U.S.-Japan Joint Research on Productivity of Graduate Education

我们进行了一项人种学研究，研究培训是如何在工程，物理，经济和历史领域进行的。我们访问了日本各地的各个研究领域的几所研究生院，并与教授和研究生进行了访谈。重点讨论了研究生的招收和选拔、硕士论文和博士论文的选题以及导师与研究生的互动模式。这一系列访谈揭示的学科差异远大于机构差异。工程和物理领域的高级学生的培训系统比经济和历史领域的更“结构化”。

We conducted an ethonographic study on how research training are carried out in the fields of engineering, physics, economics, and history. We visited several graduate schools for each study field throughout Japan, and had interviews with professors and graduate students. The focal topics are recruitment and selection of graduate students, choice of topic for the master's thesis and the doctoral dissertation, and pattern of interaction between advisors and graduate students. The series of intervews reveals much more disciplinary differences than institutional ones. Training system of advancced students in the fields of engineering and physics are more "structured" than in the fields of economics and history.