FORMAT for Workshops to Examine Graduate Education in Astronomy

The focal point of the study will be a structured community dialog, conducted in 3 regional workshops, each beginning on a Friday afternoon and continuing a full day on Saturday. Invitations to one of the workshps are being issued to all institutions which grant the PhD degree in astronomy and/or astrophysics. Each department is requested to send one faculty member (either the department chair or the graduate program chair), as well as a mature and thoughtful graduate student to participate in the dialog. Additional participants will include a keynote speaker involved in setting science policy, and selected representatives from outside the astronomical community, including members of the education, industrial and business communities, representatives from other scientific communities involved in similar self-examination, and representatives from the primary funding agencies for astronomy.

Each workshop will open on a Friday afternoon with a plenary session including a keynote address and introductory talks defining the goals and format of the meeting. The format for Saturday will include a panel presentation by the selected representatives from outside the astronomical community, and break-out sessions in which special topics will be explored in detail by workshop participants. Summaries of the discussions from the break-out sessions will be presented at a final plenary session, and the workshop will be adjourned at 6:00 pm on Saturday. A detailed agenda will follow at a later time.

Breakout Sessions: The topics for focussed discussion in three Breakout Sessions are:

• Graduate Curricula: What graduate admissions policies are best suited to an era characterized by both declining funding and projected reductions in traditional job opportunities? Should curricular changes be made in response to the expected declines? Does the current academic culture provide the context for healthy development of the field given the likely changes in funding and job opportunities?
• Support Modes: What are the advantages and disadvantages of (a) an increase in the fraction of students supported via fellowships/traineeships, (b) an increase in the fraction of students supported by block grants to departments, or (c) a decrease in the fraction of students supported on individual investigator grants?
• Professional Masters Programs: Are there advantages to restructuring the traditional path through graduate school in astronomy so that a masters degree is not a ``failed'' PhD? Should masters programs be designed to provide a broader more "applied" approach to scientific training, with possible specialties in instrumentation, computing, or science education?

Session participants will critically examine their topic and attempt to develop consensus views. Session facilitators will present the outcomes for each break-out session in the final plenary session and time will be provided for additional discussion of each topic in the plenary.

Each participant should select a preferred Breakout Session in advance. If necessary we may need to balance the distribution among the Sessions, so you should prioritize your selections into first, second and third choices. However, each of the breakout groups will be organized to build in overlaps with the other two groups, thus enabling all participants to contribute to all topics. Moreover, the planned plenary sessions will ensure extensive discussion of each major topic.

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