I read your appeal for information on SCREEN-L.  My department covers a number
of areas indicated by the department name.  There are seven of us who teach
film and video production, history, criticism; the three people who do not
teach production have the Ph. D. degree; one of them also has an MFA but
has not taught production for many years, by his choice.  The other four all
have MFA degrees.  They teach all of the production courses and some of the
history and criticism courses.  Of the three in history/criticism, one is a
full professor (soon to retire), the other two are tenured associate professors
Among the four teaching principally production, one is a full professor, the
others are associate professors with tenure.  Three members of this latter
group have international reputations for their productions; all three of the
history/criticism group have international reputations.
 
The Temple University program for the Master of Fine Arts also has an
international reputation; one-third to one-half of our candidates for the MFA
are overseas students, many from Asia, some from Europe, occasionally one from
South America.  Our MFA graduates are teaching all over the world (that is many
go home to successful careers as teachers and producers).  At least one of our
MFA graduates is a full professor at a very prestigious university in the
United States.
 
Still, despite the success of our MFA graduates we on the faculty have the
sense that many incoming students want the additional education that goes with
completing a Ph. D. degree.  Certainly university administrators feel more
comfortable with faculty members who hold the Ph. D. even when the MFA degree
is more appropriate for the teaching they are expected to do.
 
Because of these circumstances we suspect that the pressure for a doctorate
even for conservatory-type teaching will get stronger.  We are in the final
stages of introducing a new degree program which will combine the MFA and
Ph. D.  To enter the program for a doctorate a student must have the MFA or
demonstrated equivalent skills.  The program will be rigorous on both the
production side and the history/criticism/theory side.  It is unclear at this
time whether it will be possible to complete a script or production in lieu of
the dissertation.
 
Is this the sort of information you wanted?  I'll be glad to send further
details or answer specific questions.
 
Cal Pryluck                               <PRYLUCK@TEMPLEVM>
Dept of Radio-Television-Film             <[log in to unmask]>
Temple University
Philadelphia, PA 19122