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The appointment of Marcus W. Jernegan, Professor of American History in the University of Chicago, as director of a survey "to determine why doctors of philosophy are not more productive of scholarly work" was announced yesterday by Professor Dana. C. Munro of Princeton, President of the American Historical Association.
Too many Ph. D.'s, it is believed by this organization, become teachers, and too few develop as scholars. The answer to the question "Why Ph.D.'s do not produce?" may involve a series of surveys, for which the one just started under the direction of Professor Jernegan, preliminary in character will provide the foundation, according to Professor Munro.
Differentiate Ph.D. Classes
"The whole matter of graduate work needs to be vary carefully considered and two classes of students should be differentiated." Professor Munro stated exactly at the National Endowment Headquarters of the Association, Columbia University.
"One class is made up of those who are sincerely interested in scholarship and who are planning to go no with productive work. The other class--an equally worthy one--is made up of those who are seeking by graduate work to improve their position or to secure some positing and that do not expect to do any productive work.
"The difficulty faced by American graduate schools is a very real one. The smaller college have felt it necessary to insist upon advanced degrees for members of their teaching staff and this has been very useful in raising the whole standard of our teaching, but men who are preparing to teach would really profit, but a somewhat different training from those who are planning to go in for productive scholarship.
"In our universities the two are too frequently grouped, together and each suffers in consequence. Students looking forward to a teaching career do not need the same kind of instruction as those who are fitting themselves for scholarship through research.
Teachers Overrun Scholar Courses
"Graduate courses generally are now so shaped as to meet the requirements of the scholar but unfortunately these course are swamped by those who plan to be teachers. While knowledge of the methods of research is essential to those who are to teach, it is by no means true that these students should pursue the intensive research courses established primarily for future workers in research.
"Separate types of training for the two classes of students must eventually be insisted upon. As the situation now stands, our potential teachers are thronging the courses specially devised for potential scholars, and the result is confusion, which seems to explain the small percentage of really productive scholars among the large number of doctors graduated every year from our universities.
Young Historians Shirk Reading
"Historians feel, too, the importance of requiring research students in history to do more exhaustive reading in the works of the great masters. Formerly our young scholars read the longer history classics in full. Now the tendency is to read parts of these works.
"This selective practice tends to impair the student's sense of unity not only in his grasp of the author studied but in his own subsequent writing.
It is the purpose of the American Historical Association. Professor Munro stated to appoint a committee to study further the conditions disclosed by Professor Jeruegan's survey, which is one of a group of research projects planned by the Association, and to determine what corrective measures should be recommended
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