Brandeis Tries a New Tactic to Speed Students to the Ph.D. - Graduate Students - The Chronicle of Higher Education

http://chronicle.com/article/Brandeis-Tries-a-New-Tactic-to/140139/

To help students on their way towards a Ph.D., Brandeis University is offering candidates a dissertation fellowship. In exchange for finishing their dissertations in a year, students agree to not engage in outside work. We have a similar agreement here in the School of Education at CU-Boulder: students are promised at least 3 years of full funding (and typically get more), but we aren't supposed to work outside the program. Part of that is to maintain our focus on our studies and decrease the time it takes to complete the program, but working as a graduate assistant in the program is seen as essential preparation for further careers in academia.