Introduction

As the career landscape for graduate students continues to evolve, so too must the structures, expectations, and support systems within graduate education. Universities face a critical moment: how can they better prepare graduate students, especially those pursuing doctoral degrees, for meaningful, impactful careers across a wide range of industries, government, nonprofits, and academia?

This challenge invites participants to explore bold and practical solutions for reimagining the future of graduate education. The goal is to ensure that students are equipped with the tools, mentorship, and flexibility needed to thrive in a rapidly changing job market.

The Challenge

How can graduate education be transformed to help students pursue a wide range of careers, beyond the traditional academic path?

Participants are encouraged to focus on one or more of the following areas and propose concrete, actionable strategies for improving graduate student outcomes:

Alumni Engagement

Challenge: How can universities meaningfully engage alumni from a variety of professional fields to support current graduate students in career exploration and planning?
Considerations: Design a program or platform that connects alumni to students for mentoring, job shadowing, or project collaboration. Explore models for sustaining long-term engagement, amplifying diverse career storytelling, and bridging the gap between graduate programs and evolving workforce realities.

Faculty and Departmental Leadership

Challenge: What role can Departmental Graduate Education Chairs and faculty advisors play in tracking and responding to job market trends?
Considerations: Propose a system to educate and support faculty in advising graduate students on non-academic career paths. How can departments stay informed about workforce trends? What professional development can help faculty better support students’ diverse career aspirations?

Reimagining Degree Requirements

Challenge: How can traditional degree milestones, such as the dissertation or comprehensive exams, be adapted to serve students pursuing careers outside of academia?
Considerations: Develop alternative formats or supplementary components to traditional requirements that maintain academic rigor while building transferable skills. For example, could dissertations include public impact projects, policy proposals, or multimedia components? How might graduate curricula incorporate industry-relevant experiences?

Submission Guidelines
Using a fictional $100,000 of seed funding, participants should select one of the challenge areas above and submit a well-reasoned, creative, and feasible proposal. Submissions should clearly outline: 

• the problem being addressed

• the proposed intervention 

• the expected outcomes 

Proposals should focus on the Michigan campus, considering transferability to other institutions.  Authors are encouraged to include implementation considerations, such as institutional partnerships, scalability, or potential challenges, and to tie their ideas to broader university values such as innovation, public service, and inclusive excellence.

We look forward to your ideas and solutions to help graduate education evolve to meet the needs of today’s dynamic job market. Join us in this vital conversation and showcase your vision for a future where graduate students are empowered, supported, and equipped to thrive across a broad range of careers at the University of Michigan and beyond.