For the 2,884 students enrolled in Binghamton University’s graduate program, the University’s new Strategic Plan may hold measures that will change the way they relate to the institution.
One aspect of the plan, which as a whole is entitled “Excellence in a Climate of Change,” will increase stipends for graduate students who are teaching and graduate teaching assistants. According to University Provost Mary Ann Swain, “stipends have become non-competitive” at the BU, lowering the desirability of this school for many graduate applicants. This has prompted the University to pledge $1 million to increasing the salaries of graduate students and attracting more of them to the institution.
The problem, according to Nancy Stamp, vice provost and dean of the graduate school, goes beyond the borders of Binghamton University. “The problem is that this country needs to have more people with advanced education,” she said. According to Stamp, many countries in Europe and Southeast Asia are re-organizing their education systems to incorporate “American-style graduate research programs.”
As a result, there has been an increase in the need for skilled faculty and graduate students around the world, and graduate salaries at BU have not increased with the rise in competition.
In addition to attracting graduate students, the Strategic Plan also addresses the problem of the insufficiency of current graduate stipends.
“Next year, doctoral stipends will range from $10,000 to $18,000,” Stamp said. “We were able to raise all doctoral stipends for next year by at least $2,000.”
Swain stressed the importance of graduate students in fulfilling the Strategic Plan’s agenda for “research and scholarship.”
Undergraduate students are taught by TAs who are in the graduate program, and faculty who work with graduate research assistants.
“We want to be able to attract excellent graduate students because it makes our graduate programs better to the extent that they take teaching assistant positions, the interactions with undergraduate students improve,” Swain said.
Stamp agreed, commenting that better pay, which attract better graduate students, “helps retain the world-class researchers and scholars — the faculty who teach undergraduates.”
Stamp also discussed the growing demand for a graduate degree to have the “foundation… for a career,” and for switching occupations throughout life. To accommodate this growing need, the University has implemented ways in which both an undergraduate and graduate degree can be achieved in less time. The “3-plus-2” program allows undergraduate students to use their fourth year of college to take some graduate courses. The fifth year is for graduate work in order to achieve a master’s degree.
“So strengthening graduate education here provides more options for people, including current undergraduates,” she said.