Washington, DC — Debra W. Stewart announced today that she will step down as President of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) effective June 30, 2014. Since July 2000, Stewart has served as president of the leading national organization in the United States dedicated to the advancement of graduate education and research.

In a message sent today to graduate education leaders of the 547 CGS member institutions, Stewart said, “It has been a great privilege to serve as your president. CGS is a strong organization and you, the CGS deans, are the foundation of that strength. Your engagement makes the work we do here in Washington a privilege and a pleasure.”

Stewart plans to remain actively engaged in graduate and higher education issues, initially turning her energies to writing and research on graduate education as a Senior Scholar at CGS.

Robert Augustine, Chair of the CGS Board of Directors and Dean of the Graduate School at Eastern Illinois University, said, “Debra Stewart has provided dynamic and visionary leadership for CGS during a period of rapid change in graduate education and research. Under her direction, the council has become a nationally and globally recognized 'think tank' on graduate education, advancing best practices that have been adopted by a remarkable number of institutions.”

During her tenure as CGS President, Dr. Stewart has led groundbreaking initiatives in the area of research, public policy, institutional benchmarking and global graduate education. In the best practice research area, the council has advanced the graduate community’s understanding of factors associated with degree completion at the master’s and doctoral level; led the development of the highly successful professional master’s degree; and, in partnership with member institutions, developed best practices for research integrity education for graduate students, among other projects. Stewart has also led the council in advancing one of the council’s key policy issues, developing the highly-skilled human talent needed for the 21st century economy and workforce, by building collaborations between graduate institutions, business leaders and policy makers.

In the international arena, Stewart has been instrumental in expanding the council’s international membership with the goal of promoting better collaboration and understanding among CGS’s North American members and graduate institutions worldwide.  To support these efforts, Stewart led the creation of the Strategic Leaders Global Summit on Graduate Education, an annual CGS event that has brought together graduate education leaders from 30 countries in its seven-year history.

A national search for Stewart’s successor will be formally announced later this month.

Young Americans continue to pursue careers in public service, although the hiring outlook for public sector employment is not as strong as other sectors. According to the 2012 CGS/GRE Graduate Enrollment and Degrees Survey, first-time graduate enrollment for “public administration and services” climbed 5 percent in 2012 and has increased 3.6 percent on average over the previous five years.

More than one-third of college students are people of color, yet nearly 80 percent of the nation’s college and university faculty members are white. An October 2013 feature story by Insight Into Diversity looks at several programs working to close the gap in higher education faculty diversity, including the CGS initiative, Preparing Future Faculty.

According to Nature magazine, graduate students face big decisions about money and can benefit from wise counsel and careful forethought, through efforts such as the CGS Best Practices program, Enhancing Student Financial Literacy.

USA Today looks at the significant differences in enrollment trends for domestic and international students, as revealed in the 2012 CGS/GRE Graduate Enrollment and Degrees survey.

CGS Director of Research and Policy Analysis, Jeff Allum, discusses the drop in applications to graduate programs in business that was reported by institutions responding to the 2012 CGS/GRE Graduate Enrollment and Degrees Survey.

More foreign students are entering U.S. graduate schools and dominating in critical fields such as computer sciences and engineering, as enrollment by Americans remains sluggish, according to the 2012 CGS/GRE Graduate Enrollment and Degrees Survey.

Graduate leaders are interviewed by the Chronicle of Higher Education to discuss the mixed trends revealed by the CGS/GRE Graduate Enrollment and Degrees Survey.

First-time enrollment in doctoral programs in the arts and humanities rose 7.7 percent in fall 2012. Inside Higher Ed discusses with CGS President Debra W. Stewart and other humanities experts what this means for graduate schools and future PhD job seekers.

Domestic Enrollment Still a Concern, Especially in STEM Fields

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

Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) reported today a 1.8% increase in first-time enrollment between fall 2011 and fall 2012. More than 461,000 students enrolled for the first time in graduate certificate, education specialist, master’s, or doctoral programs for the fall 2012, according to institutions responding to the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees, an annual survey that has been conducted since 1986.

Despite the gains in first-time enrollment, total graduate enrollment fell 2.3% following a 0.8% decline in the previous year. Total graduate enrollment was nearly 1.74 million students in fall 2012.

Institutions responding to the survey received nearly 1.98 million applications for admission to fall 2012 graduate programs. Applications rose 3.9% between fall 2011 and fall 2012. The overall acceptance rate was slightly lower than the previous year, with 39.5% of applications resulting in offers of admission for fall 2012. As CGS also reported last year, the fact that first-time enrollment trends have not matched the growth in applications may be a sign that many qualified students who wish to attend graduate school are faced with obstacles to enrolling.

First-time graduate enrollment of temporary residents increased 8% between fall 2011 and fall 2012, according to survey respondents, up slightly from the 7.8% increase in fall 2011. In contrast, the growth in first-time graduate enrollment for U.S. citizens and permanent residents between fall 2011 and fall 2012 was essentially stagnant at 0.6%. In fall 2012, more than one-half (54.7%) of all temporary resident graduate students were enrolled in engineering, mathematics and computer sciences, physical and earth sciences, or biological and agricultural sciences. Only 17.3% of U.S. citizens/permanent residents were enrolled in these fields.

CGS President Debra W. Stewart viewed the data for first-time graduate enrollment with cautious optimism. “It’s certainly good news that the number of new students enrolling in U.S. graduate programs is trending upward. However the trend must accelerate if we are to gain ground against previous losses.” Stewart added that this is particularly the case for domestic students. “An increase of less than one percent in first-time enrollment for domestic students is worrisome given that the U.S. economy will have an increasing need for highly-skilled talent in order to thrive. Our country must do more to address the economic factors, like student debt, that discourage many students from enrolling in U.S. graduate programs.”

One piece of encouraging news contained in the report is that first-time enrollment for underrepresented minorities has increased. Among survey respondents, first-time graduate enrollment rose 7.4% for Hispanic/Latinos, 5.7% for American Indians/Alaska Natives, and 4.6% for Blacks/African Americans between fall 2011 and fall 2012.

Other report findings include: 

Trends by field

• The largest one-year changes in graduate applications between fall 2011 and fall 2012 occurred in mathematics and computer sciences (11.1%), health sciences (9.6%), and engineering (9.3%).
• Applications to graduate programs in business rose 0.7% between fall 2011 and fall 2012, much slower than the 4.3% growth in the previous year.
• First-time enrollment in education programs grew 2.5% for fall 2012, compared to a sharp drop of 8.8% in fall 2011.
• The largest fields by total enrollment were education and business, respectively accounting for 20% and 16% of total graduate enrollment at responding institutions in fall 2012.

Trends by degree level

• About 74% of all graduate students in fall 2012 were enrolled in programs leading to a master’s degree or a graduate certificate, according to survey respondents.
• Responding institutions awarded approximately 67,200 doctoral degrees, 540,000 master’s degrees, and 31,900 graduate certificates in 2011-12.
• Between fall 2011 and fall 2012, first-time enrollment increased by 5.0% at the doctoral level and 1.2% at the master’s level.

Student demographics

• About 58% of all first-time graduate students in fall 2012 were women, according to survey respondents.
• According to survey respondents, women earned nearly two-thirds of the graduate certificates, 60% of the master’s degrees, and 52% of the doctorates. Academic year 2011-12 marked the fourth straight year women earned a majority of doctoral degrees.
• Over the 2011-2012 period, first-time enrollment for Whites fell by 0.9%.

About the report

Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2002 to 2012 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 covers enrollment in all fields of graduate study and is the only source of national data on graduate applications. The report includes responses from 675 institutions, which collectively confer about 73% of the master’s degrees and 91% of the doctorates awarded each year. The survey report presents statistics on graduate applications and enrollment for fall 2012, degrees conferred in 2011-12, and trend data for one-, five- and ten-year periods.