Task Force on the National Research Council Study
Multiple Ph.D. Programs in Communication
Pros and Cons of Combining Communication Programs
Arguments in favor of treating Communication as one program (even though faculty may be housed in multiple departments with different Ph.D. degrees) include:
* It will increase the size and number of faculty and doctoral students above that listed in a single program.
* It could bring together disparate programs on a given campus.
* It could potentially reduce friction that might arise from separate ratings of different communication programs on one campus.
* If communication doctoral training on a given campus is equally strong across departments, the university may receive higher ratings overall by aggregating faculty members across departments.
Arguments against aggregating Communication into one unit include:
* It might hurt a university’s overall standing if the aggregated programs differ in quality.
* It might be difficult to interpret survey results for very different department.
* It might aggregate faculty in ways that do not make sense for the mission and topic areas of doctoral education.
If your department is located at an institution that has multiple Communication doctoral degree programs, we hope you will work with relevant administrators to determine how to treat these degree programs in the NRC study.
