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Mastering Physics for Non-Academic Careersby Stephen D. Norton, Philip W. Hammer, and Roman Czujko Executive SummaryOver the last seven years, the U.S. economy has been growing at an unprecedented rate. This growth is being driven, to a significant extent, by technological innovation with an especially strong demand for employees with scientific and technological skills.The contributions that scientists and engineers with bachelors or PhD degrees make in economic development has been reasonably well documented. More recently, there has been increased discussion about whether master's degree programs prepare their graduates to play a unique role in the economy. This study, which was supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is one step toward increasing our understanding of master's programs. It involved a detailed analysis of all the master's programs in physics departments in the U.S. including those that offered a master's as their highest physics degree and those that had a master's degree program in parallel with a physics PhD program in the same department. Master's degree programs come in a variety of shapes and sizes. While some are focused on only one specialization, many have multiple specializations, some have a general track along side of a specialized focus, and still others only offer a general academic curriculum. The goals of this study were to:
The authors define a Professional Master's Degree program as one that addresses the current needs of the economy as well as addresses the needs of students by providing both fundamental knowledge and specialized skills. Fundamental knowledge is the foundation on which students will be able to build throughout their working lives and the specialized skills will enable students to get their careers started immediately after graduation. Professional Master's Degree programs have some combination of features that fall into four general categories: Bridge building between the physics department and the world outside of academe encompasses two essential goals: first, to develop formal mechanisms for identifying the needs and opportunities in the market place and, second, to provide a feedback mechanism to ensure that the program is able to respond to the inevitable changes in demand over time. The programmatic emphasis can focus on the expertise of the faculty within the physics department or it can be cross-disciplinary combining the expertise within the physics department with that of one or more other departments at the same university. The students and faculty in the program may have formal research experiences that are based on a collaboration with a corporation or government laboratory, involve internships or other off-campus work experiences, or provide hands-on research experiences within the physics department. Finally, non-technical aspects of the program are those that address the unique needs of potential students through evening classes, day classes or some combination of the two. They also include structured activities that provide students with expertise in non-technical areas that are essential to success in today's work place, notably communication skills both oral and in written form as well as interpersonal and team work skills. Using these criteria, we have identified:
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