Economics Dept. Approves Graduate Fellowship Plan

Economics has become the third Department to adopt a variation of the graduate fellowship program proposed by Dean Ford last Fall. Next year ten to 15 graduate students will receive financial aid under the new four-year program.

The Ed. Department program--unlike those adopted by the Government and History Departments in the Fall--will not substantially increase the number of teaching fellows.

Most of the 43 teaching fellows this year are used in Ec 1, and the Department does not feel the need to increase the number used in middle group courses, according to John T. Dunlop, chairman of the Economics Department.

Dunlop does expect that the program will improve the quality of teaching in Ec 1, however, as it will "improve materially the attractiveness of Harvard as a place to do graduate work and teach," and therefore will draw more good graduate students from which to choose the teaching fellows. No other economics department in the country has a similar program, Dunlop said.

The program will provide financial support during the first two years of graduate study, and teaching or research fellowships during the last two. No student, however, will be guaranteed a teaching or research fellowship at the beginning of his graduate career.

Help in the Second Year

The most important effect of the program will be a guarantee of assistance in the second year, according to Dunlop. Dunlop said that many good graduate students had Wilson or other fellowships in their first year, but that the second has often been particularly hard financially.