University Provost Jamshed Bharucha announced an initiative this week that will increase the average Ph.D. student stipend to make Tufts more competitive with its peer programs and to improve the quality of student life.
"In some departments, we are significantly below the average of our peer institutions," Bharucha said. "We have strong programs, but you can't be competitive without offering the appropriate financial package."
Publicized stipend statistics average both Ph.D and master's students' stipends together. Because the size of stipends varies from department to department, no concrete figures were available.
Ph.D. stipends received first priority among graduate student support needs due to the market-driven nature of recruitment. Students often must pass up their first choice for a program if another institution can offer a better stipend.
Strong Ph.D. students are a boon for attracting new faculty to Tufts. "Attracting great Ph.D. students is critical. In some fields it's tough to hire faculty if they don't feel they have access to the best Ph.D. students," Bharucha said.
The $1 million allocated for the initiative will be distributed to the deans of Tufts' schools and colleges. The deans can then utilize the resources to strengthen or underpin the competitiveness of their programs.
"It's going to vary field-by-field, and we will have to manage people's expectations in some areas," Bharucha said. "People will see an increase in some areas, in others they may not."
Tufts has Ph.D. programs in Arts, Sciences and Engineering as well as at the Medical School, Dental School, Veterinary Schools and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences.
The Fletcher School and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy are also included in the initiative.
University Vice Provost and Associate Dean of Engineering Vincent Manno will coordinate plans for each of the schools. "One of my responsibilities as associate provost is to help coordinate graduate education initiatives across the University," he said.
Manno will help each school to formulate a plan to create stipend packages for each program.
"The global goal that we're really shooting for is to recruit outstanding grad students," he said. Manno said this will require excellent research and offering competitive stipends.
Dean of Arts and Sciences Susan Ernst plans to consult with individual departments and hopes to have figures and information regarding the final stipend by late next week.
As a result, the figures will be available for applicants to evaluate Tufts' stipend packages for the 2005-2006 academic year.
While stipends between departments will vary, Ernst said, "We're trying to be more consistent relative to our comparison schools."
According to Bharucha, the financial resources for the initiative do not represent any diversion from other programs. "We've made this a high priority and identified additional resources to support it," he said. "None of this comes at the expense of anything else."
Bharucha said that the University is working hard to continue to identify new resources that will enable students to attend Tufts.
"We are committed to additional financial support for undergraduate and graduate students, but we can only do one thing at a time," Bharucha said.
