Workshop Proceedings, Social Media Offer New Picture of Issues on the Horizon

Contact: Katherine Hazelrigg
(202) 461-3888 / khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, D.C. — On January 27-28, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) convened approximately 40 scholars and leaders in graduate education, scholarly publishing, academic libraries, and disciplinary associations to deliberate the future of the doctoral dissertation.  Over a two-day workshop supported by ProQuest, the group considered trends shaping the format and dissemination of dissertation research, including new modes of scholarly communication and publication, open access, emerging technologies, diversifying PhD career paths, and changes in disciplinary cultures.

Brief papers prepared and circulated ahead of the workshop enabled attendees to focus on big-picture questions affecting the enterprises of scholarly communication and graduate education, including:

• What is a dissertation? What is its purpose? Who are its audiences?
• What skills are or should be gained as a result of writing a dissertation?
• What new dissertation formats should be considered?
• How should dissertation research be archived, accessed, and disseminated?
• What is the role of the dissertation in the employment marketplace?

These questions contributed to a wide-ranging conversation about why the dissertation exists and whom it serves. For some participants, the dissertation is of primary importance to the student-author and an opportunity to build skills, demonstrate expertise, and earn a credential. For others, the main audience of the dissertation is the student’s committee or the disciplinary community. Still others wondered whether the dissertation should contribute something of value to society at large.

By the workshop’s conclusion, it was clear that the many futures of the dissertation depend on the purpose of doctoral education as a whole. In her closing remarks, CGS President Suzanne Ortega shared her view that the goal of graduate education is to educate “individuals who can ask and answer questions of importance.” For Dr. Ortega, the dissertation represents both students’ “demonstration of the capacity to utilize the tools (theoretical, methodological) of their discipline to identify and address a relevant question” and an “opportunity to develop a set of intellectual skills and habits of mind that have broad utility.”

Austin McLean, Director, Scholarly Communication and Dissertations Publishing at ProQuest said, “We are delighted to support this workshop related to the future of dissertations, an area of great significance to ProQuest.  Dissertations make an important contribution to the scholarly record, raise the profile of an institution and their authors, and are vital tools for researchers of all fields in all countries.  By convening this important conversation about the future of the dissertation, the Council of Graduate Schools is ensuring that graduate education will continue to produce graduates with valuable skills needed as part of a 21^st century workforce.”

Proceedings may be accessed at http://cgsnet.org/cgs-future-dissertation-workshop and the parallel conversation that emerged during the workshop on Twitter may be found at #DissFwd. The event was the capstone of a CGS Best Practice project on the Future of the Doctoral Dissertation. 

Contact: Julia Kent

(202) 223-3791

jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Three New Members to Join Board in 2016

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) Board of Directors has announced its officers for the 2016 term. CGS is governed by a 12-member Board of Directors drawn from member institutions. Board members serve for set terms.

Dr. M.J.T. (“Mark”) Smith, Dean of the Graduate School at Purdue University, was announced as the 2016 Board Chair at the conclusion of the 2015 CGS Annual Meeting. A member of the faculty in Electrical and Computer Engineering whose scholarly interests focus on digital signal processing, Smith was appointed graduate dean in 2009. He is a Fellow of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and is a former IEEE Distinguished Lecturer. Smith has authored many technical papers, six international standards publications, three textbooks, and two edited books, the most recent of which is the 2014 edited book GPS for Graduate School—Students Share Their Stories.

“CGS is honored to have Dr. Smith’s expertise during this critical time in graduate education. He has provided exceptional leadership of the Graduate School at Purdue and will help CGS meet the evolving needs of our member institutions,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega.

The new Chair-elect, Dr. Nancy Marcus, the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Oceanography has been Dean of The Graduate School at the Florida State University since August 2005. Her responsibilities include oversight of the education of approximately 8,000 graduate and professional students. She has enhanced several programs offered by the Graduate School during her tenure, including the Preparing Future Faculty program and the Professional Development Workshop Series. She has also established programs to promote interdisciplinary engagement, fellowships for international study, and an online tracking system to monitor graduate student progress. She earned a BA from Goucher College and a PhD from Yale University.

Beginning their three-year terms on the board on January 1 are Dr. Kinchel C. Doerner, Dean of the Graduate School at South Dakota State University; Dr. Sarah (Sally) Pratt, Vice Provost for Graduate Programs at the University of Southern California; and Dr. Carol W. Shanklin, Dean of the Graduate School at Kansas State University.

Dr. Barbara Knuth, Senior Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School at Cornell University, will remain on CGS’s Executive Committee for one year as immediate past chair. 

“I am honored to have worked with Dr. Knuth during her term as CGS Board Chair,” Ortega said. “She has contributed greatly to the success of graduate students at her institution and has been on the forefront of the pressing issues graduate schools face today.” 

77% of First-Time Graduate Students Are Enrolled in Master’s or Certificate Programs

Contact: Julia Kent

(202) 223-3791 / jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC —New data from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) provide an unprecedented picture of the degree objectives of international graduate students studying in the United States. As the only report of its kind to offer data on the current fall term, International Graduate Applications and Enrollment: Fall 2015 reports applications, admissions, and enrollments of international master’s, certificate, and doctoral students at U.S. colleges and universities.

Based on an annual survey of graduate institutions, the data show that the degree objectives of international applicants and enrollees vary widely by country of origin and field of study. Overall, however, nearly four out of five first-time enrollees are pursuing master’s or certificate programs. This finding contradicts a common assumption—that many if not most international graduate students come to the U.S. to pursue doctoral degrees.

Chinese and Indian students represented the largest share of first-time master’s and certificate enrollment for Fall 2015, together representing more than 7 out of 10 first-time enrollees in these programs. Indian students, for whom first-time enrollment has seen double-digit increases over the past three admission cycles, demonstrated the strongest interest, with nine out of every ten first-time graduate students enrolling in master’s degrees and certificates this fall semester.

By contrast, certain countries and regions demonstrated particularly strong first-time enrollment in doctoral programs: 47% of South Korean students, and 44% of students from the Middle East and North Africa enrolled in doctoral programs in Fall 2015. These groups not only diverge from the preferences of their peers of other nationalities, but also with trends in overall doctoral enrollment at U.S. institutions.  According to the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees, which captured data from the previous year (2014), first-time doctoral enrollment for both international and domestic students constituted only 16.8% of all graduate enrollment.

CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega observed that the report’s findings demonstrate the strong reputation of U.S. master’s degrees outside the United States. “While doctoral programs and institutions have long been viewed as a major draw from international students, it is clear that international students also recognize the value of U.S. master’s education.” She added, “Master’s degrees are critical entry points for a wide variety of professions. International students are taking advantage of the skills and knowledge these programs offer in addition to the stellar doctoral training provided by U.S. institutions.”

Additional report findings can be found in the attached page of highlights and infographics.

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. For the first time in 2015, institutions responding to the survey were asked to disaggregate their data for master’s and certificate programs and doctoral programs, yielding the only degree-level data currently available for graduate admissions and enrollments. Three hundred fifty U.S. graduate institutions who are members of CGS or its regional affiliates responded the 2015 survey.

Full Report

Media Kit

Contact: Julia Kent

(202) 223-3791

jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has awarded the 2015 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities to Dr. Stephen S. Bush, Manning Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Brown University. The awards ceremony was held during the CGS 55th Annual Meeting.

The Arlt Award is given annually to a young scholar-teacher who has written a book deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to scholarship in the humanities. Dr. Bush becomes the award’s 45th recipient for his book, Visions of Religion: Experience, Meaning and Power (Oxford University Press, 2014). He received his PhD in Religion from Princeton University in 2008.

Dr. Bush’s book “examines influential proponents of the three visions of the nature of religion – religion as experience, symbolic meaning, and power – and argues that each approach offers substantial and lasting contributions to the study of religion, although each requires revision. Bush rehabilitates the concepts of experience and meaning, two categories much maligned in present day culture, and demonstrates the extent to which these categories are implicated in matters of social power. This book articulates a social practical theory of religion that can account for all three aspects, even as it incorporates them into a single theoretical framework: religion as a social practice.”

[From left: Suzanne Ortega, President, CGS; Stephen S. Bush, winner, 2015 Arlt Award and Manning Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Brown University; Kevin Gibson, Interim Dean, Graduate Programs, Marquette University]

Created in 1971, the Arlt Award honors the first president of CGS. The winner must have earned a doctorate within the past seven years from, and currently be teaching at, a North American university. Nominations are made by CGS member institutions and are reviewed by a panel of scholars in the field of competition, which rotates annually among seven disciplines within the humanities. This year’s field was Religious Studies. The winner receives a $1,000 honorarium, a certificate, and travel to the awards ceremony.

Julia Kent, CGS                                                  

(202) 461-3874                                       

jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Tom Ewing, ETS

(609) 683-2803

tewing@ets.org  

Washington, DC – The seventh annual ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: From Admission through Completion was presented to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The award is sponsored by CGS and Educational Testing Service (ETS). Dr. Robin L. Garrell, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of The Graduate Division, accepted the award on UCLA’s behalf during the 55th Annual Meeting of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS).

The award recognizes promising, innovative proposals to enhance student success and degree completion at the master’s or doctoral level while promoting inclusiveness. The winning institution is selected on the strength of its proposal to meet the award’s goals and to serve as a model for other schools. The winner receives a two-year, $20,000 matching grant.

UCLA plans to build upon an existing web-based platform, the Graduate and Postdoctoral Educational Support (GRAPES), and create a new tool – Smart Recommendations (Smart Recs) – that will provide funding information to students based on their unique backgrounds, academic pursuits, and aspirational goals. Once the Smart Recs platform for funding information is built, UCLA plans to expand it to include other recommendations to support student success, such as information on campus seminars and workshops, professional and career development opportunities, and key deadlines.

[From left: Robin Garrell, Vice Provost, Graduate Education and Dean, Graduate Division accepts on behalf of University of California, Los Angeles, the 2015 ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: From Admission through Completion; David Payne, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Global Education, ETS ]

“We are excited about developing a dynamic, customized recommendation system that will support the success of UCLA graduate students. The potential impact of Smart Recs extends well beyond our campus. We hope that other institutions will take note of our UX design methodology, with its focus on the graduate student user experience.” Dr. Garrell said. “Because the software architecture is largely open-source, we look forward to exploring ways the underlying technology and infrastructure can be shared.”

“The practices showcased by this award competition greatly benefit the graduate education community,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “On behalf of our members, I thank the University of California Los Angeles for sharing their creative expertise with graduate institutions everywhere by designing a platform that will provide graduate schools with better tools to bolster graduate student success. And of course, I thank ETS, whose support makes possible this novel way to promote best practices among the graduate community.”

David Payne, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Global Education at ETS, also lauded UCLA’s innovation. “Smart Recs will provide much needed support to prospective and current graduate students and postdocs as they move through admissions, deadlines, courses and seminars, professional development and especially funding,” said Payne. “With this initiative, UCLA brings it all together in one place to save students time, reduce frustration and make for easier access to necessary information to help them pursue their studies and careers. Importantly, Smart Recs will meet students where they spend a great deal of time and where they look to gain information – online and connected to useful and needed information.”

This year, the selection committee chose one institution to be named as Honorable Mention: The University of Buffalo, SUNY for the “Master’s 360 – Enhancing Opportunities for Academic Success and Professional Development.” This project’s aim is to expand the existing initiatives of the iSEED program to enhance and improve academic success for all URMs in any discipline at the master’s level. Graham Hammill, vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School, was recognized during the award luncheon.

Julia Kent, Council of Graduate Schools                                               

(202) 461-3874                                                            

jkent@cgs.nche.edu                 

Beth Dempsey, ProQuest

(248) 349-7810

beth.dempsey@proquest.com                           

Awards recognize outstanding research by graduates in the fields of Biological & Life Sciences and Humanities & Fine Arts

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards, the nation’s most prestigious honors for doctoral dissertations, were presented to Jeongmin Choi and Timo Schaefer at an awards ceremony during the Council’s 55th Annual Meeting. Dr. Choi completed her PhD in 2014 at University of Missouri, in Plant Science, and Dr. Schaefer received his PhD in 2015 from Indiana University, in History.

Bestowed annually since 1982, the awards recognize recent doctoral recipients who have already made unusually significant and original contributions to their fields. ProQuest, an international leader in dissertation archiving, discovery, and access, sponsors the awards and an independent committee from the Council of Graduate Schools selects the winners. Two awards are given each year, rotating among four general areas of scholarship. The winners receive a certificate, a $2,000 honorarium, and funds for travel to the awards ceremony.

“The Distinguished Dissertation Awards demonstrate the dramatic impact young scholars have on their fields,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “It’s a testament to the vitality and value of graduate education when recently minted PhDs contribute and expand upon knowledge to raise the level of understanding in their fields.”

Austin McLean, director, ProQuest Scholarly Communication and Dissertations Publishing said, “ProQuest has devoted decades to improving both discovery of and access to dissertations because of the vital roles they play in advancing knowledge. We’re delighted to honor the excellent examples Dr. Choi and Dr. Schaefer have provided of the fresh perspectives and innovative thinking that are found in graduate works.”​

The 2015 Award in the Biological and Life Sciences was presented to Dr. Choi for her dissertation, “Identification of an extracellular adenosine 5’–triphosphate receptor in Arabidopsis thaliana.” Recent research demonstrates Adenosine 5’-triphosphate (ATP) plays an important role in plant growth, development, and stress responses. This project focuses on the enigmatic mechanism of extracellular ATP recognition in plants. Choi describes “a mutant screen that identified a key molecular component involved in extracellular ATP recognition in Arabidopsisthaliana. The gene identified by isolation of an ATP-insensitive mutant was termed DORN1 (Does not respond to Nucleotides 1).” She argues that DORN1 is “essential for perception of extracellular ATP and likely plays a variety of roles in plant stress responses.” Dr. Choi is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge.

[From left: Suzanne T. Ortega, CGS; Jeongmin Choi, winner, 2015 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award; Marlene Coles, ProQuest]

Dr. Schaefer received the 2015 Award in Humanities and Fine Arts for his dissertation, “The Social Origins of Justice: Mexico in the Age of Utopian Failure, 1821-1870.”  His project is a “comparative study of legal-institution building in indigenous towns, mestizo towns, and estate (hacienda) settlements in post-independence Mexico.” Schaefer argues that “struggles over the shape of Mexico’s post-colonial justice system turned on different conceptions of the appropriate place of labor in social life.” He concludes that “the historical failure of liberalism in nineteenth-century Mexico was linked to the defeat of a civic imagination that had conceived of labor not as the subordinate or alienated pole in an antagonistic property relation but as the constitutive and ordering power of all social life.” Dr. Schaefer is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at the University of British Columbia.

[From left: Suzanne T. Ortega, CGS; Timo Schaefer, winner, 2015 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award; Marlene Coles, ProQuest]

More information about the CGS / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award is available at www.proquest.com/go/scholars or at www.cgsnet.org.

International Applications Up 2% for Fall 2015

Contact:
Julia Kent
jkent@cgs.nche.edu
(202) 223-3791

Washington, DC—New data from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) provides a first-ever breakdown of international graduate applications by degree objective. The report, 2015 CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey: Preliminary Applications, collects data on international graduate applications by all geographic regions and fields of study, revealing trends important to the graduate research enterprise and our understanding of the global competition for top talent. Conducted annually since 2004, the survey was expanded this year to distinguish between applications to programs at the doctorate and master’s & certificate levels. 

The findings show that degree objectives of international applicants vary dramatically by country of origin and field of study, and in some cases contrast with those of their domestic U.S. counterparts.

No sending country favored master’s studies more than India, where 84% of graduate applications were for admission to master’s & certificate programs. The master’s share of graduate applications was also large among students from China (64%) Saudi Arabia (60%), and Taiwan (52%). Smaller shares of graduate applications went to master’s programs from prospective international graduate students from Mexico (50%), Canada (45%), Brazil (43%), Europe (35%), and South Korea (30%).

Overall, international students applied to doctoral programs in higher proportion than their domestic U.S. counterparts. Thirty-seven percent of international graduate enrollments were in PhD programs, compared to only 17 percent among U.S. citizens and permanent residents, according to the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees.

According to CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega, the additional data on degree objectives is illuminating for U.S. graduate schools, even as it leads to more questions about the goals and motivations of international graduate students. “Now that our international survey offers data by degree objective, we will have a more nuanced picture of the encouraging growth we have seen in international applications to U.S. graduate programs,” Ortega said. “Our challenge is to investigate what these new data can tell us about the market for advanced skills. Are students preparing for careers in the U.S. or at home after earning their degree? Are they drawn here by academic reputations, employment prospects, or professional advancement? How do economic conditions in the U.S. and abroad influence international graduate enrollments?”

Trends by country of origin

International graduate applications for Fall 2015 increased 2% from Fall 2014, for a total 676,484 applications received by the U.S. institutions responding to the survey. For the third consecutive year, applications from China were down (-2%) while applications from India posted double-digit growth (12%). China remains the largest source of prospective students for U.S. programs, representing 39% of all international graduate applications. India continues to narrow the gap between first- and second-largest source country, reaching 28% of international applications for Fall 2015. South Korea, the third-largest sending country, increased 4% after three straight years of declines.

Trends by field of study

Growth in applications was driven by engineering and physical & earth sciences, which gained 4% and 14%, respectively. Together these STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields account for 50% of all applications to U.S. graduate programs from prospective international students for Fall 2015. This makes international graduate students crucial to U.S. research and workforce needs. Experts (including CGS) have pointed out the American economy’s demand for advanced STEM skills is unlikely to be met by homegrown talent alone, as only 16% of U.S. citizens and permanent residents enrolled in graduate programs are studying in STEM fields, according to the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees.  

In another finding of the Preliminary Applications report, international applications to graduate programs in business fell 2%, the first decline in this field since the survey launched in 2004. Nevertheless, business was the third largest field of study, accounting for 13% of international graduate applications.

About the report

Findings from the 2015 CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey: Preliminary Applications are based on an annual survey of international graduate student applications among U.S. institutions. Some responding institutions may continue to receive international applications after the completion of the report. For this reason the figures are preliminary. Final application, admission and enrollment figures will be reported in late 2015. Final application numbers have traditionally tracked very closely to the preliminary numbers. Analysis from the 2015 Preliminary Applications report includes responses from 377 schools, including 80% of the top 100 institutions awarding the largest number of degrees to international graduate students. Collectively, the respondents to this year’s survey award about 70% of the degrees granted to international graduate students in the U.S. The full report is available at http://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Intl_I_2015_report_final.pdf.

Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that Edelma Huntley, Dean of the Graduate School and Chief Research Officer at Appalachian State University from 2006 to 2014, has been named the CGS Dean-in-Residence for 2015-16. Dr. Huntley brings to the post significant experience leading graduate education, including serving as President of the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools (CSGS) from 2012 to 2014, and serving two terms on the CGS Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Huntley will join CGS on August 1. 

The CGS Dean-in-Residence program was created to infuse a campus-based perspective and vision across a variety of the Council’s programs and initiatives. The Dean-in-Residence works on multiple projects aligned with his or her interests and the Council’s needs.

“Dr. Huntley has been at the forefront of national initiatives to develop professional master’s programs in arts and sciences, and she has supported students in these programs by creating additional research opportunities for them,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “Her expertise in master’s education will greatly benefit CGS members, especially as the Council prepares to launch new research efforts in this area.”

In accepting the appointment, Huntley pointed to important issues in graduate education she will help the Council address. “CGS has been a valuable resource for me throughout my career, and I look forward with great excitement to participating more fully in the work that CGS is doing, particularly in preparing future faculty, preparing graduate students for careers outside the academy, and exploring new developments in master's education.”

As Dean of the Graduate School and Chief Research Officer at Appalachian State University, Huntley oversaw development of the institution’s first Professional Science Master’s programs, graduate certificates, dual degrees, and accelerated baccalaureate-to-master’s programs. She chaired a committee that envisioned and developed the Research Institute for Environment, Energy, and Economics. Huntley also created the Graduate Research Associates Mentoring Program at Appalachian State, providing two years of support for promising master’s-level researchers to work with faculty mentors.

Dr. Huntley holds a PhD in Restoration and 18th Century British Literature from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. At Appalachian State, she was the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award and a campus-level, North Carolina Board of Governors Teaching Award.

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.