree
- 1,800
attendees at main annual conferences
- Five active
peer associations of minority doctoral candidates
including Accounting
- 375
minorities currently enrolled in business doctoral
programs, a number nearly equal to all the minority
professors currently on business school faculties
- 77 of the 375
are accounting doctoral students
- A low 4%
overall dropout rate
- Positive
impact on minority students, majority students, peers,
departments, and universities, and the overall quality
of management education
For more
information see www.phdproject.com.
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