Graduate students ought to be able to complete course work in two years, says the President of the MLA. From the BA, two years of coursework, then two of examination and thesis, and that is all.
What do you think of this? Doesn’t it reduce the PhD to what the MA once was and still is in some countries – coursework, examination, thesis?
I went to one of those killer, long PhD programs and there was a lot to like about it. But the days in which that was feasible appear to be gone.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
The kind of M.A. program I had at Reed was intended for people, mostly already in their careers, who did not plan to get a PhD, and was coursework and thesis. I did not have to take the GRE or any other comprehensive examinations.
My husband bypassed the M.A. all together and spent five years in grad school, getting his PhD at age 27. He did his post doc at Bell Labs, because nothing was available in the late 60’s for him in the academic world and then went on to work for various companies. He would have been a very good professor.
Course work for a humanities PhD in two years? really? Not unless our undergraduate majors are really preparing students for graduate study, which they are not.
Our undergraduate program did prepare us for graduate study and still two years of coursework wouldn’t have done it for the PhD.
I’m a PhD Candidate in English at a public research institution. Our program is four years, total. Two years of course work, exams and prospectus in our 5th semester, and about a year to write the diss and defend. It is hell, and puts us at a serious disadvantage compared to PhDs coming from other programs.
Is that without an MA – you go straight from BA to PhD exam 5 semesters later? If so, it’s what Berman proposes, except he proposes to make it easier by removing the dissertation and replacing it with three seminar papers.
Does it mean 4 years of funding, or no degree if you don’t finish in 4 years, or what?
What he proposes sounds like great *preparation* for a PhD program, for people coming in with what most BAs look like now. It’s like a souped-up MA.
Maybe Berman is concerned about keeping enough new TAs coming in. He wants to offer college graduates who don’t know what to do a four year funded program which they can do while figuring out what to do next, and teach classes while they do it.
Incoming PhD students already have a MA. It’s not a program where you earn an MA on your way to the PhD. I did my MA at another institution, coursework in 2 years. I can’t imagine not having gone through the MA first.
Four years of funding, I guess. People who don’t finish in four years seem to disappear, and to not finish in four years seems to be unacceptable to most of our faculty. It’s very stressful. But a lot of people take more than a year to write their dissertations, yes? When they run out of funding, is that when they find adjunct positions wherever they can? It’s hard to have perspective, right now.
Hm, I wonder whether that’s what Berman means, then – 2 years of coursework post MA.
In my department it was 3 years of coursework post MA. I’d have liked 2 years and then a year to plan and study for exam.
I know I sound pokey but I think a dissertation is a 2.5 year project. A half year to have it come to you, a year to write, a half year to revise, another half year for whatever you need. Less, I suppose, if you’re not working but I am assuming a half time job.
P.S. ABD, I think you and those in your program need possibly external fellowships to get an extra year.
What?
PS ABD congratulations on … !!!
Yes. They’re in a program that realistically takes longer than they’re funded for. It’s external fellowship time, I declare.
Thank you!