University of Puerto Rico System Proposal For Phase II of the UPR Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP)

University Of Puerto Rico, San Juan PR

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Puerto Rico's UPR goals are to meet Puerto Rico's PR demands for excellent, highly trained science and technology S&T professionals, and assist in meeting the nation's need for diverse S&T perspectives. To those ends, UPR is being funded through NSF's AGEP program to attain the following: Increase the average number of STEM Ph.D.'s to 40 per year Increase enrollment in STEM Ph.D. programs by 25% Increase the number of stateside students in UPR STEM Ph.D. programs by 22 Increase the number of women in engineering and chemical physics by 10 Increase the number of STEM Ph.D. graduates opting for academic careers by 15 Institutionalize PR-AGEP's policies and practices. To attain the objectives, UPR will build on PR-AGEP Phase I successes by doing the following: Enhancing PR-AGEP Phase I "bridging" TA, scholarly productivity, and peer mentoring workshops, Continuing the recruitment of minority and female students by systematically working with PR and Mainland U.S. REU programs, Establishing a centralized tracking form to follow the progress of each graduate student, Providing twenty awards of $20,000 each year to attract talented students into academia and areas with a particular shortage, and Completing the institutionalization of workshops, the tracking system, and recruitment guidelines.