Becoming A Research University

 

 University of Alaska Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Anupma Prakash wants a $20 million cash injection to the Fairbanks school that can be used to push it to the highest rating level of the Carnegie Classification, R1 a rank held by only 4% of US research institutions. She says that the money would enable the UAF to double its annual output of Phd. grads to the 70 that are required for R1 status. Graduate student fellowships would absorb $13 million of such a grant, $5 million would be used to compensate faculty whose work load would increase and $2 million would would be spent on technical improvements.

Evidently, the research characteristics and quality of a university are determined by the sheer numbers of graduate students rather than the nature or quality of their research.

In fact, Provost Prakash's request for funds raises some questions about the very concept of the research institution as it currently exists. The need for an increased number of Phd. candidates seems to indicate that much of research is actually done by students under the direction of faculty. Perhaps that has always been the case. But students are becoming scientists, not scientists in reality. The research they are doing and the papers that they produce that describe their research, if significant, result in advanced degrees that indicate their scientific credentials to the rest of the world. That is, if their research and publication is accepted by the arcane "peer group" review process. By definition the peer group would be others like themselves, scientists of the future.

That may be an unfair criticism. Much of scientific investigation has historically been performed by individual scientists without the benefit of institutional support or recognition. Academic support should make scientific research easier and more fruitful.

Certainly fellowship funding for grad students would encourage them to continue their studies but would these studies be worth the monetary investment? What would the R1 rating mean in the great scheme of things? If achieved, what benefits, other than financial, would flow to UAF?