Wednesday, November 8, 2006

Well *that's* interesting

The powers that be at my university think that our future lies in science and technology education, and that such should be our focus. They say they think this because it will best serve our region and will provide our constituents with the best chances at jobs.

Perhaps they should have a look at this study by the National Science Foundation. According to the summary on InsideHigherEd:

More than half of those who graduated with science bachelor’s degrees in 2001 or 2002 were employed outside of science and engineering or unemployed, non-students by October 2003, according to a report released by the National Science Foundation. The report features numerous tables on the post-graduation work and education histories of science graduates.
I still need to look at all the tables, and those of you out there trained in statistics and survey methodology (that means you, Bullock) will probably have more substantive things to say about its methods it than I (though I just want to note that it weirldy includes the social sciences). Right now I'm just posting this without much comment as a way to get me back on track with substantive posts, including those posts about just what it is that I think a liberal arts education is supposed to do.

6 comments:

The Combat Philosopher said...

Dr. V.,
I have posted some thoughts on your comments about copyright. Take a look when you have a moment. Thanks for the comment.

The CP

The Combat Philosopher said...

Congrats Dr. V.,
After reading through a bunch of posts on your blog, you get my vote of 'cool'. I have added a link to you. I am very selective, so consider this an honour. It is not a CV line, but you are in select company. ;)

BTW, seeing your local copyright guru is a really good move. Encourage others to do likewise.

The CP

Dr. Virago said...

I know philosophers in general are hard to please, so a *Combat* Philosopher must be even more so! Awesome! It's a rare day when I get called "cool" at all, let alone by the Combat Philosopher. Yay me!

MT said...

It's about time somebody ran a little Chaucer through the spectrophotometer. All we've heard up to now is just speculation.

Dr. Virago said...

Yes, MT, I'm a little afraid that's what I'll be doing from now on -- or teaching "Chaucer for Engineers" and "Chaucer for Pre-Meds" (which, actually, could be useful for them -- the old man who can't die but desperately wants to do so in the Pardoner's Tale would be especially instructive).

Bardiac said...

Hah! Count me in! I have a BS in science (well, I guess the S part was a give away there), and don't work in anything like.

I'm guessing the AACU stuff on liberal arts education would support what you're saying; most people don't work in fields really directly related to their majors.