The Future of Education

Universities and their faculty design curricula and programs that build learners’ competencies to positively impact their fields of study and society, and while most institutions mark their success by the titles and positions their alums have achieved, does that necessarily reflect an internal transformation manifested in the posture taken by those graduates? As an institution, we must ask ourselves, has the training and education our alums have received truly made a difference in how they are interacting in the world they have been placed beyond commencement? Did they experience mere academic growth and credentials, or was their experience transformational and if so, what does that look like? What are the programmatic factors that have influenced their careers and personal trajectories?

Building on a preliminary study of 82 doctoral candidates across various disciplines in one institution in the mid-Atlantic region of the US that revealed the importance of community and active engagement between the candidates and their doctoral chairs, these researchers sought to look beyond commencement to determine the impact of the institution’s motto and core values on 36 graduates as they engage in their current professions. Often sought by those desiring to contribute to the knowledge in their fields as researchers and practitioners, other than obtaining a doctorate, how do we know if an institution is truly fulfilling its stated mission in those graduates? What are the programmatic factors in their doctoral programs that have advanced and maintained the alums after they have left the institution? These are the questions that catapulted the current study. Doctoral alumni from the six Regent University schools that offer both online and hybrid doctoral degrees--Communication and the Arts, Divinity, Education, Government, Psychology and Counseling, and Business and Leadership—were solicited to participate in various focus groups and the results were somewhat profound.