Dear Editor:
The “low-producing” Ph.D. programs (less than three graduates per year) from the Tennessee Higher Education Committee in the Friday issue of the Helmsman does not take into consideration growth and development of the graduate programs at Memphis over the last five years.
For instance, four years ago, the ratio of M.S. to Ph.D. students in Biology was about 4:1, or about 5 Ph.D. students in the program.
In the last four years, this trend has been reversed with greater than tw0-thirds of the graduate students now in the Ph.D. program.
In that it takes four to six years to complete the requirements for a doctorate in the Sciences, we will not see a large increase in graduation of Ph.D.s until the next year or so.
In fact, we anticipate graduating seven Ph.D. students from this turn-around in our program in the next year.
Thus, THEC may be premature in recommending programs to “get the ax” in that they have not considered progress made in the developing graduate programs over the last five years.
Jerry O. Wolfe
Chair
Dept. Of Biology
