Hironao Okahana, Associate Vice President, Research & Policy Analysis & Enyu Zhou, Education Research Analyst, Council of Graduate Schools

According to the 2018 CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees (GE&D), first-time graduate enrollment of international students at participating institutions declined by 3.7% between Fall 2016 and Fall 2017. This brief highlights some additional analysis pertaining to international graduate enrollment trends.

Key Findings:

• Despite the 3.7% decrease overall, at Doctoral Universities: Highest Research Activity (R1), first-time international graduate enrollment increased by 1.4% between Fall 2016 and Fall 2017. At other types of institutions, however, first-time international graduate enrollment decreased by double digits. (Figure 1)

• Compared to R1 institutions, proportionally fewer international graduate students attend other types of institutions. However, in some fields of study, such as engineering and mathematics and computer sciences, a large number of incoming graduate students at non R1 institutions are also international. (Figure 2)

• At R2 and R3 institutions, domestic first-time enrollment also declined between Fall 2016 and Fall 2017, and overall first-time graduate enrollment decreased by 4.2% and 7.1%, respectively. While there are fields in which first-time enrollment has been declining for some years, there are others that saw a sudden decline between Fall 2016 and Fall 2017. (Table 1 – next page)

Takeaway Points:

• A number of factors influence the global academic mobility of students; the Fall 2017 enrollment data suggest that the current U.S. visa policy and the uncertainties surrounding it may be, in part, impacting the flow of international graduate students coming into the United States.
• It appears that U.S. graduate education, broadly speaking, is still attractive to international talents, as is evident from first-time international graduate enrollment at R1 institutions. For other types of U.S. institutions, given the current political and policy climate, global competition for international graduate students may have increased.
• For R2 and R3 institutions, the decline of first-time international graduate enrollment comes in addition to stagnating, if not declining, first-time graduate enrollment of U.S. domestic students. If this decline becomes a pattern, it could pose a significant challenge to the health of graduate programs, particularly those programs with a large number of international students.

Conversation Starters: What do these data points mean for your graduate school and your programs and their strategic directions?

• How does your institution’s international and domestic enrollment figures compare to the national numbers? How does your institution compare to your peer institutions and graduate programs regionally and nationally?
• How have international graduate recruitment strategies at your institution changed in recent years? Has your institution historically relied on specific countries and/or graduate programs for international recruitment? How do you continue to strategically position your graduate school/programs in an increasingly crowded international marketplace?
• How are your graduate school and your programs responding to changes in both domestic and international graduate student enrollment? Do your graduate school and programs proactively engage current and potential employers of graduate degree holders?

Additional Resource:
CGS Strategic Consultations. The Council of Graduate Schools provides strategic consultations to member and nonmember institutions, boards, and state agencies as they make tactical decisions about the administration of graduate education.  Our consultations draw upon extensive best practice and benchmarking research as well as the insights of experienced graduate deans from around the country. CGS also provides Custom Data Reports to help institutional leaders inform their strategic decision-making processes. Figures and tables in this brief and the full GE&D report can be customized to include institutions of your choice.

About the Data Source:

CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees is an annual survey of U.S. graduate schools, co-sponsored by CGS and the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Board since 1986. It is the only annual national survey that collects data on graduate enrollment by all fields of study and is the only source of national data on graduate applications by broad field of study. The report includes responses from 619 institutions and presents statistics on graduate applications and enrollment for Fall 2017, degrees conferred in 2016-17, and trend data for one-, five- and ten-year periods.

The brief was prepared by Hironao Okahana and Enyu Zhou. Ryan Bradshaw and Katherine Hazelrigg also contributed. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this brief do not necessarily reflect the views of CGS.

We live in challenging times, when government officials, business leaders, and members of the public question the value of higher education. As graduate deans, we know that society is well served by our master’s and PhD graduates who have been trained to think critically, reason analytically, and solve complex problems. But how do we convey this message? I believe the answer lies in data – specifically, data about alumni career outcomes. Information about the sectors in which alumni are employed and the kinds of work they are doing can provide tangible evidence for the importance of graduate education.

How do you go about collecting this information? As part of its PhD Career Pathways project, CGS has developed an alumni survey that can help you get started. The consortium of schools with NIH BEST (Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training) grants has developed a taxonomy for categorizing the jobs of alumni in the life sciences; this taxonomy can easily be adapted for all disciplines. Reach out to graduate program directors and department heads; they may already be collecting this information for use in program reviews and training grant applications. Team up with your Alumni Relations office; they would be delighted to know more about where alumni are and what they are doing.

At UCSF, we have found that our alumni are using their graduate training in a wide variety of positions in academia, industry, government, and the non-profit sector. Aggregated data on these outcomes, combined with the “success stories” discussed in previous GradEdge columns, paint a portrait of the meaningful contributions made to the national, state, and local economies by graduate alums. With data in one hand and compelling anecdotes in the other, you will be well-equipped to make the case for graduate education externally to legislators, philanthropists, foundations, and industry partners, and internally to your chancellor, provost, public relations managers, and development officers. Alumni can be great partners in these efforts, as they know best how their career pathways benefitted from the education they received at your institution.

Data on career outcomes can also be used to advocate for greater attention to graduate students in campus career services offices. One of our responsibilities as leaders in higher education is to ensure that our students are being readied for meaningful employment post-graduation. If we can provide information about employment patterns and particular positions attained by graduate alumni, our colleagues in career counseling can develop graduate-level programming and materials for career exploration and the development of co-curricular skills to help students prepare for next steps after graduation.

As instructors, mentors, and researchers, graduate students play vital roles in the university ecosystem for the production and dissemination of knowledge. However, the contributions they make to society as alumni provide real-world examples and clear-cut justification that people outside the academy can appreciate. Let your alumni – through their individual stories and collective statistics – help you make the case for graduate education.

A recent PhD recipient in Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical Sciences from the University of Vermont, Rajiv Jumani’s research focuses on fighting child mortality and growth defects. While growing up in Bangalore, India, Jumani’s interest in biomedical research grew as he witnessed doctor’s inability to treat communicable diseases. He pursued his undergraduate degree in biotechnology engineering and worked on vaccine development and phage therapy for a few years before deciding to enter a graduate program.

Rajiv’s doctoral work was primarily, “to guide identification and development of drugs against the neglected diarrheal disease cryptosporidiosis.” He collaborated with researchers around the world, and his work led to the discovery of a promising compound to use to develop a pharmaceutical treatment for Cryptosporidiosis that maximizes the rate of parasite elimination.

Rajiv is now working as an investigator at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, a public private partnership between Novartis and the Singapore Economic Development Board to identify innovative treatments and prevention methods for major tropical diseases in developing countries, specifically malaria, dengue fever, and tuberculosis. To learn more about Rajiv’s work visit the University of Vermont website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Photo Credit: University of Vermont

PRESS RELEASE

EMBARGOED UNTIL: October 18, 2018 at 12:01 a.m. EDT

Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg
(202) 461-3888 khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools today released a research brief that reports on humanities PhD holders’ perceptions of the relevance of their doctoral programs to their current jobs. The brief, which draws on data from the CGS PhD Career Pathways project, indicates that the vast majority of humanists, regardless of employment sector, believe their doctoral education prepared them well for their current jobs.

Key Findings:

• Three years post-PhD, humanists working in non-academic jobs saw their training less aligned with their jobs than did those in academia; 52% of those in non-academic jobs reported that their PhD prepared them well for their current job, as compared to 77% of those in academia. For humanities PhDs eight- and 15-years postgraduation, however, there was no statistical difference in perception of preparation between those working in academia and those working elsewhere.
• Most humanities PhDs would pursue a PhD in general or in the same field, if they had to start over again.
• Between humanities PhDs working in academia and those working elsewhere, there are more similarities than differences in key skills and attributes important for successfully performing work. Attributes such as “leadership,” “adaptability and flexibility,” and “analytical thinking” were rated as almost identically important across both groups.

The findings are based on survey responses from 882 doctoral degree recipients from 35 institutions; fields included Anthropology and Archeology, English Language and Literature, Foreign Language and Literature, History, Philosophy, Religion and Theology, and Arts and Humanities. The data were collected as part of the project Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement and represent a small subset of the data available.

“While these findings represent the first wave of our data, they provide a strong indication that humanities PhDs find their training relevant to diverse career contexts,” said CGS President Suzanne Ortega. “Perhaps the most intriguing finding is that people eight and 15 years out of their PhDs find their training more relevant to their jobs than the earlier cohort.”

It’s not clear whether alumni views grow more positive over time because they have had the time to find a job that is a better fit for their skills, or whether those eight- and 15-years post-graduation come to have a different appreciation of their preparation. “Whatever the reason,” said Ortega, “this is good evidence that recent PhDs can use extra support in finding a job that’s right for them.”

This phase of PhD Career Pathways builds upon a decade of CGS initiatives dedicated to illuminating PhD career pathways and encouraging universities to value diverse career options for graduate students. Previous research from the Council of Graduate Schools conducted in partnership with the National Endowment for the Humanities indicates that humanities programs can successfully broaden options and opportunities for humanities PhDs by choosing vocabulary that supports the goals of PhD career diversity (e.g., using the term “flexible career paths” instead of “Plans A and B”); actively listening to and engaging important voices (such as students, alumni, and faculty); developing external partnerships; and removing administrative roadblocks.

CGS plans to release additional research briefs this fall that will include all fields of study, and in early 2019, the first results from a survey of PhD students in their second and fifth years of study.

About the project:

CGS PhD Career Pathways is a coalition of 65 doctoral institutions working to better understand and support PhD careers across all broad fields of study. Universities collect data from current PhD students and alumni using surveys that were developed by CGS in consultation with senior university leaders, funding agencies, disciplinary societies, researchers, and PhD students and alumni. The resulting data allow universities to analyze PhD career preferences and outcomes at the program level and help faculty and university leaders strengthen career services, professional development opportunities, and mentoring. Additionally, participating universities are able to compare their data on PhD career preferences and outcomes with CGS’s national dataset.

This project is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (grant #31600612) and the National Science Foundation (grant #1661272).

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As a pediatric cancer survivor, Kelilah Wolkowicz knew she wanted to spend her life helping people. A recent PhD recipient in mechanical engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, Wolkowicz’s research focused on the co-creation of a robotic wheelchair as part of the Vehicles and Systems Group in Penn State’s College of Engineering.

The U.S. has approximately three million people who need wheelchairs to get around. Wolkowicz and other researchers were concerned with designing a robotic wheelchair that would meet the needs of those with a variety of mobility issues. “I’m hoping to improve the quality of life for them,” said Wolkowicz. “We don’t want a person to adapt to a wheelchair that exists; we want to create a wheelchair that adapts to the person.” The design includes sensors that utilize ultrasonic technology and can detect and avoid obstacles. In addition, the wheelchairs are outfitted with lasers that can map the surroundings and act as a GPS system, which could be especially helpful for patients with memory loss.

The robotic wheelchair prototype still needs work to minimize the requirements on the user, but Wolkowicz is confident the next team will make significant advances. Meanwhile she will be continuing her own work as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. “This is what I went to graduate school for,” Wolkowicz said. “I just really want to help people, especially in the medical field.” To learn more about Kelilah’s work visit the Penn State University website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Photo Credit: Erin Cassidy Hendrick/Penn State

Michael Mahoney, a recent graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Master of Product Innovation program, is the epitome of an entrepreneur. One of his program requirements was to write about his experience in the field. He heard about Clipster, an accelerator program based in Poland, and thought it might be a good fit. “I contacted Clipster and convinced them to create a position for me, and it worked!” Mahoney said. “Nobody ever told me I could make up my own job, but that's essentially what I did. I even made up my title, International Partnerships Specialist, and it stuck.”

Clipster is a co-living program that offers workshops and mentoring to help entrepreneurs accelerate the launch of a new business. The community atmosphere with 3-month long retreats provides participants the opportunity to be completely immersed in their projects. Mahoney manages outreach to develop strategic funding partners to facilitate recruitment, programming, networking, and seed-stage funding.

“My main goal is trying to make the program more focused, and cohesive,” Mahoney said. “I want to create a funnel of quality, pre-screened applicants who have already taken part in pre-accelerator programs or have an existing business they want to grow.” To learn more about Mike’s work visit the Virginia Commonwealth University website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Photo Credit: Virginia Commonwealth University

PRESS RELEASE

EMBARGOED UNTIL:   October 3, 2018, 12:01 a.m. EDT

Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg / (202) 461-3888 / khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC — Today the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) reported that growth in first-time graduate enrollment remains flat, according to its most recent data, while the number of graduate applications to U.S. universities has decreased. Between Fall 2016 and Fall 2017, first-time graduate enrollment dropped by -0.1% and the number of applications for admission to U.S. graduate schools decreased -1.8%. Although the overall number of applications for admission declined, several broad fields of study saw increases, including business (4.5%), public administration and services (1.9%), education (1.8%), and mathematics and computer sciences (1.7%). The data is part of the latest CGS/GRE Graduate Enrollment & Degrees: 2007-2017 report.

Decrease in International Enrollments

First-time graduate enrollment for U.S. citizens and permanent residents increased 1.1% between Fall 2016 and Fall 2017. In contrast, first-time graduate enrollment of international students decreased -3.7%, but the five-year (4.7%) and ten-year average annual increase (5.6%) rates remain strong. Universities with an R1 Carnegie Classification, or highest research doctoral institutions, saw no negative impacts, posting a 3.0% increase between Fall 2017 and Fall 2017.

“The decrease in application and flat first-time enrollment rates are not unexpected given the robust economy and job market. After years of steady growth, the slow down aligns with typical cycles in the economy,” said CGS President Suzanne Ortega. “What is worrisome, however, is the decline in the number of international students pursuing graduate education in the U.S. The 3.7% drop in first-time enrollment between Fall 2016 and Fall 2017 is the second consecutive decrease we’ve seen since 2003. While it is difficult to pinpoint what caused the decline, the current policy climate around U.S. visas and immigration may be a contributing factor.”

Enrollments Align with Fastest Growing Fields

Enrollment trends by broad field of study are consistent with last year. The largest one-year gains in first-time enrollment by broad field of study were in mathematics and computer sciences (3.8%) and business (3.7%) between Fall 2016 and Fall 2017. The largest five- and ten-year average (2012-2017) percent changes by broad field were in mathematics and computer sciences (12.8%, 12.1%) and the health sciences (4.0%, 6.9%). In contrast, the one-year change in first-time graduate enrollment in engineering was -3.8%, compared to -0.9% between Fall 2015-2016; engineering also posted the biggest application decline in the one-year period (-7.3%). These results are consistent with CGS’s International Graduate Applications and Enrollment: Fall 2017, indicating that the decline in engineering enrollment is largely driven by a decrease in international students.

“The continued growth in applications and first-time enrollment in the health sciences indicates graduate education is aligning with the increasing workforce demand for advanced degree holders,” said Ortega. “According to the most recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data on employment projections, many of the fastest growing fields are in mathematics and computer sciences and the health sciences, including physician assistants, occupational therapists, mental health and substance abuse social workers, mathematicians, and computer and information research scientists. These jobs all require at least a master’s degree for a typical entry-level position.”

Institutions responding to the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment & Degrees for Fall 2017 enrolled more than 1.8 million graduate students. Nearly three quarters (74.0%) of total graduate enrollment was in master’s programs. Over one million of those graduate students, or 57.9%, were women. Academic year 2016-17 marked the eighth consecutive year in which women earned the majority of degrees awarded. However, in many STEM fields, men still earned the majority of graduate degrees and certificates.

Other report findings are summarized below. 

Findings by Broad Field

• The three largest broad fields of study: business, education, and health sciences, were also the fields with the largest proportions of part-time graduate students.
• Graduate applications decreased in engineering (-7.3%), arts and humanities (-1.8%), physical and earth sciences (-0.6%), and biological and agricultural sciences (-0.4%) between Fall 2016 and Fall 2017.
• The largest one-year increases in graduate applications occurred in the broad fields of business (4.5%), public administration and services (1.9%), education (1.8%), and mathematics and computer sciences (1.7%).

Findings by Degree Level

• About 70% of the applications received for Fall 2017 were to master’s/other programs. The large majority of all first-time graduate students in Fall 2017 were enrolled in programs leading to a master’s degree or a graduate certificate (83.4%).
• The number of doctoral degrees awarded increased 1.7% and the number of master’s degrees awarded increased 4.6% between 2015-16 and 2016-17.
• The largest one-year percent increases in master’s degrees were in mathematics and computer sciences (13.6%), health sciences (4.7%), and “other fields” (4.7%).

Findings by Student Demographics

• In Fall 2017, approximately 23.9% of all first-time U.S. citizens and permanent resident enrollees were underrepresented minorities. American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latino first-time graduate students remain particularly underrepresented in STEM fields.
• In Fall 2017, the majority of first-time graduate students at all degree levels were women – 59.2% at the master’s degree and certificate level and 53.5% at the doctoral level.
• Among first-time graduate enrollment, 79.7% were U.S. citizens and permanent resident graduate students in the Fall of 2017 and about 20.3% were international.
• International students comprised the largest share of first-time graduate students in mathematics and computer sciences (56.3%), followed closely by engineering (52.9%).

About the report

Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2007 to 2017 presents the findings of an annual survey of U.S. graduate schools, co-sponsored by CGS and the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Board. It is the only annual national survey that collects data on graduate enrollment by all fields of study and is the only source of national data on graduate applications by broad field of study. The report includes responses from 619 institutions and presents statistics on graduate applications and enrollment for Fall 2017, degrees conferred in 2016-17, and trend data for one-, five- and ten-year periods.

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Media Kit

A recent study published in Current Biology and covered in the New York Times and on CNN, estimated that from 1999 to 2015 more than 100,000 Bornean orangutans were lost due to natural resource extraction. Didik Prasetyo, a co-author of the study and doctoral student in the Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolution at Rutgers University, is eager to learn more about the decline and find ways to conserve their habitats and populations.

Prasetyo’s general research interests focus on orangutan conservation and began when he mapped the genome of orangutans in a region of Borneo, Indonesia. He’s also studied their nesting behavior to better understand how they are structured to provide protection during the rainy season. His doctoral research, specifically, investigates the development of flanges in male orangutans. The flanges are enlarged, padded cheeks that frame the face and develop as orangutans mature and are associated with dominance. Some male flange development is slower than others, and Prasetyo wants to better understand why by studying the orangutans’ diet and hormone levels.

“Orangutans can adapt to different situations,” Prasetyo said. “When the forest changes from primary (old growth) to secondary (regenerated), they can adapt. Why not protect them in that forest and they can survive? We just need to make sure there’s no hunting.” To learn more about Didik’s work visit the Rutgers University website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Photo Credit: Erin R. Vogel/Rutgers University–New Brunswick

It’s been more than 550 years since the Great Plague, also known as the Black Death, resulted in the death of at least 100 million people in Eurasia and reduced the world’s population by roughly 20%. Even with all the biomedical advances and research, fundamental questions about one of the deadliest diseases remain unanswered. As a doctoral candidate at Colorado State University in biology, biosecurity and infectious diseases to be specific, David Markman hopes to provide some insight.

Markman’s research demonstrates the ability of the bacteria that causes plague, Yersinia pestis, to survive and multiply inside the single-celled amoeba commonly found in soil and water. Under normal circumstances, bacteria eaten by amoebae are destroyed. However, according to Markman, “there’s a growing catalog of bacteria that are found to be resistant to being digested by these amoebae.” The danger is the potential for these pathogens to be used as biological weapons. If Markman’s research proves the possibility, his next step will be research that focuses on how to stop it.

Markman has received numerous fellowships and scholarships, including from the U.S. Department of Defense. Once he completes his PhD, he hopes to work in bio-defense. “Combining science and business in an ethical and responsible way is something that really appeals to me,” Markman said. To learn more about David’s work visit the Colorado State University website, and read his paper “Yersinia pestis Survival and Replication in Potential Ameba Reservoir” for a deep dive into his research published in the CDC journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Photo Credit: Colorado State University

Madison Heslop, a doctoral student in history at the University of Washington, is on her way to Vancouver, British Columbia, for the academic year to research its history. As a 2018-2019 Fulbright Fellow, Heslop is interested in the connected histories of Vancouver and Seattle during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Located just 118 miles apart but in different countries, Vancouver and Seattle have some shared history.

For nine months, Heslop will be at the University of British Columbia working towards her dissertation project, which explores how the relationship between these two places developed. Specifically, she will examine these, “places where the various Pacifics of transpacific Asian migrants, Canadian and US officials, and a range of Indigenous peoples from the North American continent and Oceania bump up against one another.”

“I am thrilled by the opportunity a Fulbright Grant has offered me to develop an intimate familiarity with the lands and waters of Vancouver, both historical and contemporary, and to contribute to local communities there," Heslop said. To learn more about Madison’s work visit the University of Washington website or her personal website.

Visit the GradImpact Feature Gallery to learn more about the amazing, innovative research being done by graduate students and alumni across the world.

Photo Credit: University of Washington