July 14

Scientists for a New Age

There’s a growing need for scientists who are as comfortable in the boardroom as they are in the laboratory, and this new breed of thinkers won’t need doctorates, according to a new report released by the National Research Council Friday.

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While some professionally oriented master’s degree programs already exist in the natural sciences, these degrees are still viewed as suspect in some quarters. The Ph.D. has long been the gold standard for scientists, and a master’s is therefore viewed as either a “stepping stone” toward a doctorate or a “consolation prize” for those who don’t make it to the finish line, the report notes.

Mary Clutter, who helped craft the report, says she entered the process as a skeptic.

“I was thinking about these programs sort of as training for plumbers,” said Clutter, former assistant director of biological sciences for the National Science Foundation.

But Clutter, a classically trained scientist, said she came to believe that there is an important and emerging sector of the work force that needs so-called “T-shaped” people. The term refers to those with deep knowledge of a discipline, as well as the broad knowledge needed to thrive and communicate in the worlds of nonprofits, business and government.

Master’s Degree Production Booming

Master’s level education is a growth area in higher education. In 2004-5, nearly 575,000 master’s degrees were awarded across the U.S., an increase of almost 150 percent from 1970-71, the report notes. The growth rate for master’s degrees more than doubled the growth rate for bachelor’s degrees and research doctorates during the same time span.

If there has been a boom in master’s degree production, however, it hasn’t happened in the sciences. More than half of master’s degrees awarded in 2004-5 were in the fields of business, education, management, marketing and personal and culinary services, according to the report. In contrast, just 3 percent of such degrees came from biological sciences, physical sciences and mathematics combined.

Unveiling the report at the National Academy of Sciences building Friday, the authors cited the America COMPETES Act of 2007, saying the legislation authorizes Congress to appropriate money for the creation of new science-based master’s programs. Furthermore, the authors called on federal agencies to subsidize need-based scholarships for the programs.

Will Students Pay?

Unlike most Ph.D. programs in the sciences, tuition is typically not waived in master’s programs. Brad Wible, who works on competitiveness issues for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said it might be a hard sell to ask students to go into debt for a master’s program when they could be paid to earn a Ph.D.

“It’s easier said than done,” Wible said after Friday’s meeting.

The report, however, suggests students might be lured by the quick salary boosts they’re likely to receive after completing science-oriented master’s programs. Indeed, the median salaries of master’s degree recipients tend to exceed those of Ph.D. recipients in the first one to five years after the degree is conferred, according to the report.

There are already 125 professional science master’s programs across 60 universities in the U.S. The movement began in 1997, when the Sloan Foundation gave grants to 14 research universities to help found the programs.

Rita Colwell, who chaired the committee that produced the report, hailed the creation of more master’s programs as a necessary step toward making the U.S. more competitive worldwide. Colwell, who is a distinguished professor at both the University of Maryland at College Park and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health, equated the current global competition with the space race of the 1950s.

“We have what I would call a silent Sputnik,” she said.

— Jack Stripling

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Comments

Agreed!

As the biotech industry grows so does the need for trained mid-level workers to staff the labs. PhDs tend to be overtrained for many of the positions that need to be filled and biotech companies really don’t want that level of specialization.

Plus, we have produced too many PhD who too often languish in post-doc positions for too many years, waiting for a real job. There are not enough faculty positions to absorb the glut of biotech PhDs.

Steven S. Clark, PhDhttp://stevensclark.typepad.com/bioscience_biz/

Steven S. Clark, PhD, UW, at 9:00 am EDT on July 14, 2008

Scientist-lite?

There is a reason that science master’s degrees have not flourished to the degree of other disciplines: the depth of knowledge, now deeper than ever, required to master the discipline. Postdoctoral work is a growing requisite, much less a Ph.D. To imply that someone obtaining a master’s in the field would have a deep knowledge of that area seems ludicrous. I would be more comfortable being “managed” by a Ph.D. with field experience who has had some professional development management training.

Martin Tessmer, Research Professor, at 11:10 am EDT on July 14, 2008

20 years too late!!! Sure wish we had this 20 years ago.

Ernest, retired, at 12:35 pm EDT on July 14, 2008

Great work

I graduted with a Professional Science Master degree in Biotechnology in December 2007 and now I’m working for a fast growing biotech company in San Diego. The degree prepared me in many ways to work in a competetive and challenging field of biotechnology. I work with scientists and communicate with non scientific management staff. My job also includes help managing a remote R&D facility in India. I don’t think a classic MS or even PhD would have prepared me for this job.

Aman Tyagi, Associate Product Manager at IMGENEX, at 1:15 pm EDT on July 14, 2008

PSM at work

I graduted with a Professional Science Master degree in Biotechnology in December 2007 and now I’m working for a fast growing biotech company in San Diego. The degree prepared me in many ways to work in a competitive and challenging field of biotechnology. I work with scientists and communicate with non scientific management staff. My job also includes help managing a remote R&D facility in India. I don’t think a classic MS or even a PhD would have prepared me for this job.

Aman Tyagi

Aman Tyagi, Associate Product Manager at IMGENEX, at 1:30 pm EDT on July 14, 2008

PhDs need these skills too.

I agree with Dr. Clark. There are too many Ph.D.s for academia, and their skills are often too specialized for industry.

I add, however, that the skills proposed in the article for new professional masters degrees are needed by PhDs candidates as well. The majority that go on to positions in business or government need training in order to be functional in these fields. The PhD needs to be “professionalized.” Graduate schools must recognize the fact that most graduate students will never get tenure-track positions, and start offering programs that prepare their students for careers outside of academia.

More here

Graham Randall, at 12:30 pm EDT on July 15, 2008

I’m a PSM student in physics entrepreneurship and work now for a high-tech startup. If it hadn’t been for my PSM program I would have gone for a traditional MBA. The PSM teaches a skill set that is needed by business but missing from science graduates. Think of a 3-way Venn diagram of business, science, and engineering. PSM covers those sections between tech and business. PSM grads are not supposed to be trained to do PhD level research nor MBA-level financial analysis. However, somebody has to have enough technical acumen and business savvy to see where the two intersect. Think tech-business development.

Jeff Bargiel, Business Development Associate at Contained Energy, Inc., at 7:50 am EDT on July 16, 2008

The article is to the point. In current years, lots of Japanese universities launched technology management at master degree courses, which I think, runs parallel with the PSM movement in USA. This phenomenon is based on the notion that innovation should come from the overlapped area of science, technology and business. The knowledge class in the post industrial nations increasingly recognizes the value of PSM and MOT. In the near future these new degree will take over MBA, if the counterparts can prepare the competitive workforce suitable to the needs of employers especially in emerging industries.

Hiro Matusihta, professor, at 10:05 am EDT on July 31, 2008