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At the University of Connecticut, we decided to continue to REQUIRE BOTH 
economic history AND history of economic thought in our doctoral program. 
Indeed, we made the diversity of economics available in the department a 
central focus of our recruiting effort.  Thus, while we insist on a very 
thorough grounding in "mainstream neoclasscial analysis", we also insist 
students have an understanding of the intellectual origins and evolution 
of the field and of the actual, empirical, "hard data" of how economies 
have functioned.  Together with a careful restructuring of the overall 
set of course sequences (we have a stand-alone MA program that is highly 
successful) and vastly improved dissertation supervision (we cut average 
time to completion from 9+ years to 5.6 years), this emphasis has permitted 
us to recruit many top students in competition with "marque" programs 
that have abandoned all interest in both history and history of thought. 
 
I should add that we take teaching quite seriously as well, and try to 
prepare our doctoral students to teach in a liberal arts environment--which 
is where the vast majority of academic jobs are.  While our ratings haven't 
improved, both our input--quality of entering students--and our placement 
has improved dramatically; I also think our level of satisfaction with what 
we are doing as a faculty (who, even with quality attention to supervision 
and teaching, manage to publish at nearly 3 articles per capita annually) 
is much higher. 
 
So our experience argues very strongly in support of Peter's strategic 
suggestions for building a quality program. 
 
Fred C. 
 
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Prof. Fred V. Carstensen                   Office: (860) 486-0614 
Department of Economics                    Dept:   (860) 486-3022 
341 Mansfield Road                         FAX:    (860) 486-4463 
University of Connecticut                  Home:   (860) 242-6355 
Storrs, CT 06269-1063                e-mail: [log in to unmask] 
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