With new international student enrollment down overall, particularly for master’s degree and certificate programs at graduate schools, some fear that the prospect of less global diversity on college campuses in the U.S. could have far-reaching implications.

“These incidents,” said Okahana, “as isolated as they may be, are troubling and have created chilling effects.”

In an effort to learn about best practices for developing high-impact financial education programs, TIAA embarked on a three-year collaboration with the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and more than 30 leading universities. While the participating institutions developed a range of innovative approaches, some common suggestions emerged for financial education programs aimed at this demographic.

Leaders with the Council of Graduate Schools, a membership organization representing more than 500 institutions in the United States and Canada, said their member schools have been reporting similar frustrations.

"Anecdotally, we're hearing that students are experiencing either rejections or delays with their visa processing," said Lauren Inouye, the group's vice president of public policy and government affairs.

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), an association of universities that grant master's and doctoral degrees, and The Jed Foundation (JED), a non-profit that exists to protect emotional health and prevent suicide for our nation's teens and young adults, today announced a new initiative to support the mental health and wellness of master's and doctoral students. The 22-month project will create a foundation for evidence-based policies and resources to support graduate student mental health and well-being, prevent psychological distress, and address barriers to effective support and care. CGS and JED will give particular attention to the experiences of underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities pursuing graduate education.

At a time when the numbers of students from backgrounds like these are growing more quickly than the number who are white and whose parents went to college, this has implications for graduate school enrollment and employers who need workers with graduate educations.

Theirs is “a rapidly increasing segment of the population that will be needed to sustain the economy, and they need to have the knowledge and skills” to do that, said JoAnn Canales, dean in residence at the Council of Graduate Schools.

The Council of Graduate Schools and the Jed Foundation for youth emotional health and suicide prevention will partner to study and promote graduate student well-being, they said Tuesday. A report is due out by late 2020. The experiences of underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities will be a priority. A grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation will support a focus on students in the sciences, technology, engineering and math. A grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation will support work on students in the humanities.

“Our overarching goal is to create a road map for our graduate deans and community to create services and a more supportive environment for all graduate students,” said Dr. Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools, “Because so very little is known about services that are already in place and policies that promote wellness.”

We still know surprisingly little about Ph.D. career pathways. So the Council of Graduate Schools’ data-collection effort on Ph.D. outcomes continues to yield valuable information. This time, the information is about recent jobs changes among Ph.D.s.

In terms of concerns about overborrowing, a cap already exists on Grad PLUS amounts, noted Dr. Suzanne T. Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools.

She shared the view that any changes that would effectively push students toward private lending would disproportionately impact underrepresented students, especially Black students, who are more likely to borrow to finance their education at all levels and have more difficulty obtaining loans and credit of any type.

Chemistry and chemical engineering graduate school enrollment was up on average from 2007 to 2017, according to data from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS).