Contacts:

Katherine Hazelrigg, CGS  (202) 461-3888 | khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Kristen Lacaillade, ETS   (609) 524-8172 | mediacontacts@ets.org

Washington, DC – Today the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and ETS presented the University of Montana (UM) with the 2021 ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: From Admission through Completion. Dr. Scott Whittenburg, vice president for research and creative scholarship and dean of the Graduate School, accepted the co-sponsored award on the University of Montana’s behalf during an awards ceremony held at the CGS 61st Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

The ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education recognizes promising, innovative proposals to enhance student success and degree completion at the master’s and doctoral levels 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.

The University of Montana’s initiative, Completing the Circle: Supporting the Success of Native Graduate Students, focuses on a sub-population of underrepresented students, who are a significant regional population in the cultural life of the West: Native American graduate students. The university, which occupies the aboriginal territories of the Salish and Kalispell people, aims to address a gap in the “circle of support” that is a key component of graduate school success: peer-to-peer encounters, especially outside of the context of graduate programs, that facilitate the fullest intellectual and professional growth of our students.

The initiative includes four components: Peer Cohort Meetings, A Native American Visiting Scholar Series, A Peer-to-Peer Mentor Fellowship Program, and Tribal Listening Sessions.  Through these efforts, the university hopes to recruit more Native American students into their graduate programs, to increase retention and completion, and to strengthen connections with regional tribes to foster a reciprocal emphasis on community improvement by elevating the visibility of Native graduate students.

“The Graduate School of the University of Montana is proud to accept the 2021 Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: From Admissions through Completion! Our proposal reflects our institution's acknowledgement of the distinctive contribution our Native communities make to local, state, and regional culture, including the wisdom of their traditional knowledge,” said Scott Whittenburg, vice president for research and creative scholarship and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Montana. “We look forward to investing the funding in ongoing support of Native graduate students through a new peer-mentoring program, as well as in outreach efforts to deepen our relationships with tribal partners, who can help us shape graduate education with relevance and impact.”

“Through their Completing the Circle initiative, the University of Montana commits to leveraging existing resources, programs, and relationships to substantially enhance Native American student success in graduate education. While our recent graduate enrollment and degrees data show modest increases in American Indian/Alaska Native students pursuing graduate degrees, the graduate education community still has so much work to do. This project’s success will provide CGS members with new approaches to better engage and support Native graduate students,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “We are so grateful to ETS for their support in recognizing this innovative way to promote best practices among graduate schools.”

“We are proud to recognize the outstanding innovation in diversity by the University of Montana with the 2021 ETS/CGC Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: From Admission through Completion,” said Alberto Acereda, associate vice president of global higher education at ETS. “The institution’s approach to advancing diversity, innovation and success in graduate studies addresses a critical gap and serves as an excellent example for other institutions in serving graduate students.”

# # #

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

Washington, DC – The Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that Dr. Karen Butler-Purry, associate provost and dean of the Graduate and Professional School at Texas A&M University, is the 2021 recipient of the Debra W. Stewart Award for Outstanding Leadership in Graduate Education. Dr. Butler-Purry received the honor at an awards ceremony held during the CGS 61^st Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

A passionate and steadfast advocate for graduate education, Dr. Butler-Purry becomes the sixth Debra W. Stewart Award recipient for her invaluable contributions to Texas A&M University and the graduate education community. As dean, Dr. Butler-Purry has prioritized graduate student’s quality of life, their educational experiences in the classroom and labs, and their professional development opportunities. In addition, she developed new pathways and funding sources for underrepresented students, providing more than 80 doctoral fellowships per year to underrepresented minority students. In 2020, Dr. Butler-Purry led efforts to elevate graduate education at the university, helping to transform the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies to the Graduate and Professional School.

Dr. Butler-Purry has also been involved in many CGS projects, including Supporting the Mental Health and Well-being of Graduate Students, Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement, Professional Development for STEM Graduate Students, and the Global Postgraduate Diversity Resource. She has served as chair of the CGS Board of Directors and is currently on the Executive Board of the Association of American Universities’ (AAU) Association of Graduate Schools. Dr. Butler-Purry has a demonstrated commitment to mentoring, receiving the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) Mentor Award.

“Texas A&M University could not be more proud of Karen Butler-Purry’s recent Debra W. Stewart Award for Outstanding Leadership in Graduate Education. Dr. Butler-Purry is a tireless advocate for diversity, inclusion, and access to graduate programs on our campus and across the country,” said Timothy P. Scott, interim provost and executive vice president, Texas A&M University. “We are grateful for her continued service and passion for graduate education.”

“The CGS Board of Directors is pleased to recognize Dr. Butler-Purry’s leadership and service to the graduate education community. Karen is a passionate advocate for graduate student success and well-being. Under her leadership, Texas A&M University has developed comprehensive learning outcomes for master’s and doctoral students, increased data transparency, and demonstrated a deep commitment to ensuring access and opportunity for all,” said Dr. Andrew G. Campbell, dean of the Graduate School at Brown University and chair of the Council’s Board of Directors.

Created in 2016 by the CGS Board of Directors, this award recognizes outstanding leadership in graduate education, particularly those leadership qualities exemplified by the Council’s fifth President, Debra W. Stewart. The selection committee considers nominees with a strong reputation for ethics and integrity, a history of active participation in the graduate community, and a record of strategic vision and actions resulting in meaningful impacts. Areas of special consideration include evidence-based innovation, program development, diversity and inclusion, student learning and career outcomes, personnel management, policy advocacy in support of graduate education and research, and fiscal responsibility.

Nominees for the award must be a current senior, graduate dean at a CGS member institution (Regular or Associate) and cannot be an active member of the CGS Board of Directors. Nominations are made by member institutions and are reviewed by a selection committee of former graduate deans in the CGS community. The winner receives a $4,000 prize to support continuing innovations at the awardee’s institution.

###

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

Washington, DC – The Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that Dr. Jennifer R. Teitle, assistant dean of the Graduate College at the University of Iowa, is the 2021 winner of the Assistant and Associate Deans Leadership Award. Teitle received the honor at an awards ceremony held during the CGS 61st Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

The award was created by the CGS Board of Directors to recognize individuals who have shown exemplary commitment to graduate education by demonstrating creativity and innovation in response to institutional challenges and/or limited budgets or resources; building partnerships both internal and external to the graduate school; identifying and obtaining resources, both internal and external to the graduate school; effectively advocating on behalf of graduate education; fostering inclusiveness in the graduate community; and engaging student voices (including diverse voices).

Dr. Teitle becomes the award’s third recipient for her valuable contributions to the University of Iowa graduate community. Her many accomplishments include developing the Graduate Student Success Center to deliver professional development programming across the university; establishing a campus-wide Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition, leveraging winning presentations to communicate the value of graduate education to external stakeholders; building relationships with alumni across graduate programs to promote PhD career diversity; and leading campus efforts to improve mentoring and career support.

“In every aspect of Dr. Teitle’s work, she clearly advocates for graduate students, paying special attention to assuring an inclusive perspective in her work. Jen has played a critical role in supporting students during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, designing platforms, leading workshops, and overseeing adjusted appointment structures for hundreds of graduate students across campus,” said Dr. Amanda H. Thein, associate provost for graduate and professional education and dean of the Graduate College at the University of Iowa. “Jen’s colleagues and the students in the Graduate College are exceptionally fortunate to have her professional insight, drive, and dedication.”

“It is a pleasure to recognize the outstanding efforts of our assistant and associate dean colleagues who tirelessly work on behalf of our graduate students, and Dr. Jennifer Teitle is no exception. Her advocacy and collaborative approach to graduate education stood out among her peers. Additionally, she is lauded for promulgating practices and programs with external partners and professional organizations, donating her time and talent to these endeavors,” said Dr. Sheryl Tucker, selection committee chair, and vice provost and dean of the Graduate College at Oklahoma State University.

Nominees for the award must be a current assistant or associate-level dean at a CGS member institution (Regular or Associate) with primary administrative responsibility in graduate education. Assistant or associate deans whose graduate deans currently serve on the CGS Board are not eligible to be nominated for the award during the dean’s active years of board service. Nominations are made by CGS member institutions and are reviewed by a committee selected by the CGS Board of Directors. The winner receives a $1,500 honorarium and is invited to plan and participate in a session at the CGS Summer Workshop on a topic of their choosing.

CGS gratefully acknowledges Liaison’s financial support of the Assistant and Associate Deans Leadership Award.  Liaison, a higher education admissions management and marketing automation software and services company, is a CGS Sustaining Member.

###

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

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has awarded the 2021 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities to Dr. Tae-Yeoun Keum, assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The awards ceremony was held during the CGS 61st Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

Bestowed annually, the Arlt Award recognizes a young scholar-teacher who has written a book deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to scholarship in the humanities. Dr. Keum becomes the award’s 51st recipient for her book, Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought (Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2020). She received her PhD in political theory from Harvard University in 2017.

In Plato and the Mythic Tradition in Political Thought, Dr. Keum considers the work of Plato, particularly his philosophical myths and their role in shaping modern political thought. She traces Plato’s impact on texts from the early modern era through the twentieth century, demonstrating how his classical mythmaking has influenced political theory across many centuries. While some philosophers viewed Plato’s myths as trivial work from the “inventor of rational philosophy,” Keum contends that mythic tradition “helps us rethink some of the default assumptions we tend to make about what philosophy is, and what it ought to look like.”

“We are honored to present Dr. Keum with this year’s prestigious Arlt Award. Her brilliant work reminds us that rethinking the traditional boundaries of knowledge enhances voices on the margin and reiterates the importance of diversity of thought. Through an analysis of Plato’s classical myths and their treatment by philosophers across many literary periods, Keum elevates the role and importance of myths in modern political discourse and argues they are integral to human understanding,” said Dr. Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools.

“Dr. Keum's receipt of the 2021 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities recognizes not only her impressive achievement, but also the centrality of humanistic approaches to understanding politics. Reaching across disciplinary boundaries, Dr. Keum's work suggests that even the most rationalistic of systems draws upon the power of symbols and mythic representations. It is truly a tour de force,” said Leila Rupp, interim Anne and Michael Towbes Graduate Dean, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Created in 1971, the Arlt Award honors the first president of CGS, Gustave O. Arlt. The winner must have earned a doctorate within the past seven years, 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 Linguistics and Philosophy. The winner receives a $1,000 honorarium and travel to the awards ceremony.

###

Contacts:

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

Gilia Smith, ProQuest   (734) 277-7320 | gilia.smith@proquest.com

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards, the nation’s most prestigious honors for doctoral dissertations, were presented to Caitlin Cornell and Denisa Jashari during an award ceremony held at the CGS 61^st Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Dr. Cornell received her PhD in physical chemistry and biophysics from the University of Washington in 2019; Dr. Jashari completed her PhD in Latin American History at Indiana University Bloomington in 2020.

Bestowed annually since 1982, the awards recognize recent doctoral recipients who have already made unusually significant and original contributions to their fields. ProQuest, Part of Clarivate – whose ProQuest^® Dissertations & Theses Global^™ database (PQDT) features the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses – 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 of recognition, a $2,000 honorarium, and a travel stipend to attend the awards ceremony.

“The CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award recognizes the innovative research of young scholars and their momentous impact on their disciplines and the broader graduate education community,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “The significant contributions Dr. Cornell and Dr. Jashari have made in their respective fields continue the tradition of excellence. Their work represents the best of graduate education and research and merits recognition.”

“We’re proud to honor the incredible breakthroughs these researchers have made,” said Angela D’Agostino, vice president of product management, dissertations at ProQuest. “The past few years have been immeasurably difficult for PhD students, which makes Dr. Cornell and Dr. Jashari’s outstanding works even more impressive and well-deserving of the 2021 Distinguished Dissertation Award. ProQuest is pleased to include their research in the PQDT corpus where it can be discovered and expanded upon by other researchers around the world."

Dr. Cornell received the 2021 Award in Biological and Life Sciences for her dissertation, Lipid Membranes: From Organizational Strategies in Cells to the Origins of Life. Cornell’s dissertation research “bridges the gap between synthetic model membranes, cell-derived membranes, and living yeast organellar membranes.” Her work examines cell membranes, from the simplest forms to the most complex, to better understand how lipids found in cell membranes may contribute to improved protein function. In addition, she investigates the formation of the earliest protocell membranes billions of years ago. Dr. Cornell is currently a James S. McDonnell postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley’s Fletcher Lab.

The 2021 Award in Humanities and Fine Arts was presented to Dr. Jashari for her dissertation, Cartographies of Conflict: Political Culture and Urban Protest in Santiago, Chile, 1872-1994. Jashari’s work tracks disputes over urban spaces in Santiago, Chile, beginning with the social reform period of 1872-1970, through the Marxist government of Allende and dictatorship of Pinochet, to democratic rule from 1990-1994. She “historicizes the political importance of space and moves [...] between national and street-level dimensions of social and political struggles in urban space,” while expanding the period of study beyond the more narrow scope of current scholarship. Dr. Jashari is currently an assistant professor of Latin American history at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Two outstanding scholars received honorable mentions: Kathleen Houlahan (nominated by the University of Toronto) for the Award in Biological and Life Sciences, and Ariana Brazier (nominated by the University of Pittsburgh) for the Award in Humanities and Fine Arts.

More information about the CGS/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award is available at https://cgsnet.org/2021-cgs-award-winners-announced. For a list of past ProQuest Award Winners visit https://about.proquest.com/en/dissertations/spotlight/.

###

But enrollments in associate and master’s degree programs each sank by 21 percent. Enyu Zhou, a senior analyst at the Council of Graduate Schools, said her organization’s research found that first-time master’s students were more likely than doctoral students to defer admission last fall rather than begin their studies online.

Master’s education is the fastest growing and largest component of the graduate enterprise in the United States. According to the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment & Degrees for Fall 2020, 84.0% of first-time graduate students were enrolled in programs leading to a master’s degree or a graduate certificate and nearly three quarters (72.9%) of total graduate enrollment was in master’s programs.

CGS's "Top Ten Facts about Master's Degrees" includes key information about the important role master's education plays in fulfilling workforce needs, contributing to the research and development enterprise, and spurring cultural innovation.

“It’s clear to me that the increase in the number of students pursuing part-time degrees is an indicator of folks looking for flexibility in when and how they access graduate education,” said CGS president Dr. Suzanne Ortega. “We don’t have the data specifically on enrollment in online programs, but we know that the areas where there’s growth in master’s and part-time are often delivered virtually.” 

"One of the positive aspects of the pandemic and our age of uncertainty is that graduate programs have gotten much better at flexibility and capacity to accommodate working adults on a part-time basis and online," said Suzanne Ortega, CGS’s president. "That had been starting to happen over time, but I think it has really accelerated over the past year."

Washington, DC — New data from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) on graduate enrollments and degrees demonstrate the continued demand for graduate education in the U.S. According to a CGS report released today, both graduate applications (7.3%) and first-time graduate enrollment (1.8%) increased overall for the Fall 2020 semester, welcome news during the disruptive COVID-19 pandemic. While international graduate first-time enrollment declined 37.4%, domestic enrollment grew 12.9% — growth driven, in part, by increases in traditionally underrepresented students. First-time, part-time graduate enrollment increased by 13.5%. These data are part of the latest CGS/GRE Graduate Enrollment & Degrees: 2010-2020 report.

“Graduate schools had to pivot quickly as the pandemic disrupted traditional modes of instruction, increasing part-time, virtual, and hybrid learning options,” said CGS President Suzanne Ortega. “To see continued growth in first-time enrollment rates during a global pandemic shows confidence in the value of graduate education and the importance of increased flexibility in delivery methods.”

Ortega added that an increase in flexible learning options has supported diversity. “It’s striking that 43.4% of graduate students are enrolled part-time and these students are more likely to be women and students from traditionally underrepresented groups. We’ve long believed that improved access would further diversify the graduate student body, and these data provide supporting evidence.”

Between Fall 2019 and Fall 2020, first-time enrollment among underrepresented minorities grew at a healthy pace. First-time graduate enrollment of American Indian/Alaska Native students increased 8.8%, with corresponding increases of 16.0% for Black/African American students and 20.4% for Latinx students. While this growth is encouraging, Black/African American students constitute 12.8% of U.S. citizens and permanent resident graduate students overall, and remain considerably underrepresented in physical and earth sciences (3.8%), engineering (6.2%), and biological and agricultural sciences (6.6%). Similarly, Latinx students constitute 12.0% of U.S. citizens and permanent resident graduate students, and remain considerably underrepresented in mathematics and computer sciences (9.9%) and physical and earth sciences (10.4%).

Institutions responding to the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment & Degrees for Fall 2020 enrolled more than 1.7 million graduate students. Nearly three quarters (72.9%) of total graduate enrollment was in master’s programs. Over one million of those graduate students, or 59.7%, were women. Education (63.8%), business (53.0%), and health sciences (43.0%) continue to be the three largest broad fields of study and the fields with the largest proportions of part-time graduate students.

About the report

Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2010 to 2020 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 558 institutions and presents statistics on graduate applications and enrollment for Fall 2020, degrees conferred in 2019-20, and trend data for one-, five- and ten-year periods.

###