Contributors Yuriy Baglaenko and Eric Gracey

Students from the department of immunology at the University of Toronto recently completed a survey of their 288 alumni, tracking their career choices and progressions through life. In this post, Yuriy Baglaenko and Eric Gracey follow the alumni around the globe, to see where they have ended up after leaving the University of Toronto.

The sub-prime mortgage crisis of 2008 had global economic ramifications, still felt to this day. This crisis was particularly close to the heart of business schools, which were criticized for not instilling the proper skills and ethics in their graduates. In response to this disaster, many MBA programs restructured to adapt their training by having continuous dialogues with industry and adding a stronger focus on softer skills.

Recent reports have provided evidence that the scientific system may also be facing an impending crash, with funding levels stagnant, grant success rates diving and an increasing reliance on trainees as producers of knowledge. Will graduate training preemptively change to avoid a scientific meltdown or continue to lag behind a changing world?

Why survey alumni?

Unfortunately, graduate training is rarely evaluated. New courses and technologies might come and go but fundamentally, graduate education has remained unchanged for many years. Only recently have a limited number of academic or industry track PhD programs been introduced to bring training in line with a changing job market. Continue reading →