UW-Madison Working Group on Clinical/Professional Doctorates

The final report of the working group and the related issues were discussed at
- the August 13, 2008 Dean's Working Group
- several ad hoc and small group meetings over the subsequent months
- the Graduate Faculty Executive Committee (GFEC) on April 3, 2009 and May 1, 2009
- the University Academic Planning Council on May 14, 2009

The uncertainty about the future of professional doctorates that the working group
was convened to study has been resolved in the course of these discussions and in response to other
contributing factors. The Graduate School, with the support of the GFEC, sees professional
doctorates as among the programs on the continuum of graduate programs. Consequently, newly
developed professional doctorates will be housed in the Graduate School.
(Professional programs in units that already house professional programs - Law,
Medicine and Public Health, Pharmacy, Veterinary Medicine - will be excepted and those units
will continue to house their professional programs.)
Several developments over the past year have influenced thinking on this topic:
- the report of the working group on professional doctorates (see below) and the discussions listed above
- national recommendations laid out in the 2007 Council of Graduate Schools Task
Force on the Professional Doctorate
- national changes in the US Department of Education definitions of doctoral degrees such
that institutions report two categories of doctorates - research doctorates and professional
doctorates (starting in 2008-09)

Final Report of the Working Group on Professional Doctorates, April 4, 2008.

Meeting Notes: Sept 25/07, Nov 6/07, Dec 18/07, March 28/08.

Provost's Charge to the Working Group

Charge Memo (August 2007)
Attachments
-- Milner to Farrell memo recommending that a working group be charged with the support of the UAPC, June 5, 2007
-- Graduate School Guidelines for Process of Approving Post-baccalaureate Degrees, Approved by GFEC April 13, 2007
-- "Credential Creep", Burton Bollag, Chronicle of Higher Education, June 22, 2007 (requires CHE logon)
-- Health Professions Programs Task Force Report to the Provost, June 2005

Contact the working group chair, Jocelyn Milner, with questions or suggestions for links to add to this page.

Related documents and links that may also be of interest:

-- Council on Graduate Schools Report on Clinical/Professional Doctorates, released November 2007. Available for purchase.

-- UW worries about 'credential creep' in awarding degrees. Anita Weier, Capital Times, 10/10/2007

-- Graduate Education: The Backbone of American Competitiveness and Innovation,
June 2007, Council on Graduate Schools Summary/Press Release, Full Report

-- Higher Learning Commission Task Force on the Professional Doctorate, June 2006

-- Doctor of Nursing Practice Roadmap Task Force Report, October 2006

-- Reclaiming Education's Doctorates: A Critique and a Proposal, L.S.Shulman, C.M.Golde, A. Conklin Bueschel,
and K.J. Garebedian, Education Researcher, April 2006