(379m) Comparative Analysis of the Graduate Student Learning Experience for Native and Non-Native Students in the USA and Denmark

With the rise in graduate student enrollment in the United States comes further discussion of the most effective teaching methods and course design. The traditional graduate student in America is required to enroll and pass 30 credit hours of coursework, typically in semester format meeting 1-2 times per week for up to 16 weeks. This model often causes graduate students to feel that they are losing precious time that could be spent focusing on research and makes it difficult to schedule time-sensitive experiments around classes. In Denmark, however, the majority of PhD-level courses are intensive 1 week courses designed to minimize impacts to research productivity and typically last 5-8 hours per day for 3-5 days. In this format, students obtain both lecture-style information as well as hands on demonstrations and assessments.

The present study aims to analyze the differences between PhD-level coursework and subsequent learning objectives between the US and Denmark to make suggestions on how to improve the PhD experience in the United States. To this end, students studying engineering in both the US and Denmark were surveyed on their opinions of course offerings, objectives, and time commitments. Subjects were also asked whether or not they were native to the country in which their PhD studies were taking place. Survey results were then used to perform a comparative analysis and make recommendations on ways to improve PhD-level coursework in the United States.