By failing to make undergraduate schools full partners in the education and creation of new scientists, U.S. science policy contradicts all that we know about how researchers are developed. Many of the best ones are nurtured well before they get to graduate school. The National Science Foundation found that although only 4 percent of Americans attend liberal arts colleges, these institutions produced 15 percent of those who earned doctorates in the sciences and engineering between 1991 and 1995. And over the last 12 years, a dozen graduates of liberal arts colleges won the Nobel Prize in a scientific field, including Hamilton alumnus Paul Greengard who was a co-recipient this year in the physiology or medicine category. We know what works in creating scientists.
Undergraduate research works.
The federal government should do more to support it. Articles must focus on issues of interest to the higher education community. Only columns written by American Council on Education member college and university presidents or chancellors, system heads, or chief executives of national higher education associations will be considered. Articles should be no more than 550 words.