A new report released on Tuesday by the Council of Graduate Schools shows that first-time enrollments of international students in American engineering programs declined 8.3 percent in the past year. Over all, the number of new graduate students from abroad fell 1.3 percent in the fall of 2018.

The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) released its annual report on graduate enrollment and degrees. CGS/GRE Graduate Enrollment & Degrees: 2008–18 shows overall graduate school applications from fall 2017 to fall 2018 increased by 2.2 percent and first-time graduate school enrollment increased by 2.1 percent across all institution types.

For Immediate Release: October 9, 2019

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

Washington, D.C. — On October 4, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) convened the inaugural meeting of the CGS Employer Roundtable, a group of senior leaders representing employers of graduate degree holders in various fields and other higher education stakeholders.  The Employer Roundtable will advise CGS leadership on workforce issues and serve as the leading voice on graduate student workforce preparedness.

Graduate education plays a critical role in the success of the U.S. workforce and economy.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projections indicate that occupations requiring at least a master’s degree for entry, including physician assistants, occupational therapists, mental health and substance abuse social workers, mathematicians, and computer and information research scientists, will grow at a much faster rate than occupations that call for less education.

“Strong connections between graduate schools and employers will help ensure that graduate schools continue to respond to rapidly changing workforce demands,” said CGS President Suzanne Ortega.  “I’m thrilled that the industry leaders here today have joined CGS in this important national initiative.”

During the half-day meeting, the group’s discussion focused on four broad themes relevant to graduate education and the workforce:

• The present and future of work
• Industry-higher education collaboration
• Diversity and inclusion
• Advocating for graduate education

These themes guided a wide-ranging conversation that addressed how workforce trends are changing industries, how universities can support industry initiatives to recruit diverse talent, the key elements of successful industry-university collaborations, and how universities and employers can advocate for graduate education.

“Whether they’re in academia, the public sector or industry, graduate degree holders inspire innovation and solve complex problems.  We all have a stake in developing robust talent pipelines with individuals who are prepared to address the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century,” said Ron Townsend, executive vice president, Global Laboratory Operations, Battelle Memorial Institute and Roundtable member.

The Roundtable will convene again in early 2020.

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Graduate school applications were up 2.2 percent year over year in 2018, and first-time enrollments increased 2.1 percent across institution types, according to a new report by the Council of Graduate Schools and the Educational Testing Service.

The groups were especially pleased to see higher increases in first-time enrollments among people of color, including Latinx (6.8 percent), black (3.5 percent), Asian (6.2 percent) and Native American students (8.3 percent). Over all, 24.1 percent of all first-time enrollees who were U.S. citizens and permanent residents in fall 2018 were underrepresented minorities.

PRESS RELEASE

EMBARGOED UNTIL: October 8, 2019, 12:01 a.m. EDT

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

Washington, DC — Today the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) reported that graduate applications (2.2%) and first-time graduate enrollment (2.1%) increased overall and across all institution types (Doctoral Highest, Higher, and Moderate Research Institutions and Master’s Colleges and Universities) for Fall 2018. While the overall numbers are on the rise, first-time graduate enrollment of international students continues to decline (-1.3%). The data are part of the latest CGS/GRE Graduate Enrollment & Degrees: 2008-2018 report.

“The increases in application and first-time enrollment rates for Fall 2018 after last year’s slowdown is encouraging news for graduate education. We’re especially pleased to see increases in first-time enrollment among Latinx (6.8%), Black/African American (3.5%), Asians/Pacific Islander (6.2%), and American Indian/Alaska Native (8.3%) graduate students,” said CGS President Suzanne Ortega. “However, we do take note of the continued decline in the number of international students pursuing graduate education in the U.S. As we move to an increasingly globalized economy and workforce, domestic students benefit from training alongside international students, who also make important contributions to graduate education and research and the U.S. economy.”

Enrollments Continue to Align with Fastest Growing Fields

Enrollment trends by broad field of study are consistent with data from the last two years. Between Fall 2017 and Fall 2018, the largest one-year gains in first-time enrollment by broad field of study were in mathematics and computer sciences (4.3%), health sciences (3.3%), and education (3.2%). In contrast, applications and first-time graduate enrollment in engineering over the same period declined 6.9% and 4.6%, respectively. These results are consistent with findings from CGS’s International Graduate Applications and Enrollment: Fall 2018 survey, indicating that the decline in engineering enrollment is largely driven by a decrease in international students.

“Between Fall 2008 and Fall 2018, first-time graduate enrollment in mathematics and computer sciences has increased 11.0% and health sciences by 6%. Based on our data, these are the fastest-growing fields in graduate education and many jobs within them require advanced degrees,” said Ortega. “The steady growth in first-time enrollment in these fields indicates graduate education’s continued alignment with recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data on employment projections. These findings suggest that incoming students recognize the expanding employment opportunities in these growing fields, as well as the role they play in driving innovation.

Institutions responding to the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment & Degrees for Fall 2018 enrolled more than 1.8 million graduate students. Nearly three-quarters (73.9%) of total graduate enrollment was in master’s programs. Over one million of those graduate students, or 58.2%, were women. The three largest broad fields of study (business, education, and health sciences) were also the fields with the largest proportions of part-time graduate students (Business: 62.9%; Education: 51.2%; Health Sciences: 41.5%).

Other report findings are summarized below. 

Findings by Broad Field

• By broad field of study, the largest number of total applications for Fall 2018 were in engineering (284,512), business (278,775), and health sciences (270,580). These three broad fields alone accounted for 40.7% of all graduate applications for which the intended field of study was known in Fall 2018.
• Mathematics and computer sciences (4.3%) and health sciences (3.3%) reported the largest one-year gains in first-time graduate enrollment between Fall 2017 and 2018.
• The one-year change in first-time graduate enrollment in engineering was -4.6%, compared to -3.8% between Fall 2016 and 2017.

Findings by Degree Level

• The largest one-year percentage increases in doctoral applications were in mathematics and computer sciences (18.6%) and public administration and services (12.9%).
• The largest one-year percentage increases in the number of master’s applications were in social and behavioral sciences (9.3%) and mathematics and computer sciences (5.4%).
• Of the graduate certificates awarded in the 2017-2018 academic year, 62.0% were from public institutions, 33.7% from private, not-for-profits, and 4.4% from private, for-profit.

Findings by Student Demographics

• In Fall 2018, approximately 24.1% of all first-time U.S. citizens and permanent resident enrollees were underrepresented minorities. American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, and Hispanic/LatinX first-time graduate students remain particularly underrepresented in STEM fields.
• In Fall 2018, the majority of first-time graduate students at all degree levels were women – 59.7% at the master’s degree and certificate level and 54.4% at the doctoral level.
• Among first-time graduate enrollment, 80.2% were U.S. citizens and permanent resident graduate students in the Fall of 2018 and about 19.8% were international.
• International students comprised the largest share of first-time graduate students in mathematics and computer sciences (55.6%), followed closely by engineering (51.0%).

About the report

Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2008 to 2018 presents the findings of an annual survey of U.S. graduate schools, co-sponsored by CGS and the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Board. It is the only annual national survey that collects data on graduate enrollment by all fields of study and is the only source of national data on graduate applications by broad field of study. The report includes responses from 589 institutions and presents statistics on graduate applications and enrollment for Fall 2018, degrees conferred in 2017-18, and trend data for one-, five- and ten-year periods.

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For institutions ostensibly in the business of amassing knowledge, universities know remarkably little about what happens to their Ph.D. alumni once they leave graduate school. In an effort to fill that gap and help universities improve the career services they provide, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), through its PhD Career Pathways project, has been asking STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and humanities Ph.D.s who are 3, 8, and 15 years past their degrees about their work lives.

For Immediate Release
September 27, 2019

Contacts:
American Educational Research Association
Tony Pals, tpals@aera.net
(202) 238-3235, (202) 288-9333 (cell)

Council of Graduate Schools
Katherine Hazelrigg, khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu
(202) 461-3888

AERA and CGS Awarded NSF Grant to Advance Academic Support for Open Science

Washington, D.C., September 27, 2019 – The American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) have received a collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation to convene higher education leaders, education researchers, and related scientists to advance academic support for open science.  

A multi-day conference to be held in summer 2020 at the AERA Convening Center will bring together approximately 30 leaders with collective expertise in scientific productivity, science professions, and higher education institutions. The goal of this intensive working conference is to address what counts as open science productivity and quality in non-traditional research products (e.g., data sharing, replication studies, registered reports). It is expected that the meeting will lead to actionable strategies that can be “tested” in institutions interested in rethinking performance metrics and modes of assessing scientific productivity beyond publication in highly ranked journals.

AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine and CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega will serve as co-chairs of the conference, uniting their longstanding interest in the academic and scientific workforce, issues of access and opportunity, transformation of scientific workforce demands in STEM fields, and what counts as valued and valuable scholarly productivity for this collaborative initiative. Their shared ambition for this initiative is to foster deeper consideration of measures of scholarly productivity in the institutions where the next generation of researchers are being trained, where science is organized, and where open science products are produced.     

“Over the last decade, discussions about open science and the opportunities and barriers of expanded access to and transparency in research have demonstrated the clear public interest in enabling a climate of access to information, including the underlying data, materials, measurements, and tools that warrant research,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “Through our partnership with CGS, this conference will advance the understanding of the impact of intellectual contributions of scientific research outcomes and products in non-traditional forms.”

CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega added: “We hope this conference will affect the trajectory of the scientific enterprise at large by better articulating how different forms of research outcomes and products may be valued and appreciated. We want to address how we measure the impact and intellectual contribution of research outcomes with non-traditional forms of scientific products, such as research data, parallel to more traditional deliverables. Although this initiative emphasizes science, it is directly applicable to the humanities, and we intend to pursue funding to support that work, as well.”

AERA and CGS plan to convene an advisory committee to provide guidance on the conference plan, agenda, and participants. Conference participants will represent a diversity of expertise, institutional affiliations, regional representation, and demographics.

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Plus, The Council of Graduate Schools found the number of new enrollments of international students at graduate schools in the U.S. has fallen for the second year in a row.

Dr. Hironao Okahana, associate vice president of policy and research analysis at the Council of Graduate Schools, told Teen Vogue the rise in incidents like Ajjawi’s are concerning and worth further investigation. 

They cited recent reports from the Council of Graduate Schools and Institute of International Education that found new enrollments of international students in undergraduate and graduate programs has declined in the past two years.