A Move Toward Interdependency

Abstract

Over the last several issues of Oceanography, I have explored the topics of early career faculty, graduate student training, and private funding. At the heart of these issues is the search for sustaining support for research in an increasingly constrained funding environment. On the education side, state support for our public research institutions has dropped more than 25% per student FTE (full-time equivalent) between 1987 and 2010, adjusting for inflation (National Science Board, 2014). Moreover, net tuition per student FTE has more than doubled over this same period. Higher education is increasingly viewed as a private good, not a public good. Against this backdrop, how do we prepare our graduates for careers beyond academia? How do we nurture our new faculty when funding success rates appear to be dropping? How do we engage new partners (both private and public) in our scientific journey?

Keywords

• science funding
• science education
• graduate education
• shrinking resources
• graduate students