Professional Training(Joint with Council)

At the March 2011 meeting, the Committee on Professional Training (CPT) evaluated periodic reports and updates from 45 approved college and university chemistry degree programs, met in conference with eight programs applying for ACS approval, and discussed progress reports from two applicants. The committee voted to approve one new program. The total number of colleges and universities offering ACS-approved bachelor’s degree programs in chemistry is now 664.

The committee approved an updated version of the ethics supplement to the ACS Guidelines, which will be available on the CPT Web pages at www.acs.org/cpt. Plans were finalized for two outreach meetings to be held at the ACS national meeting in Denver—one with the volunteers who make site visits to programs applying for ACS approval, and the other with the chairs of Ph.D.-granting departments. These meetings are part of CPT’s ongoing efforts to hear the concerns of members of the academic community and to update them on emerging trends in education that are identified through CPT’s surveys and program review activities.

In January, the final report on the survey of enrollments in selected chemistry courses in 2004–07 was published as a follow-on to a survey on enrollments in 2001–04. Both the reports and the data are available on the ACS website. The annual report of graduates for 2009–10 was approved and will be published later this year in Chemical & Engineering News. A new short survey that will collect data on the practices of chemistry departments with respect to online courses was approved for inclusion in the 2010–11 annual report cycle. The committee is also developing a longer survey that will attempt to measure the impact of the 2008 ACS guidelines on bachelor’s degree programs in chemistry. Finally, the committee celebrated its 75th anniversary with an open reception and a well-received symposium on the present and future of the ACS approval program.