students through the educational system and into 

 the research sector is not to be interrupted or 

 diminished, means and methods must be found to 

 reinforce the values and institutions that support 

 students in their long-term quest for knowledge. 

 Universities provide the medium through which 

 this can be accomplished but they must be fed by 

 a sound system of secondary education and must 

 have an outlet which provides strong, positive 

 incentives for the competitive pursuit of ex- 

 cellence. My concern at the moment is that we 

 may be entering a period in which uncertainty 

 and confusion in the utilization (and underutiliza- 

 tion) of present scientific manpower may have an 

 adverse feed-back effect through the entire 

 system that will be difficult to repair. 



Another university respondent, H. S. 

 Gutowsky, Director, School of Chemical 

 Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana- 

 Champaign, related a reduction in graduate 

 school enrollments to lower research output. 



. . . Movement of the "population bulge" through 

 the universities combined with a leveling off or 

 reduction in the rate of going to graduate school 

 is already beginning to cut back visibly in the 

 amount of basic research being done. The effects 

 are modest so far, but could become large within 

 a decade. The amount of basic research being 

 accomplished will be reduced in proportion to 

 falling graduate enrollments unless other com- 

 ponents of the enterprise are increased con- 

 currently. 



The basic question regarding manpower 

 supply was framed by a Vice President for 

 Research and Development in a large manufac- 

 turing company: 



One issue of concern to all research is the 

 decreasing number of people entering the 

 sciences. How will we assure that young students 

 are attracted to technical fields so that we will 

 have an adequate reservoir of competency to 

 carry on not only basic, but all types of research 

 and development? 



Recognizing that the supply of research 

 manpower for the future depends almost 

 exclusively on the graduate students in science 

 and engineering, many respondents tried to 



answer this question in terms of graduate 

 student support. 



Typical of department chairmen, who ranked 

 support for graduate studies fifth among their 

 top eight concerns, is Rodney I. Clifton, Chair- 

 man, Executive Committee, Division of 

 Engineering at Brown University in Providence, 

 R.I. He discussed the problem of graduate 

 student support and offered several specific 

 solutions. 



Steps should be taken to ensure the attrac- 

 tiveness of research careers for the most promis- 

 ing students in each graduating class instead of 

 allowing the "boom or bust" pattern of the past to 

 continue. One step that would be particularly 

 helpful would be to institute a highly selective 

 fellowship program in which the faculty of each 

 engineering school would be allowed to 

 nominate up to say 5 percent of their graduating 

 class for such fellowships. The pool of nominees 

 would be reviewed by a national panel in each 

 discipline who would select what appears to be 

 the optimal number, say 2 percent. (Footnote: i.e., 

 2 percent of the total graduating class, not of the 

 pool of nominees.) The fellowships should 

 provide full support for up to four years of 

 graduate education at the institution of their 

 choice (preferably excluding the institution 

 where they earn their undergraduate degrees 

 unless a strong case can be made that this 

 institution is uniquely suited to the student's 

 research interests). Supplementary grants 

 should be awarded to the institutions at which the 

 fellowships are used in order to defray the 

 additional costs of graduate education that are 

 not covered by tuition. 



Another way graduate study could be made more 

 attractive to U.S. students and more responsive to 

 national needs would be to develop a program of 

 combined governmental and industrial support of 

 work-study fellowships. Such fellowships would 

 support graduate students who would combine 

 their graduate studies with work at the spon- 

 soring industrial organization. Thesis research 

 projects would be fundamental studies in fields 

 that the industry is interested in. The fellow would 

 not be under obligation to work for the industry 

 upon graduation: however, if the relationship 

 between the fellow and industry develops as 



VITALITY OF THE RESEARCH SYSTEM 



49 



