Building undergraduate and graduate programs simultaneously highlighted the tensions between disciplinary-based undergraduate programs and interdisciplinary graduate programs.

The organization and procedures of universities make it tempting to try to avoid contemporary challenges to graduate education. Much of the malaise in current graduate education results from a focus on the decline in resources, in the availability of conventional careers for graduates, and in the availability of talented students. (Author/MLW)

The power and authority of the graduate school can affect the quality of graduate programs in schools of education and the freedom to innovate them. Schools of education are creating programs in nontraditional areas, establishing relationships with other departments, and recruiting and supporting students outside school-related areas. (Author/MLW)

Engineering education is going through a difficult period because of burgeoning undergraduate enrollments, falloff in nonforeign graduate students, and rapidly changing technology. The growing high-technology environment may encourage the development of professional programs in engineering. (Author/MLW)

The humanities have initiated a four-part strategy to deal with the shortage of jobs for individuals with graduate credentials including: concentrating their effort in traditional areas of study, creating new, innovative fields of study, creating new options, and embarking on an "awareness program." (Author/MLW)

Although much federal support for higher education exists, its relationship to developing innovative programs is different among various fields and disciplines. The role and influence of the federal government on innovation in graduate programs is discussed. (Author/MLW)

American graduate students must learn to contribute to international communication in their fields. International studies for research-oriented programs and practitioner programs, international exchange programs, and the role of graduate deans are discussed. (Author/MLW)

A survey indicates that declining resources, merging of programs, and loss of faculty positions characterize the changes in programs in higher education as a field of study and suggest an uncertain future. However, most programs see themselves as strong and programs that were prominent in the last decade remain so. (Author/MSE)

Graduate education is preparation for research, scholarship, jobs and careers (faculty, industrial, other forms of work), and for life, and change is occurring in all these areas. Several qualitatively different approaches are being suggested to improve graduate students' education while adapting to change; all take time and increase the workload…

Birmingham-Southern College has surmounted major problems of enrollment, finances, and mission by adding and expanding career-related curricula and selected adult and post-baccalaureate offerings, reaffirming and finding new applications for its original liberal arts mission. (MSE)