The ACS Approval Program And Research Universities

Abstract

RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES are major producers of undergraduate chemists, awarding half of the more than 10,000 bachelor's degrees in chemistry each year. They also educate a large cohort of domestic and international graduate students and are the center of the academic research enterprise. Research universities are essential players in undergraduate education not only because they produce undergraduate chemists but also because they shape the doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars who become the teachers of the next generation. For all of these reasons, research universities are important participants in the current work of the Committee on Professional Training (GPT) to develop new guidelines for ACS approval of undergraduate programs. ACS is unique among major scientific societies in offering a voluntary approval process for programs that award a bachelor's degree. The society, through CPT, approves programs. The chair of an approved program certifies the degrees of those graduates who meet the require...