The Council of Graduate Schools recently released a new report on enrollments and degree attainments in master’s and doctoral degree programs at U.S. universities. Among the first-time graduate students in 2014, Blacks were 8.8 percent of all students. Among the Black first-time graduate students, women were 69.1 percent of the new students. For students of all races, women were 56.9 percent of all new first-time graduate students. So the gender gap in new graduate students is far greater among African Americans than is the case generally.

International students continue to fuel enrolment growth at US graduate schools with international students accounted for more than two-thirds of the growth in first-time enrolment headcounts at US graduate institutions from 2004 to 2014 according to CGS’s Graduate and Enrollment Degree report. An analysis of applications by foreign students to specific academic programs found that nearly two-thirds were for admission to masters and certificate programs, challenging a long-held assumption that most are pursuing doctoral degrees.

International students drove enrollment up at graduate schools across the country last fall, delivering the largest one-year increase in first-time graduate enrollment since 2009. The 3.5 percent increase in new graduate students was bolstered by high enrollment in mathematics, computer science, and engineering, all of which experienced double-digit growth with an influx of students from overseas. “The increase in overall enrollments is good news, but the disparity between U.S. and international growth is a cause for concern,” said CGS President, Suzanne Ortega.

First-time graduate school enrollment was up 3.5 percent in 2014 from the year before, the biggest annual increase since 2009. The increase is a combination of “very robust” growth among international students -- up 11.2 percent year over year -- as well as a significant, 1.3 percent jump in enrollment among U.S. citizens said to CGS’s Jeff Allum. According to the survey, last year set records in terms of applications, offers of admission, and total first-time enrollment.  

In an interview with CCTV, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) highlighted key findings of the 2015 CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey, Preliminary Applications. According to the report, applications to U.S. graduate programs from prospective students from China were down 2% this year. Nevertheless, China remains the largest sending country to U.S. graduate schools: one in three international graduate students studying in the U.S. are Chinese. 

Foreign students' applications to American graduate schools climbed by 2% this year, driven in part by continued growth in applications from India, according to survey results released today by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS). Although the overall increase of 2% represents a slower rate of growth compared to the 10% gain recorded last year, CGS's Jeff Allum said this may not be a cause for concern. “We saw two percent growth two years ago, and then we learned that did not impact the overall growth in the offers of admission and first-time enrollment,” Allum said. The application numbers included in today's report are preliminary, and the council will release survey data on final application numbers, offers of admission and new international enrollments later this year.

Applications from prospective international students to US postgraduate programs increased for the 10th-consecutive year, led by double-digit growth in India, according to the Council of Graduate Schools' (CGS) 2015 International Graduate Admissions Survey: Preliminary Applications. Growth in international applications for the fall 2015 term was 2% higher than the year-ago period. However, the rate of increase has slowed by eight percentage points compared with last year.

Francis M. Leslie, graduate dean at CGS-member University of California at Irvine, shares perspective on the disparities in graduate degree attainment in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields and why successful completion of underrepresented minority students in PhD programs must be a high priority for graduate institutions. 

Even as the number of U.S. workers who use science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) as part of their jobs has been steadily increasing, much more needs to be done in order to keep up with employer demands and to gain better participation of under-represented groups in STEM-related jobs. CGS's Julia Kent joined a panel of experts at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to discuss the financial barriers to attaining graduate degrees and the need for better career outcomes data on STEM graduates.

CGS's Doctoral Initiative on Minority Attrition and Completion (DIMAC) project is highlighted in Science Careers, which noted that the findings are "crammed with interesting and revealing facts about how black/African American students and Hispanic/Latino students fare in doctoral programs in engineering, life sciences (including health sciences), physical and mathematical sciences, and social and behavioral sciences."