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.

The trend continued for graduate students, who have declined in rates of both application and enrollment for two consecutive years, according to a Council of Graduate Schools report released in February.

Advanced degrees have long been associated with better career prospects and higher earnings. Women seem to be especially aware of that, as the Council of Graduate Schools/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees noted that, in the fall of 2017, the majority of first-time graduate students at all levels were women. Among master’s degree candidates that fall, 59 percent were female while 53.5 percent of doctoral candidates were women.

According to a Council of Graduate Schools survey of more than 240 institutions, international graduate student applications fell by four percent between the fall of 2017 and the fall of 2018.  While the total number of international students in the U.S. grew last year to a total of over 1 million, new student enrollment declined by over six percent over the same period. 

Improving diversity, equity and inclusion in graduate education should involve intentional efforts to enhance student experience by cultivating a nurturing campus climate through broadening access, mitigating bias and providing strong support services.

Those were persistent themes Tuesday at “Strategies for Increasing Graduate Program Diversity,” a day of speakers, sessions and panels at American University presented by Educational Testing Service in collaboration with the Council of Graduate Schools.

According to TIAA, the free website program, developed with technology firm EVERFI Inc., utilizes research findings from a study of 13,000 graduate students over a three-year collaboration between TIAA, the Council of Graduate Schools and more than 30 universities.

The program leverages key findings from research conducted with 13,000 graduate students as part of a three-year collaboration among Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), TIAA and more than 30 leading universities.

At U.S. universities, the number of international graduate applications grew by 6 percent in mathematics and computer sciences between fall 2017 and fall 2018, according to the Council of Graduate Schools.