A new report from the Council of Graduate Schools shows that the number of students from overseas enrolling in American graduate programs in the fall of 2016 grew by 5 percent, the same rate as in the previous year.

More international students continue to apply to and enroll in U.S. graduate institutions, though not at the rapid pace seen in recent years, according to a report released Thursday by the Council of Graduate Schools.

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CONTACT: Julia Kent 

202.461.3874 / jkent@cgs.nche.edu

"At a time when our fastest growing occupations and knowledge-based economy requires more, not fewer, individuals with advanced degrees, the President’s budget overlooks the importance of education as a critical component of America’s competitiveness in a global market. Master’s and doctoral education is the backbone of America’s national security and economic strength: graduate degree holders develop the knowledge and innovations that make America a leader in healthcare, technology, and defense. The President’s budget continues the trend of the past several years by proposing policies that make graduate education less affordable. The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) supports efforts to strengthen and grow America’s economic future, but not at the expense of our master’s and doctoral students. CGS calls upon Congress’ to put forward a budget that makes a strong commitment to education, and does not create barriers for students who seek master’s and doctoral degrees."

"Further, CGS is concerned that the cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation will lead to a serious decline in scientific, technological, and medical breakthroughs. These breakthroughs have strengthened our national defense, economic prosperity, personal wellbeing, and health. They are applied commercially, create jobs, and help businesses grow. Disinvesting in our nation’s science and research enterprise today jeopardizes our ability to attract domestic and international talent to meet the increasing demand for a STEM-educated workforce."

In a previous statement CGS expressed its objections to the proposed elimination of the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities.

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Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg (202) 461.3888/ khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Project will Join Humanities Initiative, Expanding Project to All Broad Fields of Study

Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has been awarded a major grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF #1661272) to help universities collect data on the career pathways of PhDs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Through a competitive sub-award process, CGS will select doctoral institutions to implement surveys of STEM PhD students and alumni, gathering information about their professional aspirations, career pathways, and career preparation. The project complements a parallel endeavor to collect and analyze data on humanities PhDs through a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The project builds upon two earlier phases of CGS research: a feasibility study supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and a survey development phase supported by the Mellon, Sloan, and National Science Foundations (NSF #1534620). In the most recent phase, CGS developed two surveys—one for current PhD students and one for PhD alumni— by gathering input from senior university leaders, research funders, disciplinary societies, researchers, PhD students, and alumni.

The two surveys address important workforce questions not currently answered by existing national data-collection efforts. For example, the surveys will help faculty and university leaders understand whether participation in professional development activities is associated with certain career preferences and career pathways. Because universities will be collecting their own data, the project will ultimately allow them to conduct program-level analyses of data with the intention of improving programs.

CGS President Suzanne Ortega believes the project will assist universities in assessing their students’ career outcomes and enhancing graduate training for the next generation STEM workforce. “As we work to improve the career preparation of our students, we need to understand how the professional development experiences of PhDs align with the demands of the 21^st century workforce. This project promises to provide universities with this critical information.”

CGS has issued a Request-For-Proposals (RFP) to CGS member institutions to participate in the project as funded partners. The RFP is accompanied by the survey instruments and an Implementation Guide that offers guidance on incorporating the survey administration into existing university processes. To support broad institutional adoption of the instruments, universities that are eligible to apply for both humanities and STEM funding are encouraged to submit a combined proposal.

The initiative complements other CGS endeavors to support career diversity for PhDs, such as a recently-completed project to understand the professional development needs of graduate students in STEM fields. Through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), CGS has also established the Next Generation Humanities PhD Consortium, a collaborative learning community for the 28 NEH Next Generation PhD grant awardees. 

Released this week, the Trump Administration’s FY2018 budget, “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” calls for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). As one of the organizations that recommended the founding of NEH, we affirm our belief that humanistic study and professional activities are in the national interest and merit continued federal funding support.

The current administration has argued that cuts must be made to rebuild and prepare our military for the future. Yet one of our military’s greatest assets is knowledge of the history, languages and cultures of the countries and regions where we are engaged. Indeed, the humanities have played a critical role in the United States’ efforts to protect our country since September 11, preparing our servicemen and women to better navigate the complex religious and cultural landscapes where they are deployed; enabling our diplomats to build alliances with key partners; and empowering our intelligence officers to brief our leaders on military strategy.

The NEH strengthens our nation’s preparedness and commitment to its soldiers through programs such as Teaching the Middle East, which provides resources for K-12 teachers to introduce their students to the history, cultures, and languages of the Middle East, and Our Warrior Chorus, which trains Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans to connect with the civilian public through “modern stories anchored by the shared experience of classical works.” 

The humanities and the arts also serve the national interest by helping us to explore what is common to all human experience—to seek peace, and to resolve conflicts that drain human and material resources both at home and abroad. Created Equal, a film series about the struggle for African American equality in the United States, is one notable example among many in NEH’s history.

NEH grants have benefited every state, region, and territory of the United States, and its programs serving rural areas have stimulated growth and preserved important history that may otherwise have been lost. For example, NEH supports Appalshop, a cultural center, which “celebrate[s] the culture, voice and concerns of people living in Appalachia and rural America.”  NEH’s digital initiatives bring important and rare texts into the hands of students, researchers, and interested readers across the country, including one preserving and digitizing the papers of President George Washington. Regional cultural museums supported by NEA not only enrich our understanding of American culture, but contribute to local economies by attracting tourism.

A skeptic might reply: Americans can still benefit from the humanities and arts without federal support. But philanthropic organizations do not have as their mission to support the national interest. If our goal is to protect this interest and preserve our history, we must continue to preserve the NEH and NEA, two of America’s great and historic institutions.

Suzanne T. Ortega                          
President                                                                           
Council of Graduate Schools                                       

Contact:

Julia Kent, jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Other Statements of Support:

Earl Lewis, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Pauline Yu, American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CONTACT: Julia Kent 

202.461.3874 / jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Following is a statement by Council of Graduate Schools President Suzanne Ortega.

"In response to the March 6^th Executive Order on Immigration, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) continues to affirm that our nation’s security is paramount and a strong visa process contributes to our safety. However, as an organization of approximately 500 universities, we also believe that the modified ban is still likely to have unintended consequences on U.S. graduate students and their institutions.  Although this revision reduces the scope of the January 27^th order, international graduate students and scholars, regardless of country of origin, may continue to view the uncertainty regarding visa policies as a deterrent to pursuing graduate studies in the United States."

"The strength of our nation’s graduate education depends upon both domestic and international talent. International faculty and students are vitally important to U.S. graduate education and research. They are essential contributors to our economy and research enterprise. International students (both graduate and undergraduate) contributed nearly $36 billion to the U.S. economy in 2014-15 (IIE, 2016). Domestic students benefit from the experience of training alongside international students, gaining the cultural competence needed to be competitive in a global economy. American graduate education represents the gold standard of higher education around the world, and we are committed to seeing it remain open to the best and brightest domestic and international talent."

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Contact: Julia Kent  (202) 461-3874 / jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Employers, Graduate Schools Aim to Narrow Gap between Workforce Needs and Graduate Training

Washington, DC — Graduate schools and programs play a key role in preparing students for the knowledge workforce, but more work needs to be done, according to a new report by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS). Currently, the preparation of US graduate students is too narrowly focused on academic research skills, at the expense of professional skills such as communication, teamwork, mentoring, and leadership.

Most STEM PhDs and master’s degree recipients work in careers outside the academy. To improve graduate student preparation for multiple career pathways, CGS conducted a two-year project to map the landscape of STEM professional development programs with support from the National Science Foundation (#1413827). Project activities included a survey of over 900 university deans, STEM faculty, and professional development staff at 226 institutions; interviews with employers from across the STEM workforce; and a workshop of industry leaders, federal science agencies, entrepreneurs, graduate deans, researchers, and recent PhDs and postdocs.

“The good news coming out of this project is that graduate institutions are devoting considerable time and resources to broadening the professional preparation of students in STEM graduate programs,” said CGS President Suzanne Ortega. “But to ensure that students succeed, we will need to make it easier for them to access high-quality resources. Our ultimate goals should be supporting student success in a range of career paths, and promoting the health and competitiveness of the STEM workforce.”

Sharing a perspective held by many employers, Brian Fitzgerald, CEO of the Business-Higher Education Forum, said that innovation increasingly relies on a workforce that possesses cross-cutting skills, preferably those in technology. “Many employers seek to collaborate with universities to address the STEM skill demand. Businesses benefit from these partnerships because they get critically needed talent, and universities benefit because their students graduate with job-ready skills.”

Key Project Findings

1. Employers outside the academy seek broad “transferable skills” as well as specific scientific skills in graduates with advanced STEM degrees. Skills most frequently mentioned by employers as lacking include data science and big data skills; science policy; governance, risk, and compliance; and time-, project-, and budget management. Currently only about one in 10 programs addresses these needs.


2. Approximately six out of 10 universities reported offering structured professional development programs to help STEM graduate students develop skills beyond academic research. While programs vary in content, the most common emphasis is on preparation for academic careers and on transferable skills such as written and oral communication and interdisciplinary and intercultural teamwork.


3. Low student participation in professional development programs is a common challenge for most universities. Two factors that can prevent students from obtaining valuable skills needed for career success after graduation are student concern that faculty do not value broad professional development and careers outside academia, and federal funding structures that do not give incentives for broad professional preparation for STEM graduate students.


4. Graduate schools play a key leadership role in shaping, supporting, promoting, and sustaining professional development for graduate students who will pursue a broad array of advanced STEM and non-STEM careers. Most graduate schools do so in collaboration with staff and/or STEM faculty, combining centralized and program- or department-based activities.

Report Recommendations

The report includes recommendations for improving professional development of STEM graduate students in research degree programs. These include:

1. Improving coordination among graduate schools, graduate programs, employers, alumni, and federal funding agencies to ensure graduate student financial support and graduate education are more strategically aligned.


2. Increasing efforts to ensure professional development experiences provided to advanced STEM graduate students are relevant to employers.


3. Gathering and sharing more evidence about the effectiveness of different models for delivering relevant professional development programs to graduate students.


4. Improving assessments of professional development programs, addressing efficacy as well as student satisfaction. Best practices are also needed in the use of these data to inform graduate degree programs and professional development programs.

Survey findings were used to develop a searchable online database of university professional development programs for graduate students, which universities can use as models for developing new programs or improving existing ones.

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Contact: Julia Kent | (202) 461-3874 / jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Declining Applications from Key Countries Contribute to Slowed Growth in Prospective Student Interest

Washington, DC —New data from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) reveal that first-time international graduate enrollment increased by 5% in Fall 2016, the same rate of growth seen last year. Yet U.S. institutions saw a lag in growth in the total number of international graduate applications, from 3% in 2015 to 1% in 2016.

The slow-down in application growth occurred despite a 4% increase in the number of applications from prospective Chinese graduate students, who constitute the largest subgroup of international students both in terms of applications and enrollments. The overall decrease in application growth was due to the combined effect of decreases in applications from important sending countries and regions: India (-1%), the Middle East and North Africa (-5%), South Korea (-5%), and Brazil (-11%).

While application counts of prospective European graduate students to U.S. institutions remained consistent with last year, first-time enrollment of European graduate students at U.S. institutions rose by 8%, ending the recent streak of declining enrollment growth rates from this region.

“The continued increase in enrollments is good news for U.S. universities,” said CGS President Suzanne Ortega, “but we can’t take that position for granted. Universities in the U.S. and around the world are waiting to see the potential impact of the uncertain policy environment on the mobility patterns of international graduate students.” Dr. Ortega added that the recent executive order that bars entry or return of U.S. visa holders from specific countries poses a concern. “We must ensure that the U.S. remains an attractive and viable place for the world’s most talented students to pursue education and research.”

The report also includes data on trends by field of study. In terms of total applications and first-time enrollments, Business (17% and 20% respectively), Engineering (30% and 26% respectively), and Mathematics and Computer Sciences (21% and 20% respectively) continue to be the most popular fields of study. Sixty-eight percent of total international graduate applications and 78% of first-time graduate enrollments were to master’s and certificate programs, suggesting that U.S. master’s programs continue to be viewed as good investments by international students.

As the only report of its kind to offer data on the current academic year, International Graduate Applications and Enrollment: Fall 2016 reports applications, admissions, and enrollments of international master’s, certificate, and doctoral students at U.S. colleges and universities. Additional report findings can be found in the attached page of highlights.

About the survey and report

Conducted since 2004, the CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey tracks the applications and enrollments of international students seeking U.S. master’s and doctoral degrees. In Fall 2016 the survey was redesigned to collect data by degree objective (master’s and graduate certificate vs. doctorate), and for all seven regions of origin, eight countries of origin, and all eleven broad fields of study, yielding the only degree-level data currently available for graduate admissions and enrollments. 395 U.S. graduate institutions who are members of CGS or its regional affiliates responded to the 2016 survey.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CONTACT: Julia Kent 

202.461.3874 / jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Following is a statement by Council of Graduate Schools President Suzanne Ortega.

"Our nation’s security is paramount and a strong visa process contributes to our safety. However, as an organization of approximately 500 universities, we encourage the administration to reconsider the executive order barring entry or return of individuals from specific countries."

"The strength of our nation’s graduate education depends upon both domestic and international talent. International faculty and students are vitally important to U.S. graduate education and research. They are essential contributors to our economy and research enterprise. International students (both graduate and undergraduate) contributed nearly $36 billion to the U.S. economy in 2014-15 (IIE, 2016). Domestic students benefit from the experience of training alongside international students, gaining the cultural competence needed to be competitive in a global economy. American graduate education represents the gold standard of higher education around the world, and we are committed to seeing it remain open to the best and brightest domestic and international talent."

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                             

Contact: Julia Kent

(202) 461-3874 / jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) Board of Directors has announced its officers for the 2017 term. CGS is governed by a 12-member Board of Directors drawn from member institutions. Board members serve for set terms.

Dr. Nancy Marcus, dean of the Graduate School at Florida State University, was announced the 2017 Board Chair at the conclusion of the 2016 CGS Annual Meeting. Appointed graduate dean in 2005, Marcus’ responsibilities include oversight of the education of approximately 8,500 graduate and professional students. During her tenure as Dean, Marcus has sought to enhance and complement the experience graduate students gain in their individual academic units by establishing programs such as the Office of Graduate Fellowship and Awards, The Fellows Society to promote interdisciplinary engagement, fellowships for international study, and an online tracking system to monitor graduate student progress.

“CGS is honored to have Dr. Marcus’ expertise during this important time in graduate education. She has provided exceptional leadership to The Graduate School at Florida State University and will help advance CGS’ mission to meet the evolving needs of our member institutions,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega.

The new Chair-elect, Dr. Karen Butler-Purry has served as the associate provost for graduate and professional studies at Texas A&M University since 2010. In addition, Butler-Purry is a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering and has experience in graduate education as a faculty member, administrator, researcher, and program leader. Under Butler-Purry’s leadership, the TAMU Office of Graduate and Professional Studies (OGAPS) added a new initiative to promote and support graduate student participation in professional development opportunities aligned closely with the university’s Quality Enhancement Plan, Aggies Commit to Learning for a Lifetime.

Beginning their three-year terms on the board on January 1, 2017, are Dr. John McCarthy, senior vice provost for academic affairs and dean of the Graduate School at University of Massachusetts Amherst; Dr. Paula McClain, dean of the Graduate School and vice provost of graduate education at Duke University; and Dr. Josephine Nalbantoglu, dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies at McGill University.

Dr. M.J.T. (“Mark”) Smith, dean of the Graduate School at Purdue University, will remain on CGS’s Executive Committee for one year as immediate past chair.

“Dr. Smith has provided outstanding leadership during his term as CGS Board Chair,” Ortega said. “He has contributed greatly to the success of graduate students at his own institution and to graduate education more broadly in his efforts to improve faculty diversity.”