Oregon’s PSM Initiative
Oregon is a great place to live and work but needs to provide its residents more opportunities in rewarding high-paying fields, particularly in science and engineering. Growing Professional Science Master’s programs in Oregon will:
- Serve the state’s rapidly growing population (Oregon: 7.9% compared to the U.S.: 6.1%; 2008 survey by Monitor);
- Give more Oregonians access to high paying jobs (Oregon’s average wage: $37,711 compared to the U.S average: $42,405);
- Support Oregon’s high level of innovation (Oregon: 17.91 patents/10,000 workers versus the U.S.: 8.96 patents/10,000 workers); and
- Drive the growth of industries that create products and services and bring dollars into Oregon’s economy (e.g., semiconductors, forest products, medical instruments, computer software, and others).
Oregon fosters research innovation through creation of collaborative centers like the Oregon Translational Research and Drug Development Institute, the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, and the Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center. The Oregon Professional Science Master's Initiative can serve as the educational complement to these organizations.
Our market research has confirmed that employers want graduate programs that respond to their staffing needs, provide graduates with relevant work experience, and build financial and intellectual partnerships. The goal of the statewide PSM initiative is to create such programs that fill high-skills workforce gaps in Oregon.
With support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, this effort has been led by:
- Ursula Bechert, Director of Off-Campus Programs for the College of Science at Oregon State University;
- Marvin Kaiser, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Portland State University; and
- Bruce Schafer, Director of the Industry Affairs for the Chancellor’s Office of the Oregon University System.
In addition, the following people and many others have contributed to the strategic and tactical planning of PSM programs in Oregon:
- Senator Richard Devlin, Senate Majority Leader;
- Margie Lowe, Higher Education Policy Advisor for the Governor of Oregon; and
- Steve Mahon, General Manager, TriQuint Semiconductor.
The objectives of the statewide PSM initiative are to:
- Create a communications platform to further the PSM agenda;
- Support marketing and recruitment efforts for Oregon’s PSM programs;
- Coordinate PSM grant opportunities to strengthen individual proposals;
- Provide guidelines for development and approval of new PSM programs in Oregon;
- Create an Oregon PSM Advisory Board to guide future PSM development strategies;
- Organize workshops for partner institutions to share best practices on key issues like sustainability, student recruitment, program assessment, and industry partnerships;
- Facilitate coordination of internships for all PSM programs throughout the state;
- Set-up an online internship and employment bulletin for the PSM community;
- Develop a distance learning portal to foster curriculum sharing among institutions;
- Facilitate exploration of joint PSM degree opportunities among multiple academic institutions to serve specific state workforce needs; and
- Establish a small grants program to support PSM program development initiatives.