One reason the trend toward PhD is growing has more to do with the level of preparation and lack of maturity students have across the board, coming in from high school at the undergrad level. This only applies in the US, as European and other international education standards are higher.
I don't mean to make anyone defensive, as it isn't personal, but anybody who has taught college for 15+ years will tell you the same thing. It is due to an overall decline in literacy levels, an inability to really READ and comprehend, and think critically. So many undergrads are coming to college these days with a sense of entitlement, like they're going to get the grades for showing up and filling the chair. Grade inflation is WAY up, and most of y'all have probably encountered these issues with the level of responsibility you can give summer interns. It takes 'em a couple of years to buckle in, learn to work, and focus, and that's time most degree programs need, just to get students up to the level they have to be at to enter the work force, entry level. Companies are even beefing up their in-house training programs specifically to address this weakness in entry level skill sets. Means more work for us, tho, cuz they need training software interaction design. I personally chalk it up to the dominant socialization of high school cultures, although short attention span media and multi-tasking attitudes don't help students master difficult material and skills very well in undergraduate majors either. I actually think it is equal parts a deficit in literacy and maturity. So many kids (I of course am exempting hard working adult learners, who often suffer in classes with these folks, and frequently lose their cool if they have to be in collaborative project groups with them, when they can't count on group members to complete even the most ridiculously easy tasks) come to college as precious darlings of over-protective helicopter parents, who swoop in to protest every grade given below a B. That's why grade inflation is up so badly, btw. Untenured faculty just can't fight that kind of pressure. Adminstrators call students "customers," and the helicopter parents take that literally, demand whatever they want, and get it. So that brings us down to the masters degree becoming the equivalent of what the undergrad degree used to be. However, many schools are having trouble with admissions standards in their masters programs as well (perhaps less so now, with a recession), and sometimes they lower their standards dangerously too, just to keep their numbers up I've seen some weak grad classes at times as well. Across the board, tho, I usually felt sorriest for the returning adult students who needed the credential, which is held up so high over their heads, because they chose to have kids, or go straight to work, or are changing careers, or it is costing them a promotion, or ding-a-ling college grads keep getting hired above them at their current jobs (and they have to train them--this has happened to my brother so many times it isn't funny). It's so tough to stomach, to finally jump in and taken on that degree barrier head on, and get in your classes, and have to sit there with 18-year-olds who think they are still in high school. The worst thing is watching the faces of the adult learners, when they expect to be challenged by the material in the course, as it dawns on them how bone-headedly easy instructors have to make everything, have to spell out every instruction, because if they didn't, the 18-year-olds would just be lost and floundering, and then the helicopter parents would come swooping in. I've been in that position before, and after class, apologized to the adult students, for seemingly insulting their intelligence. It was embarrassing for all of us. Chris On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 8:28 PM, mark schraad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Great clarification Chris. I guess the larger point was that without an > MFA... an MA doesn't put you in that position. And the trend towards the PhD > is growing. Most people I know have gone the route of design history or > design education. > Mark > > > On Jun 22, 2008, at 8:23 PM, Christine Boese wrote: > > Generally, while MFAs can be considered for full professorship and tenure, > it is not commonly awarded without a clear national reputation on par with > public gallery exhibitions, BIG awards or grants (think MacArthur genius > fellows), or, in the case of writing MFAs and others related to that, one or > more well-received books. > > It's a tough case to make in most departments. The professionally-focused > journalism and radio-TV programs have an agreement with most university > administrators to give tenure to people with just master's degrees, but > generally, that is for people who have been quite high up at well-respected > places (editor level, like at Wall St Journal, or major metro dailies one > step under that). > > On the other hand, there is a list of journalism programs who had that kind > of agreement with the university administration, only to have that pulled > out from under them a few years later with a president/chancellor change, as > some new ambitious administrator comes in and demands that all departments > start counting PhDs and nothing but. I know lots of people who have been > blindsided by this happening. > > Chris > > On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 8:06 PM, mark schraad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> The great thing about an MFA is that it is still considered a terminal >> degree in design. Meaning, that is is the most you can get in design. Yes, I >> know there are few PhD's, but they are far from the norm at this point in >> time. The upshot here is that you can, if on faculty, be considered for a >> full professorship and tenure, if that is an option that speaks to you. >> >> I seriously considered that route, but I kind of knew that two masters in >> three years was my limit... and wanted to get back to full time work >> (thought I loved the learning and open ended nature of academia). >> >> Mark >> >> >> >> On Jun 22, 2008, at 2:02 PM, Jeff Howard wrote: >> >> Hi Mat, >>> >>> The only MFA in Interaction Design I know of is at the University of >>> Washington. Carnegie Mellon has a Masters in Interaction Design but >>> it's not an MFA, it's an M.Des. >>> >>> // jeff >>> >>> >>> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . >>> Posted from the new ixda.org >>> http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=30524 >>> >>> >>> ________________________________________________________________ >>> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! >>> To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>> Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe >>> List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines >>> List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help >>> >> >> ________________________________________________________________ >> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! >> To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe >> List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines >> List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help >> > > > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
