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).

Among groups singing the letter were the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Association of American Universities, Council of Graduate Schools, Council of Christian Colleges and Universities and the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students.

More than 30 groups signed on to the letter, including the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, the American Council on Education, the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students, and the Council of Graduate Schools.

Economic and workforce-related factors are driving Indian graduate students to study in the U.S., said Hironao Okahana, associate vice president of research and policy analysis at the Council of Graduate Schools.

Full-time enrollment is down across master’s and doctoral programs in the arts and humanities, education and social sciences, according to an October report by the Council of Graduate Schools. Over the last five years, online and part-time degrees have gained ground in those fields, the data show.

While I can understand the sentiment behind the term “alt-ac” (having used the phrase myself as I was beginning to explore the field), it all too often becomes  shorthand for university staff jobs that are taken in desperation, the plan B (or Q or Z) that people can fall back on when the tenure track doesn’t work out. This is hardly a new critique of the term and the Council of Graduate Schools offers some other possible phrasing for these career pathways here.

The brief also says that international students bolster US academic programs. It quotes a February 2019 survey from The Council of Graduate Schools, which revealed that the new international enrollment declined through the previous two fall admission cycles.

The number of Chinese students in the U.S. has not declined yet: the IIE data show a 2 percent gain in Chinese undergraduate students and a 4 percent gain in Chinese graduate students from fall 2017 to fall 2018, while data from the Council of Graduate Schools found that the number of new Chinese students at American graduate schools did not change from fall 2017 to fall 2018.