Initial Publication Date: April 13, 2015

Survey Conclusions

Go back to the beginning of this presentation, by Randall Richardson and Susan Beck of the University of Arizona, about the results of a national survey of geoscience departments.

This survey, with 364 respondents and an approximate 40% response rate, reached a broad representation of two-year, four-year, master's and doctoral departments, both public and private. It is clear that there is much agreement across institution type on the measures of successful departments. Individually, well-defined missions, effective curricula, building departmental teamwork, effective recruitment, developing leadership among faculty and students, communicating the importance of the geosciences, and building effective partnerships all received ranking of nearly 4 or better out of a possible 5. When asked to single out the most important measure, three stood out across institution type: effective curricula, recruitment and building partnerships.

Similarly, declining resources was the most common threat across all institution types, although the type of resource (state, federal, private) varied across institution type. Opportunities varied, but interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research and teaching were common themes.

While we found significant variations between institution types, the degree of common perspective across institution types was striking.