“Committee Outsiders: a quick win”
“here’s one tangible, simple recommendation for an academic department: Let your doctoral students have a non-academic member on their thesis committee. Presumably such an examiner should be someone of repute and in good standing in their professional community — preferably even someone with some alphabet soup after their name. This kind of bridge to the non-academic world can provide valuable insights into the applicability of knowledge and skills to non-academic contexts (for both the academic and non-academic folks!), help doctoral candidates to plant the seeds of a professional network, and later on provide an invaluable reference from someone who’s seen the world outside of academia and can speak with authority about the aptitude of a potential job candidate. It’s similar to a cross-sectoral internship, except it’s sustained rather than punctual, and requires far less formal infrastructure to implement.”
Interesting suggestion
