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The obvious solution to the doctoral shortage would be to graduate more PhD students. But that's not an easy propo- sition at a time when most schools are seeing their funding sources shrink, says Rich Sorensen, chair of AACSB Interna- tional's Doctoral Faculty Shortage Working Group and dean of Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business in Blacksburg. "With budget cutbacks and economic uncertainty, we don't know what's going to happen," says Sorensen. "At Pamplin, we had increased the size of our doctoral program by 12 addi- tional students—and we've had to cut six of those positions." AACSB International estimates that business schools saw a shortfall of at least 1,000 business doctorates in 2008— a shortfall that could increase to 2,000 in ten years. To reverse the shortage, educators are experimenting with new approaches to the doctoral degree, while maintaining and enhancing its relevance in the 21st century. The six solutions outlined here offer a glimpse into where business doctoral education stands today—and where it might be headed. 1. Building Bridges to Business In its bid to counteract the doctoral shortage, AACSB has encouraged the initiation of Post-Doctoral Bridge to Busi- ness programs, designed to help scholars with PhDs in other disciplines make the transition into business. To date, five schools offer the eight-week Bridge curriculum, including Virginia Tech's Pamplin College; the University of Florida's Warrington College of Business Administration in Gaines- ville; the University of Toledo's College of Business Admin- istration in Ohio; Tulane University's Freeman School of Business in New Orleans, Louisiana; and Grenoble Ecole de Management in France. The Pamplin College has scheduled its Bridge program for the summer, to appeal to scholars on traditional Septem- ber-to-May contracts with their current universities. Program administrators hope to enroll 50 students for its next Bridge cohort this summer—25 for its marketing track and 25 for its finance track. In 2010, the Pamplin College plans to add a track in management, creating the capacity to graduate 75 doctorally qualified business faculty. That kind of output multiplied by many schools could go a long way toward solv- ing the doctoral shortage, stresses Frank Smith, director of Pamplin's Bridge program. "We target individuals who demonstrate the potential to secure a tenure track faculty position in their new field of choice," Smith explains. That means that the ideal student for the Bridge program already has earned a PhD in a field that directly applies to the business world, such as economics, statistics, sociology, or psychology. Statisticians, for example, can apply their skills to market research; economists might make the leap into finance; psychologists can translate their knowledge to consumer or organizational behavior. Formerly a scholar in statistics at Penn State Univer- sity, Shabnam Mousavi is a graduate of Pamplin's 2008 Bridge program. She is now a visiting professor of finance at Georgia State University's Robinson College of Busi- ness in Atlanta, specializing in research that focuses on the behavioral phenomena that affect corporate decision mak- ing. Mousavi says that when she heard about the Bridge program, she jumped at the opportunity to become doc- torally qualified in finance. "I was looking for a way to become familiar with the vocabulary of finance so I could go further in my research," she explains. Mousavi received an intensive education in financial theory and business pedagogy—and secured an oppor- tunity to advance her career, strengthen her negotiat- ing power, and earn a higher salary. The experience also allowed her to "learn the academic language" of business. "It's a real intellectual challenge to make this move," says Mousavi. "You are exposed to new ideas and learn about the real phenomena that you've previously only known on a theoretical level." 26 BizEd MARCH/APRIL 2009 DAVE CUTLER/CORBIS