Section 1. Call for Action

Geoscience graduate programs are often narrowly focused on academic research and preparing students for academic careers (e.g., National Academies of Science, 2018). As a result, there is a mismatch between graduate education in the Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, and what graduates need for future careers in these fields. Most doctoral and master’s students do not continue into academic careers. It is imperative that we educate our students for future success regardless of their chosen career path. This call for action is motivated by many factors, ranging from students’ ability to become successful professionals, to the long-term growth and future of the geoscience profession.

Graduate students need to develop expertise, depth, knowledge, and technical skills in a core area and hone their problem solving and critical thinking skills with additional practice on multiple, different geoscientific problems. They also need to develop all the professional and personal skills valued by both academic and non-academic employers, such as communication, teamwork, project management, social dynamics, and leadership. Graduate programs need to integrate these professional skills into their students’ graduate education without losing a strong research emphasis. Departments need to make many of these non-core research skills part of their program culture.

Geoscience enrollments and degrees granted have been generally decreasing at all levels as measured in AGI’s annual Directory of Geoscience Departments survey (American Geosciences Institute, 2023). Between 2015 and 2019, geoscience undergraduate enrollments dropped by ~30%, and degrees awarded by ~20%; that said, they have rebounded since the pandemic. While there is a lag between undergraduate and graduate enrollments and degrees, since 2019 graduate geoscience enrollments overall have dropped 46.6%, master’s degrees granted have declined by 32.3% and doctoral degrees granted have declined by 48.4%. The long-term health of geoscience graduate programs is in jeopardy unless recruitment, admissions, and retention of graduate students improves.

The geoscience workforce (e.g., number of employees whose work responsibilities include using geoscience knowledge and skills) is increasing, and the types of careers that geoscientists can pursue are expanding. Currently most employed U.S. geoscientists have master’s degrees, followed by bachelor’s graduates, and then those with doctoral degrees. However, as of 2022, 22% of all U.S. geoscience employment was held by non-geoscientists, and the percentage of geoscience and non-geoscience doctoral degree holders in such employment was roughly the same. Unless we can increase the number of geoscience graduates, and improve their skillsets, this trend of geoscience positions being filled by non-geoscientists will likely continue, and an increasing number of geoscience positions will be filled by non-geoscience graduates.

The geoscience profession has changed, and geoscience employment has become more diverse, including many career options that did not exist a decade ago. Finishing graduate students need to have a solid base of transferable skills, and they need to be prepared for a dynamic and changing future. The geosciences have evolved from a subdiscipline-oriented profession to one in which multi- and interdisciplinary science is the norm, and it is rapidly transitioning into a transdisciplinary science, driven by the need to meet major societal challenges. These changes already pervade the research being conducted in non-academic government labs/agencies, research institutes, and industry, which is influencing the applied approaches commonly taken in industry, consulting, professional services, and other private sector professions. Being successful in this new and dynamic environment requires different skills, particularly professional and social skills, teamwork, and communication. We must recognize that if successful, our students will lead diverse and varied careers, requiring a range of skills and competencies necessary for success in both academic and non-academic occupations.

The focus on societally important research has increased in the geosciences and is central to many geoscience applications. The societal and natural impacts of earth processes, and the need for solutions focused on mitigation and prevention, have grown. Geoscience knowledge and skills are critical to those addressing challenges in natural hazards, in environmental issues, in the impacts of a changing climate and its effects on the oceans, and in the varied mineral, natural and energy resources needed with a growing world population. The need to be able to do systems thinking, as well as temporal and spatial reasoning when looking at an Earth system where all the parts are interlinked and interact, is critical. Geoscience graduate students need the skills and competencies to work on a range of problems at the interfaces of the Earth and humanity and the ability to interact effectively with social scientists and non-scientists in addressing these issues.

The methods and technologies used in geoscience research have changed markedly in recent years. In non-academic occupations, these changes have been equally, if not more, rapid than have been seen at most academic research institutions. The use of large, global, sensor-driven datasets, advances in computational methods, data analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, Earth system modeling, remote sensing, and technological advances in chemical, physical and biological analyses, and much more, all require graduate students to become adept in the use and creative application of a portfolio of technological, computational, and quantitative tools and resources.

The demographics of the future workforce are changing. The professional world is more diverse and global, and the geoscience fields need to keep pace with these trends. Diversity in the geoscience workforce, in terms of racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, is low, as in all STEM fields. We need to change the cultures of our graduate programs to be more inclusive, and we need to train and graduate students who value diversity of thought. We need graduate students who are diverse in demographics, backgrounds and cultures, and who can work together as teams of colleagues to solve geoscience problems. They need to understand ethics and the need for equity and justice in making geoscience decisions. Our graduate students must thus develop strong interpersonal and communication skills regardless of their future careers.

Geoscience graduate students need more and more current information to help them identify career options and develop the necessary skills and competencies for success in their chosen career paths. They need more effective mentoring during their graduate tenures to reach their career and professional goals. Taking more control of their future directions through individual development plans for their academic and professional development, with the help of one or more mentors, will support them in preparing for their future careers and developing a customized roadmap for the completion of their degrees. This preparation will provide them with the skills and competencies to succeed, both inside academia and in the broader geoscience professions.

This document is intended to provide a roadmap for academic leaders, graduate degree programs, faculty, students, alumni, employers, professional societies and funding agencies toward making positive changes to graduate geoscience instruction and advising. Over a four-year period from 2018 to 2022, over 300 geoscientists, including ~100 non-academic geoscience employers, discussed the skills and competencies that are recommended to be a part of the graduate education of doctoral and master’s students in Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. They have investigated the best means of developing these skills and competencies in master’s and doctoral graduates and identified a variety of implementation strategies for graduate geoscience programs nationally. This effort seeks to help bridge the gap between employer expectations and the ability of the academy to prepare students for successful future careers. Further interactions to improve employer-university relationships, and support from professional scientific societies and funding agencies, will both greatly benefit the graduate education of master’s and doctoral students in Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. We as a profession must act.