. "Undergraduate, Graduate, and Postgraduate Education in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics." Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2007.
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Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future
Undergraduate Education
Provide incentives for all institutions of higher education to provide diverse internship opportunities for all undergraduates to study science, mathematics, engineering, and technology as early in their academic careers as possible.
Expand funding for programs at 2-year and 4-year colleges that succeed in attracting and retaining women and members of minority groups underrepresented in science, mathematics, and engineering.
Graduate Education
Establish education and traineeship grants to institutions focused on frontier research areas and multidisciplinary or innovation-oriented studies.
Require institutions applying for federal grants to report on the size, scope, and performance (student completion rates and career outcomes) of their graduate programs to determine whether these programs are meeting the interests of students in preparing them for diverse careers in academe, industry, government, and the nonprofit sector.
Postdoctoral Training
Develop federal policies and standards for postdoctoral fellows supported on federal research grants, including letters of appointment, performance evaluations, benefits and leave, and stipend support.
Help develop creative solutions to the problems faced by dual-career couples so that more US students opt to pursue research careers.
Create standards for and require the submission of demographic information on postdoctoral scholars supported on federal research grants by investigators awarded such grants. Collect data on postdoctoral working conditions, prospects, and careers.
The following discusses these issues in greater depth.
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION
The undergraduate years have a profound influence both on future professionals in science and mathematics and on broader public support of those fields. Undergraduate education acts as a springboard for students who choose to major in and then pursue graduate work in science and mathematics. Undergraduate institutions and community colleges train the technical support personnel who will keep our technological society functioning smoothly in the years ahead. And colleges and universities prepare
