Section 2. Process Summary: Summit, Workshops, Survey
The National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored initiative on “Universal
Skills for Geoscience Graduate Student Success in the Workforce” focused
on what skills and competencies master’s and doctoral students in Earth,
Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences need to be successful in future careers.
The initiative builds on a previous undergraduate effort, published in
the Vision and Change in the Geosciences: The Future of Undergraduate
Geoscience Education (Mosher and Keane, 2021), regarding what students
need to be successful in the workplace and to discover how these
translated to graduate geoscience education. The graduate effort covered
the breadth of the geosciences and geoscience careers, including
academia, whereas the undergraduate effort primarily, though not
entirely, focused on Earth Sciences. For this reason, establishing a
critical suite of concepts was not included in these discussions.
Participants were predominantly, but not exclusively, from the U.S. and
Canada.
The project goals were to:
- Identify the skills and competencies that should be part of graduate
geoscience education for doctoral and master’s students in Earth,
Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.
- Investigate the best means of developing these skills and
competencies in graduate geoscience programs nationally.
- Work with Heads/Chairs and Graduate Program Directors on
implementation strategies to develop the skills and competencies
identified by the geoscience employers’ workshop and other studies.
In October 2018, a Geoscience Employer Workshop brought together
52 participants representing a broad spectrum of geoscience employers of
doctoral and master’s students in the Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric
Sciences. These industrial, non-profit and other organizations covered
weather and climate, energy and natural resources, oceans and fisheries,
environment, geology, reinsurance and hazards. Also represented were
NASA, NOAA, federal labs and other government agencies, and research
labs within universities and professional societies. The participants
spent two days discussing and providing feedback to academia on the
skills and competencies needed by doctoral and master’s students for the
current and future workforce. Their discussions were informed by
presentations derived from the results of the Future of Undergraduate
Geoscience Education (FUGE) initiative, the National Academy of Sciences
report on Graduate STEM Education for the 21^st^ Century, and the
Council of Graduate Schools report on Professional Development Shaping
Effective Programs for STEM Graduate Students. The workshop format was
similar to the previous FUGE Summits and workshops, where small working
groups addressed a series of specific questions and presented a summary
of their results to all participants for a group discussion. By the end
of the workshop, geoscience employers had defined geoscience skills and
competencies needed by master’s and doctoral graduates, discussed
methods for developing these skills and competencies and the employers’
role in this endeavor, and the balance between preparing for the
workforce, research, and more general educational goals. It is
noteworthy that despite the broad differences in disciplines and
employment sectors, there was strong agreement on the skills and
competencies needed by graduate students in the Earth, Ocean, and
Atmospheric Sciences.
In May of 2019, a three-day Summit of academic leaders brought together
74 participants, primarily department heads, chairs and graduate program
directors of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences programs,
representing 59 doctoral granting and 5 masters’-only granting
universities or colleges. Ten participants represented industry and
professional societies. Participants received the same background
information as the geoscience employers plus a summary of the results
from the 2018 Geoscience Employers workshop. Additionally, there were
three panels: two employer panels, one focused on skills and
competencies needed to prepare graduate students for future careers in
the geosciences, and the other on employer roles and expectations, plus
a professional scientific society panel focused on their roles. The
format for the rest of the summit was the same as for the geoscience
employers’ workshop and previous FUGE summits and workshops. The
participants discussed the input from geoscience employers and other
studies on skills and competencies needed by doctoral and master’s
students for the current and future workforce, methods for developing
these skills and competencies, and the balance between preparing for the
workforce, research, and general educational goals. The academic leaders
in general agreed with the employers in terms of what skills and
competencies graduating doctoral and master’s students have acquired and
what they lacked. Additionally, participants discussed implementation
strategies for integrating these skills and competencies into graduate
programs and developed Action Plans for their institutions. Fifty-three
institutional plans were submitted.
A 3-day workshop was also held at the Earth Educators Rendezvous in 2019
(44 participants; in-person) and in 2021 (61 participants; virtual)
where we integrated the results of the graduate and undergraduate
initiatives, and gained additional insights and feedback from department
heads, chairs, and graduate program directors.
Progress reports on each Action Plan were requested in the fall of 2020
and of 2021 and spring of 2022. The onset of the COVID‑19 pandemic in
the spring of 2020 had a significant impact on progress in implementing
changes. However, by 2022 we had received reports from 30% of the action
plans, and half of those programs submitted two reports, one to two
years apart. In 2021, a subset of employers who participated in the 2018
Geoscience Employers workshop provided insights into what had changed
since 2018, with the primary focus being the effects of the pandemic. In
2021 and 2022, employers were also contacted to find out what changes
had occurred in the workplace that impacted the previous results, with
seven employers providing substantial input.
In 2022, we held two workshops that were specifically designed for
administrative leaders who could make and lead change, and the employers
of doctoral and master’s students in Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric
Sciences, who are involved in making hiring decisions or setting
priorities for their organizations. The specific objective of these
events was to connect geoscience academic leaders and employers to
encourage further dialogue about what skills and competencies graduate
students needed to be successful in the future workforce regardless of
their career path, and to discuss how graduate programs can effectively
develop these skills and competencies for their students.
Our goal was to develop strategies for transformative changes in
geoscience graduate education. Both workshops had working groups with
both academics and employers, and at these workshops, the academics also
participated as employers. The format was similar to the other events,
though with several presentations: results of the 2018 Geoscience
Employers workshop augmented by the employer updates on what had changed
since 2018; the outcomes of 2019 Heads/Chairs/Graduate Program Directors
Summit and implementation successes; and a summary of 2019
Heads/Chairs/Graduate Program Director Action Plan Reports. Discussions
focused on similar questions as addressed at the earlier Summit and
workshop events and explored what changes had taken place since
2018/2019. The May 2022 workshop had 43 participants comprising
23 academics and a somewhat different mix of 20 employers, including the
World Bank, Smithsonian Institute, NASA, a space/geophysical research
institute, state and federal government regulatory agencies, oil and
gas, USGS hydrogeology, American Meteorological Society, and the
National Association of State Boards of Geology (ASBOG). The August
workshop had 33 participants, 19 academics and 14 various employers,
including several types of consulting, reinsurance, oil/gas,
construction, Google, and national labs. A couple of graduate students
also attended the May and August workshops to provide student
perspectives.
Overall, we received input from over 300 individuals, of which ~100
were geoscience employers, with essentially all types of geoscience
employers represented.
The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) also conducted several surveys
in support of the project. All surveys were conducted utilizing the
LimeSurvey online platform hosted on AGI owned servers. No options for
paper or phone responses were provided. Additionally, all communications
soliciting responses to these surveys were directed to the identified
chair or head of U.S. geoscience departments.
Through a subaward, AGI conducted a study of the structure of geoscience
graduate programs. AGI sent survey requests to all 377 U.S. graduate
degree granting geoscience departments as identified in the 2018
Directory of Geoscience Departments. The respondent on behalf of the
department was delegated by the chair or head. Complete responses were
received from 146 departments, giving the survey a response rate of 39%.
Of those responding departments, 27% were terminal master’s programs.
The results were then analyzed against the underlying framing of degree
level and whether the degree programs were structured as a cohort or
non-cohort. The complete analysis results are available on the project
website https://graduate.americangeosciences.org.
AGI leveraged its support of activities from this project to relaunch
its National Survey of Recent Geoscience Graduates Survey. This survey
is sent to all departments for distribution to their graduating students
at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels. The respondents were
the graduating students. The two most recent iterations of the survey
received 442 responses (2020–21) (212 were from master’s or doctoral
graduates) and 519 responses (2021–22 (233 were from masters’ or
doctoral graduates), representing an estimated 15% and 16% of graduate
degree awardees, respectively. Both surveys utilized identical
instruments for measuring employment, research experiences, and skills
and concept exposure. The full results of the National Survey of Recent
Geoscience Graduates are available on the AGI website (Keane et al.,
2022;
https://www.americangeosciences.org/static/files/GraduateSurvey2021.pdf).
