CGS, with support from ETS, has begun a new project, Supporting Diversity in Graduate Education: Next Steps in Advancing the International Agenda. This project grew out of the 2018 Strategic Leaders Global Summit on Graduate Education and aims to address the absence of a global effort to tackle diversity issues at master’s and doctoral institutions by cataloguing, classifying, and disseminating diversity initiatives through a digital repository.

Background

Even after decades of reform, the underrepresentation of women and minorities in graduate education remains a persistent problem across a variety of global higher education systems. National and regional organizations supporting graduate education have attempted to tackle this underrepresentation with different projects and approaches.

Addressing this gap was a goal of the 2018 Strategic Leaders Global Summit on Graduate Education co-sponsored by CGS, ETS, and the University of Johannesburg, which explored a range of issues related to diversity in master’s and doctoral education. Summit topics included clarifying and comparing definitions of diversity and inclusion, creating an inclusive campus and program culture, student recruitment, curriculum and pedagogy, retention and completion, and supporting successful career paths for all students. Under the theme, Supporting Diversity in Graduate Education, participants in the summit discussed current strategies for improving diversity, existing roadblocks, and future priorities.

In spite of the fact that national, community, and university systems confront unique challenges, and diversity often depends on national context, CGS and summit attendees agreed that the global graduate community would benefit from two areas of work: 1) Developing a system for classifying issues in diversity in graduate education and 2) Creating a resource library based on this taxonomy to include example policies, diversity metrics, research frameworks, promising practices, and case studies.

Proposal Overview

In March 2020, CGS and ETS released The Global Postgraduate Diversity Resource. The resources included on the website include essays from postgraduate leaders on diversity and inclusiveness as well as information from university diversity initiatives across the globe. You can access the diversity resource via this link. If you would like to submit a resource for consideration email Matthew Linton (mlinton@cgs.nche.edu). 

Advisory Committee

Suzanne T. Ortega, President, Council of Graduate Schools

Alberto Acereda, Senior Director of Business Development, Educational Testing Service

Sue Berners-Price, Dean, Griffith Graduate School, Griffith University

Hans-Joachim Bungartz, Dean of Informations, Graduate Dean, Technical University of Munich

Karen Butler-Purry, Associate Provost, Graduate and Professional Studies, Texas A&M University

Carlos Gilberto Carlotti, Jr., Provost, Graduate Studies, University of São Paulo

Alexander Hasgall, Head, Council for Doctoral Education, European University Association

Nelson Ijumba, former Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs and Research, University of Rwanda

Shireen Motala, Senior Director, Postgraduate School, University of Johannesburg

Susan Porter, Dean and Vice-Provost, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, University of British Columbia

Adham Ramadan, Dean, Graduate Studies, The American University in Cairo

Project support provided by