The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Receives ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education

Today the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and ETS presented The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) with the 2020 ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: From Admission through Completion. Dr. Suzanne Barbour, dean of The Graduate School, accepted the co-sponsored award on UNC-Chapel Hill’s behalf during a post-meeting event of the virtual CGS 60th Annual Meeting.

Susan Porter Receives Debra W. Stewart Award for Outstanding Leadership in Graduate Education

The Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that Dr. Susan Porter, dean and vice-provost of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC), is the 2020 recipient of the Debra W. Stewart Award for Outstanding Leadership in Graduate Education. Dr. Porter received the honor at an awards ceremony held as a post-meeting event of the virtual CGS 60th Annual Meeting.

Jan Allen Wins Assistant and Associate Deans Leadership Award

The Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that Dr. Jan Allen, associate dean of academic and student affairs of the Graduate School at Cornell University, is the 2020 winner of the Assistant and Associate Deans Leadership Award. Allen received the honor at a ceremony held as a post-meeting event of the virtual CGS 60th Annual Meeting.

Maryl B. Gensheimer Receives 2020 Arlt Award in the Humanities

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has awarded the 2020 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities to Dr. Maryl B. Gensheimer, associate professor of Roman art and archaeology and director of undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. The awards ceremony was held as a post-meeting event of the virtual CGS 60th Annual Meeting.

Winners of 2020 CGS/ProQuest® Distinguished Dissertation Awards Announced

The Council of Graduate Schools / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards, the nation’s most prestigious honors for doctoral dissertations, were presented to Akhil Rao and Caroline Trippel during the Council’s award ceremony held as a post-meeting event of the virtual CGS 60th Annual Meeting. Dr. Rao received his PhD in economics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2019; Dr. Trippel completed her PhD in computer science/computer architecture from Princeton University in 2019.

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Contacts: Katherine Hazelrigg  (202) 461-3888 / khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu  and Gilia Smith, ProQuest (734) 707-2691 | gilia.smith@proquest.com

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards, the nation’s most prestigious honors for doctoral dissertations, were presented to Akhil Rao and Caroline Trippel during the Council’s award ceremony held as a post-meeting event of the virtual CGS 60th Annual Meeting. Dr. Rao received his PhD in economics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2019; Dr. Trippel completed her PhD in computer science/computer architecture from Princeton University in 2019.

Bestowed annually since 1982, the awards recognize recent doctoral recipients who have already made unusually significant and original contributions to their fields. ProQuest, an international leader in educational technology and content – including dissertation archiving, discovery, and access – sponsors the awards and an independent committee from the Council of Graduate Schools selects the winners. Two awards are given each year, rotating among four general areas of scholarship. The winners receive a certificate of recognition, a $2,000 honorarium, and a travel stipend to attend the awards ceremony.

“Over the past 39 years, the Distinguished Dissertation Award winners have consistently demonstrated the significant impact young scholars have in their disciplines and the broader graduate education community,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “The 2020 honorees, Dr. Rao and Dr. Trippel, continue this tradition through their innovative research and noteworthy contributions to their respective fields. Their work embodies the value and impact of graduate education to the world and merits recognition.”

“We are honored to sponsor and recognize these scholars, whose work in their fields will make contributions to future research in years to come,” said Angela D’Agostino, VP of Dissertations at ProQuest. “We celebrate their immense achievements and offer well wishes for their future successes. In support of their aspirations, we are pleased to include their research with ProQuest where it can be referenced and expanded upon by other researchers around the world.”

Dr. Rao received the 2020 Award in Social Sciences for his dissertation, The Economics of Orbit Use: Theory, Policy, and Measurement. Rao’s work investigates, “the nature of orbit-use externalities, classify existing policies, identify a category of optimal policies, consider the extent to which technological advances can mitigate orbital externalities, and calculate the time path of an optimal satellite tax and the gains from implementing it.” Dr. Rao is currently an assistant professor of economics at Middlebury College.

The 2020 Award in Mathematics, Physical Sciences, & Engineering was presented to Dr. Trippel for her dissertation, Concurrency and Security Verification in Heterogeneous Parallel Systems. Trippel’s work, “combines hardware systems architecture approaches with formal methods techniques to support the specification, analysis, and verification of implementation-aware event ordering scenarios. The specific goal here is enabling automatic synthesis of implementation-aware programs capable of violating correctness or security guarantees when such programs exist.” Dr. Trippel is currently an assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford University.

This year several outstanding scholars received honorable mentions: Anna Grummon (nominated by the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill) and Cristina Gauthier Hernández (nominated by Michigan State University) for the Award in Social Sciences; and Daniel Gilman (nominated by the University of California, Los Angeles) and Kaveh Matinkhoo (nominated by the University of British Columbia) for the Award in Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering.

More information about the CGS / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award is available at www.proquest.com/go/scholars or at www.cgsnet.org.

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Contacts: Katherine Hazelrigg  (202) 461-3888 / khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu  and Alescia Dingle, ETS (609) 851-4913 | adingle@ets.org

Washington, DC – Today the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and ETS presented The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) with the 2020 ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: From Admission through Completion. Dr. Suzanne Barbour, dean of The Graduate School, accepted the co-sponsored award on UNC-Chapel Hill’s behalf during a post-meeting event of the virtual CGS 60th Annual Meeting.

The ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education recognizes promising, innovative proposals to enhance student success and degree completion at the master’s and doctoral levels while promoting inclusiveness. The winning institution is selected on the strength of its proposal to meet the award’s goals and to serve as a model for other schools. The winner receives a two-year, $20,000 matching grant.

This year’s winner, The Graduate School of UNC-Chapel Hill, will build on the work of its Diversity and Student Success (DSS) team which strives to create an environment where students are equipped to not only survive but to thrive during their tenure as graduate students. The current racial unrest, the Black Lives Matter movement, and COVID-19 have elevated the importance of DSS’s work. DSS/The Graduate School will pilot the development of intersecting learning communities for both graduate students and faculty/departments to continue building upon innovative diversity and equity efforts, to address various components of systemic racism, and to create an inclusive and welcoming climate for all graduate students.

The intersectional learning communities will build upon the existing DSS work, which includes five diversity initiatives and one recruitment initiative. Through the Carolina Grad Student F1RSTS, Global Grads, Initiative for Minority Excellence, Military-Affiliated Grads, and Queer Graduate and Professional Students efforts, DSS recognizes the intersectionality of identity and encourages students to join as many of the initiatives as appropriate. The Summer Undergraduate Pipeline (SUP) program, a DSS recruitment initiative, works directly with summer undergraduate research programs to create connections and provide the necessary tools for a successful transition into a graduate career.

“We are very grateful for the honor of this support, which will help us to realize our goal of ensuring that every UNC-Chapel Hill graduate student has a positive and productive experience during graduate school,” said Dr. Barbour. “Our project builds on the success of DSS in two crucial ways, by both better preparing graduate students to thrive in the cultures that they find in their departments and by providing departments with tools to assess and further strengthen their climates to better serve all graduate students.”

“Ensuring graduate students from traditionally underrepresented groups succeed is crucial to our future. I cannot emphasize enough that this is a top priority for CGS, and the work UNC-Chapel Hill is doing through its DSS project and under the leadership of Dr. Barbour prioritizes student success by placing the critical need for an inclusive environment at the center of graduate education,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “We are so grateful to ETS for their support in recognizing this innovative way to promote best practices among graduate schools.”

“We are proud to recognize the outstanding innovation in diversity by UNC-Chapel Hill with the 2020 ETS/CGC Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: from Admission through Completion,” said Dr. David Payne, vice president and chief operating officer of global higher education at ETS. “The efforts by the DSS team at UNC-Chapel Hill are a shining example of advancing equity by fostering a more inclusive school community to ensure that all graduate students are welcome, supported and have an opportunity to succeed.”

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

Washington, DC – The Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that Dr. Susan Porter, dean and vice-provost of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC), is the 2020 recipient of the Debra W. Stewart Award for Outstanding Leadership in Graduate Education. Dr. Porter received the honor at an awards ceremony held as a post-meeting event of the virtual CGS 60th Annual Meeting.

A passionate advocate for graduate education, Dr. Porter becomes the fifth Debra W. Stewart Award recipient for her invaluable contributions to the University of British Columbia and the international graduate education community. Dr. Porter has been integral to the work on “reimagining the PhD” at UBC and across the globe, including as a co-lead of a Canadian task force on the future of doctoral research and the dissertation. She created the UBC Public Scholars Initiative to support doctoral students across all disciplines by reconceiving concepts of scholarship to include collaborative, action-oriented research intended to make lasting contributions to the public good.

As dean, Dr. Porter led initiatives that supported scholarly approaches to mentorship development and assessment, and oversaw the creation of innovative and widely used online tools for recruitment and faculty networking. Under her leadership, UBC became the first university in Canada to make individual graduate programs’ data on student completion times and rates, on application and enrollment figures, and on doctoral career outcomes readily available to the public.

Dr. Porter has also been involved in many CGS projects, including Supporting the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Graduate Students and the Global Postgraduate Diversity Resource. She has served as president of the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies and is currently on the Graduate Record Exam Board of Directors. In addition, she was an expert panel member for the Council of Canadian Academies Report on Labour Market Transition of PhD Graduates, commissioned by the Canadian government.

“Susan is widely recognized on our campus for her ethical thought leadership, her sincere commitment to outstanding, transformative education, and her indefatigable championing of broadened conceptions of graduate education to better address the needs of the 21st century,” said Santa J. Ono, president and vice-chancellor, University of British Columbia. Recognizing her many achievements and her exceptional leadership in advancing graduate education is a wonderful message to all who, like us, share her passion for creating a better university and scholars ready to contribute fully to the complex world in which we live.”

“Dr. Porter’s innovative approaches and solutions to notions of transparency and scholarship and her unwavering commitment to supporting graduate students are just a few of the reasons the CGS Board of Directors is pleased to recognize her leadership and service to the graduate education community,” said Dr. Andrew G. Campbell, dean of the Graduate School at Brown University and chair of the Council’s Board of Directors. “Susan’s creative and strategic thinking make her an outstanding leader, and deserving of this award”.

The award, created in 2016 by the CGS Board of Directors, recognizes outstanding leadership in graduate education, particularly those leadership qualities exemplified by the Council’s fifth President, Debra W. Stewart. The selection committee considers nominees with a strong reputation for ethics and integrity, a history of active participation in the graduate community, and a record of strategic vision and actions resulting in meaningful impacts. Areas of special consideration include evidence-based innovation, program development, diversity and inclusion, student learning and career outcomes, personnel management, policy advocacy in support of graduate education and research, and fiscal responsibility.

Nominees for the award must be a current senior, graduate dean at a CGS member institution (Regular or Associate) and cannot be an active member of the CGS Board of Directors. Nominations are made by member institutions and are reviewed by a selection committee of former graduate deans in the CGS community. The winner receives a $4,000 prize to support continuing innovations at the awardee’s institution.

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

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has awarded the 2020 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities to Dr. Maryl B. Gensheimer, associate professor of Roman art and archaeology and director of undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. The awards ceremony was held as a post-meeting event of the virtual CGS 60th Annual Meeting.

Bestowed annually, the Arlt Award recognizes a young scholar-teacher who has written a book deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to scholarship in the humanities. Dr. Gensheimer becomes the award’s 50^th recipient for her book, Decoration and Display in Rome’s Imperial Thermae: Messages of Power and their Popular Reception at the Baths of Caracalla (Oxford UP, 2018). She received her PhD in Classical art and archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University in 2013.

In Decoration and Display in Rome’s Imperial Thermae, Gensheimer analyzes the decoration of the Baths of Caracalla (inaugurated 216 CE) and elucidates its critical role in advancing Roman imperial agendas. As Gensheimer notes, “This reassessment of one of the most sophisticated examples of architectural patronage in Classical antiquity examines the specific mechanisms through which an imperial patron could use architectural decoration to emphasize his sociopolitical position relative to the thousands of people who enjoyed his benefaction.”

“Elevating the exceptional work of early-career humanities faculty has never been more important, and Dr. Gensheimer’s brilliant work contextualizes the cultural significance of the two-thousand-year-old ancient Roman Baths of Caracalla and the role art and architecture plays in advancing the politics of imperialism. We are honored to present her with this year’s prestigious Arlt Award,” said Dr. Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools.

Created in 1971, the Arlt Award honors the first president of CGS, Gustave O. Arlt. The winner must have earned a doctorate within the past seven years, and currently be teaching at a North American university. Nominations are made by CGS member institutions and are reviewed by a panel of scholars in the field of competition, which rotates annually among seven disciplines within the humanities. This year’s field was The Arts (Art History/Criticism/Conservation and Music). The winner receives a $1,000 honorarium and travel to the awards ceremony.

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

Washington, DC – The Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that Dr. Jan Allen, associate dean of academic and student affairs of the Graduate School at Cornell University, is the 2020 winner of the Assistant and Associate Deans Leadership Award. Allen received the honor at a ceremony held as a post-meeting event of the virtual CGS 60th Annual Meeting.

The award was created by the CGS Board of Directors to recognize individuals who have shown exemplary commitment to graduate education by demonstrating creativity and innovation in response to institutional challenges and/or limited budgets or resources; building partnerships both internal and external to the graduate school; identifying and obtaining resources, both internal and external to the graduate school; effectively advocating on behalf of graduate education; fostering inclusiveness in the graduate community; and engaging student voices (including diverse voices).

Dr. Allen becomes the award’s second recipient for her valuable contributions to the Cornell University graduate community. Her many accomplishments include designing and implementing high-impact writing, professional development, and mentorship programs with little-to-no additional funding; partnering with Cornell’s teaching center, writing center, and research office to deliver high-quality graduate student programs; and chairing Cornell’s task force on supporting international graduate students, leading to the creation of the English Language Support Office staffed by three instructors and 15 peer tutors. Allen has served as president and an executive committee member of the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools, where she is currently a senior advisor. In addition, she has presented at dozens of seminars and workshops on graduate professional development and leadership and work/family issues.

“Jan is known throughout the graduate education community, nationally and internationally, for sharing her professional expertise widely to help graduate students recognize and overcome common hurdles to writing and to implement best practices for writing productively,” said Dr. Kathryn Boor, dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education at Cornell University. “Her innovative writing programs, dedication to mentoring for professional development, and generosity of spirit are just a few reasons why Jan is so deserving of this award.”

“Dr. Allen’s 23 years of service as an assistant/associate dean across four institutions of higher education is a testament to her exemplary dedication to graduate education. The committee was particularly impressed with her conflict resolution work and her tireless commitment to collaboration whenever possible. She promotes respect for students by helping them learn to engage professionally in challenging situations, using skills to advocate for themselves and with their faculty advisors,” said Dr. Thomas Jeitschko, selection committee chair, and dean of the Graduate School and associate provost for graduate education at Michigan State University.

Nominees for the award must be a current assistant or associate-level dean at a CGS member institution (Regular or Associate) with primary administrative responsibility in graduate education. Assistant or associate deans whose graduate deans currently serve on the CGS Board are not eligible to be nominated for the award during the dean’s active years of board service. Nominations are made by CGS member institutions and are reviewed by a committee selected by the CGS Board of Directors. The winner receives a $1,500 honorarium and is invited to plan and participate in a session at the CGS Summer Workshop on a topic of their choosing.

CGS gratefully acknowledges Liaison’s financial support of the Assistant and Associate Deans Leadership Award.  Liaison, a higher education enrollment marketing and admissions management company, is a CGS Sustaining Member.

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

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) Board of Directors has announced its officers for the 2021 term. CGS is governed by an 11-member Board of Directors drawn from member institutions. Board members serve set terms.

Dr. Andrew G. Campbell, dean of the Graduate School at Brown University, was announced as the 2021 Board Chair at the conclusion of the 2020 CGS 60^th Anniversary Annual Meeting. Appointed to his role in 2016, Campbell is also professor of medical science in the Division of Biology & Medicine at Brown. He has taught and advised Brown undergraduate and graduate students since his faculty appointment began in 1994. He has received numerous honors, including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, American Foundations for AIDS Research Investigator Award, and Brown’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Faculty Governance. He is also a 2020-elected AAAS Fellow. Campbell is PI and Co-PI for two National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants and leads the NIH-funded Initiative to Maximize Student Development in Brown’s Division of Biology and Medicine, a program to improve recruiting and performance of URM students in doctoral programs.

“Dr. Campbell’s expertise in graduate education and commitment to improved recruiting and performance of underrepresented minority graduate students will be vital as he leads the Council into the next decade. He has provided outstanding leadership during his tenure at Brown University and will help advance CGS’ mission to address the needs of our member institutions, particularly as we continue to navigate these unprecedented times,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega.

The new Chair-elect, Dr. Julie Coonrod serves as the dean of graduate studies at the University of New Mexico. Since Dr. Coonrod became dean in 2013, she has streamlined processes to improve graduate student tracking and completion and expanded funding opportunities. As a professor in Civil, Construction, & Environmental Engineering; she has continued to teach a graduate-level course that emphasizes the modeling capabilities of geographic information systems to students seeking a variety of graduate degrees. Dean Coonrod is the past president of the Western Association of Graduate Schools (2019-2020).

The Council welcomes five new board members, whose terms will begin on January 1, 2021. Beginning one-year terms are Dr. Jeni Hart, dean and vice provost for graduate studies at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and Dr. James Marshall, dean of the division of graduate studies at California State University Fresno. Beginning three-year terms are Dr. April Boulton, dean of The Graduate School at Hood College; Dr. Michael Cunningham, associate vice provost for graduate studies and research at Tulane University; and Dr. Sheryl Tucker, vice provost and dean of the Graduate College at Oklahoma State University.

This year’s outgoing Chair of the Board is Dr. Sally Pratt, former vice provost, graduate programs at the University of Southern California. “We are so fortunate to have had Dr. Pratt’s leadership as CGS Board Chair the past year,” Ortega said. “She has contributed significantly to the success of graduate students at USC and to graduate education more broadly in her efforts to prioritize graduate student mental health and wellbeing.”

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PRESS RELEASE

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

Washington, DC – Today, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) recognized Representative Annie Kuster (NH-02) and Representative Rodney Davis (IL-13) with their inaugural Congressional Champion Award during CGS’s 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting, held virtually December 2-4. Granted to two bipartisan members of Congress, the award acknowledges the remarkable contributions each has made toward advancing graduate education in the federal arena. “We are extremely grateful for Congressman Davis’ and Congresswoman Kuster’s ongoing support for graduate students,” said Suzanne T. Ortega, CGS president. “Each demonstrates a commitment to increasing access to graduate education, which benefits individuals from communities across the country and ensures we have a workforce armed with the knowledge and skills to ignite innovation and find solutions to today’s challenges.”

Representative Kuster led the introduction of the Expanding Access to Graduate Education Act (H.R. 3334), which would provide former Pell Grant recipients the opportunity to apply remaining semesters of Pell Grant support not exhausted during their undergraduate education towards their first post-baccalaureate degree. True to the spirit of the Pell Grant program, this legislation would help ensure that qualified, low-income students would have a better chance of pursuing graduate education. We applaud Representative Kuster who worked to introduce the bill alongside her colleagues from both sides of the aisle.

“In order to succeed in the 21st century, the United States needs a highly-educated and skilled workforce,” said Congresswoman Annie Kuster. “The Expanding Access to Graduate Education Act will open the doors of graduate education to more Americans and provide opportunities for them to get ahead. I will continue my efforts to ensure every American can access the education and job training and they need to thrive in the 21st century economy. I’m honored to receive this award alongside my colleague, Congressman Rodney Davis, and look forward to collaborating with him on this important issue moving forward.”

Representative Davis has fought tirelessly to preserve and expand certain tax provisions so that individuals and employers can utilize them toward academic pursuits. He has introduced and is an original cosponsor of several bills that support this endeavor, including championing legislation that would expand employer-provided educational assistance to include payments of qualified education loans. Additionally, Congressman Davis has lent his support to international students and the Optional Practical Training program, elevating their contributions to the U.S. at a time when the pandemic has created challenges for international graduate student recruitment and retention.

“I’m proud to represent the campuses of 8 universities and colleges and 5 community colleges in Congress,” said Representative Rodney Davis. “Graduate education and students help our communities grow culturally and economically and are vital to our nation’s success. In this Congress, we’ve supported international students bringing their talents to America and enacted innovative programs to make college more affordable and reduce student debt, but we have more work to do. I’m honored to receive this award from the Council of Graduate Schools because supporting higher education has always been a top priority of mine since coming to Congress. I’d like to thank the Council for all of their great work, and I look forward to continuing our bipartisan collaboration to support graduate education and students across the country.”

CGS, and its membership of nearly 500 institutions of higher education across the United States and Canada, thank Representatives Kuster and Davis for their advocacy and look forward to working with them and their staff in the 117th Congress.

PRESS RELEASE

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

Graduate Applications Flat, First-time Enrollment on the Rise Overall
 

Washington, DC — Graduate degree holders representing diverse backgrounds will play a key role in driving innovation and discovery in the U.S. workforce, and new data from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) on graduate enrollments and degrees provide a revealing snapshot of the country's progress in meeting these demands. According to a CGS report released today, graduate applications were flat (-0.6%) and first-time graduate enrollment (2.5%) increased overall for the Fall 2019 semester. While graduate schools reported  overall increases in the first-time enrollment of minority students between Fall 2018 and Fall 2019 (Latinx +5.7%, Black/African American +5.5%, Asian +5.3%, and American Indian/Alaska Native +3.5%), students from these demographic groups remain substantially underrepresented as percentage shares of the graduate student population, particularly in STEM fields. These data are part of the latest CGS/GRE Graduate Enrollment & Degrees: 2009-2019 report.

“The growth in first-time enrollment rates for a second year, along with the continued increases in first-time enrollment among Latinx, Black/African Americans, Asians/Pacific Islanders, and American Indian/Alaska Natives graduate students are encouraging,” said CGS President Suzanne Ortega. “But we still have so much work to do. I’m particularly concerned about the disproportionate economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on underrepresented minorities (URM). The modest gains the U.S. has seen over the past ten years in URM and first-generation graduate student enrollment and degree completion are in real jeopardy.”

In an effort to examine the obstacles URM students have faced in their matriculation, persistence, and completion of STEM graduate programs in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, CGS, the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) and the Council of Historically Black Graduate Schools (CHBGS) are collaborating on an NSF-funded RAPID Investigating Challenges to Matriculation and Completion for Underrepresented STEM Graduate Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic. According to Ortega, “The pandemic has introduced a new set of challenges that we need to understand and be prepared to address quickly, but there are a number of things we already know we could be doing better, including recruiting and retaining a more diverse faculty, fostering a more inclusive learning environment, and addressing the financial barriers to degree completion.”

First-time Enrollment in Engineering Rebounds, Continued Growth in Health Sciences and Mathematical and Computer Sciences

After declining in the previous four years, first-time enrollment in Engineering increased 4.8% at the doctoral level and 5.1% at the master’s level between Fall 2018 and Fall 2019. The overall growth in first-time enrollment of international students (3.8%) contributed to rebound in engineering fields, which reported a 3.3% increase in international students. Other trends by broad field of study are generally consistent with the last few years. In addition to the broad field of Engineering, the largest one-year gains in first-time enrollment by broad field of study were in Mathematics and Computer Sciences (5.7%), Health Sciences (3.5%), and Other Fields (6.9%). In contrast, first-time graduate enrollment in Education over the same period flattened (+0.4%) after previous years of growth.

Institutions responding to the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment & Degrees for Fall 2019 enrolled more than 1.8 million graduate students. Nearly three quarters (73.5%) of total graduate enrollment was in master’s programs. Over one million of those graduate students, or 58.5%, were women. The three largest broad fields of study (education, business, and health sciences) were also the fields with the largest proportions of part-time graduate students (Ed: 63.7%; Bus: 51.7%; HSci: 41.2%).

About the report

Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2009 to 2019 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 561 institutions and presents statistics on graduate applications and enrollment for Fall 2019, degrees conferred in 2018-19, and trend data for one-, five- and ten-year periods.

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