95 



• Traineeships for programs encouraging breadth and interdisciplinary studies, and 



including specific attention to ethics and the responsible conduct of research. 



• Fellowships for professional technical masters degrees. 



• Fellowships for interdisciplinary research for students who have advanced to Ph.D. 



candidacy in a traditional discipline. 



• Fellowships or other support modes permitting internships in industry, govern- 



ment agencies, and/or the public schools as part of the graduate education expe- 

 rience. 



• Devising new means to provide incentives for attracting U.S. citizens (particularly 



from underrepresented groups) to graduate programs in science and engineer- 

 ing. 



The Task Force recommends that NSF, possibly through SRS and/or the SBE di- 

 rectorate, should support data collection and/or research on the effects of funding 

 mechanisms on the number, retention, programmatic quality, time-to-degree, and 

 demographic and institutional distribution of students being supported. 



The Task Force has recommend limited studies because, despite extensive study, 

 we find inadequate data to compel a recommendation of a major shift in funding 

 mode among fellowship, research assistantships, teaching assistantships, and 

 traineeships for supporting graduate education in science and engineering. We have 

 found: 



• Major institutional and disciplinary variation in time-to-degree. 



• Shorter time-to-degree for students who are supported than those who are not. 



Specific attention should be paid to the role of foreign students in the SME enter- 

 prise. This should include collection of data on the number, support mode, and 

 placement of foreign students. 



We recommend the implementation of these changes in FY 97. We urge the EHR 

 Committee to monitor the collection of these data and to review the issues involved 

 at the appropriate time. (February 22, 1996, Report from the Task Force on Grad- 

 uate and Postdoctoral Education, NSB/GE-96-2) 



NSF's Senior Management Integration Group is overseeing implementation of the 

 recommendations and has established two committees. One committee will propose 

 'pilot' projects in response to the NSB Task Force Report. One committee will con- 

 sider how best to address the 'data needs' that are requested in the Task Force Rec- 

 ommendations. 



TRACKING OF CAREER PATHS 



QUESTION: One recommendation of the National Academy of Sciences 

 committee that developed the report on reshaping graduate education was 

 for NSF and NIH to establish tracking of career paths of graduate students 

 they support. Does NSF have any plans to do this? 



ANSWER: The National Science Board (NSB) Task Force on Graduate and 

 Postdoctoral Education has also recommended that data be collected on tracking the 

 career paths of graduate students. Even before the NAS committee report, NSF had 

 undertaken studies of the National Science Foundation Graduate Fellows and Mi- 

 nority Graduate Fellows programs: Career Paths of the National Science Foundation 

 Graduate Fellows of 1972-1981, National Research Council (National Academy 

 Press, 1994) and Minority Science Paths: National Science Foundation Minority 

 Graduate Fellows of 1979-1981, National Research Council (National Academy 

 Press, 1995). 



NSF's Senior Management Integration Group has established a committee to con- 

 sider how best to address the data needs that are recommended by the NSB's Task 

 Force. 



HIGH CAPACITY CONNECTIONS 



QUESTION: The new NSF Supercomputer Centers Program will involve 

 partnerships among many institutions which will require establishing 

 high-speed communication links. Will the new Centers program provide the 

 resources needed for these high-speed network connections or will the 

 partnering institutions compete for awards under NSF's networking con- 

 nections program to accommodate academic research groups which need 

 high speed Internet connections for their research, but are not part of the 

 Centers partnerships? 



ANSWER: When these questions have arisen from potential proposers in the 

 Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) program, NSF has 

 encouraged proposers both to look at the networking infrastructure support pro- 

 grams of the Networking and Communications Research and Infrastructure (NCRI) 



