Contacts:
Julia Kent, CGS: (202) 223-3791
John McCool, TIAA-CREF: (888) 200-4062

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) today announced awards to 15 universities to develop financial education programs for graduate and undergraduate students. The grants were awarded as part of the groundbreaking CGS best practice program, Enhancing Student Financial Education, co-sponsored by TIAA-CREF, a leading financial services provider. The program comes at a time when public funding for higher education has declined, and the costs associated with higher education continue to rise.

Awardees will work in collaboration with CGS and TIAA-CREF to design programs that prepare students to play an active role in managing their personal finances and making informed decisions about saving, spending and borrowing. The institutions will address the needs of different groups of students, while considering factors such as their fields of study, degree levels and chosen career pathways, each of which has significant financial ramifications.

By surveying and measuring the effectiveness of each school’s programming, the project will enable CGS to develop best practices for improving financial education among college students and graduate students. These findings will be made widely available to the higher education community through interactive tools and resources over the next two years.

The selection of awardees was made through a competitive proposal process involving an independent selection committee of experts in higher education reforms and financial education. The institutions selected to receive funding are:

• Arkansas State University
• Cornell University
• Eastern Illinois University
• Florida A&M University
• Iowa State University
• Kansas State University
• Loyola University Chicago
• Mississippi State University
• The Ohio State University
• University of Colorado System
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• University of Kentucky
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County
• University of South Florida
• Winthrop University

An additional 19 universities will participate in the project as affiliate partners.

CGS President Debra W. Stewart lauded the field of proposals, noting that the project addresses an area of leading concern for graduate deans, according to an annual survey of CGS members. “In collaboration with a range of stakeholders at their institutions, the graduate community is stepping up to help students prepare for the financial challenges of college life and beyond,” Stewart said. “Universities recognize that money management skills are no longer optional. They’re essential for academic success as students work more, borrow more, and balance more family obligations with their studies.”

“By working together, universities and the private sector are uniquely well-positioned to provide students with the tools and resources they need to effectively manage their financial futures,” said Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA-CREF. “Working with CGS, we are proud to partner with schools across the nation to help put students on a path toward fiscal responsibility and financial well-being.”

Proposal evaluation took into consideration the innovations each university will develop to engage and address the needs of different groups of students and considered factors such as degree level, field of study, chosen career path and student demographics. A project’s potential to successfully engage students was also key. Institutions that submitted proposals were asked to provide detailed plans for using online tools, social media, digital solutions and face-to-face interaction to foster student participation.

“Sharing sound advice isn’t enough to help students gain confidence in their financial skills,” said Daniel Denecke, principal investigator for the project and CGS Associate Vice President of Programs and Best Practices. “Undergraduate and graduate students, especially those in the millennial generation, are more likely to respond to personally relevant information than generic advice. This project will make an impact by engaging students and helping them to develop financial strategies to achieve their career goals. And the variety of institutions taking the national lead on this issue, both as awardees and as affiliates, ensures that successful strategies will be relevant and replicable across the higher education community.”

Data collection for the project will begin October 2013 with a baseline survey of student financial knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. A control group of students will be surveyed to measure the effectiveness of interventions, and a post-program survey will examine the progress made by students who participated in the project curriculum and outreach. A survey of financial standing will gather information about household income, savings and borrowing to study how these factors influence students’ financial skills.

More information about the project is available at Enhancing Student Financial Education.

A column in the Chronicle of Higher Education cites CGS attrition and completion statistics and considers thoughtful admissions practices that emphasize finding the right fit between students and programs.

The Asbury Park Press cites CGS data on graduate enrollment and degrees for its story on gender and household income trends.

As explained by Debra W. Stewart of CGS and Roger Ferguson of TIAA-CREF, graduate and undergraduate students are in a tougher financial position today than ever before: The Student Loan Debt Perfect Storm.

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

Washington, DC — Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) President Debra W. Stewart today released the following statement in response to the ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States RE: Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. The case questions whether the University of Texas at Austin is permitted to use race, along with other criteria, in making undergraduate admissions decisions.

On June 24th, the Supreme Court sent the Fisher v. UT Austin case back for review by the U.S. court of appeals for the 5th circuit. As the case continues to be analyzed, it is important to remember that the diversity of American colleges and universities is one of the greatest strengths of the U.S. higher education system. Diverse student populations provide experiences and perspectives that enhance the education of all students, preparing them to work, collaborate and thrive in a variety of contexts. The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) supports the commitments of its U.S. member universities to meeting this 21st-century objective and to developing a broad base of highly educated U.S. talent that will support the health and prosperity of the nation as a whole.

How best to achieve inclusion in a student population is a complex question, and one that must be answered in individual university contexts. The Council of Graduate Schools believes that it is important to protect the autonomy of U.S. institutions to design admissions policies that are customized to their institutional missions.

The arguments in the Fisher v. UT Austin case are based on undergraduate admissions processes, which tend to be uniform and centralized in the Admissions Office of a university. By contrast, the graduate admissions process is decentralized, more nuanced and customized to the missions of individual graduate programs. Institutional autonomy in achieving diversity has far-reaching implications in the graduate education sector for that reason, especially in programs and disciplines that see less diversity than others.

As the Council of Graduate Schools works to help universities respond to this and future rulings, we will stand by our position that the United States must continue to support and develop the diversity of its talent.

The Washington Post interviews students and education leaders about the growing demand for workplace skills that are developed through master's degree programs. 

Minneapolis and Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) is pleased to name Henning Schroeder as the CGS/NSF Dean in Residence for 2013‐14. Dr. Schroeder is currently Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Education at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Schroeder will join CGS on September 1.

The Dean in Residence program was created by CGS and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support communications between senior graduate education leaders and the NSF. In this role, Dr. Schroeder will share with CGS and NSF the insights, perspectives, and practical experience of a senior administrator at a research university, while collaborating with program officers and senior administrators across NSF to help plan future NSF programs and activities.

“I am delighted that Henning will be joining us,” said CGS President Debra W. Stewart. “His leadership and expertise will help CGS build on the strong relationships we have developed among graduate deans, the NSF, and the science and engineering community.”

In accepting the 12‐month appointment, Dr. Schroeder looks forward to advancing the NSF mission of supporting graduate students.

“I am very interested in being part of the broader national discussion on how federal agencies contribute to the support of graduate students,” said Schroeder. “In order to remain globally competitive, graduate programs in the United States may need to revisit their overall curricular structure as well as current modes of educational content delivery.”

“At the University of Minnesota, we have begun to explore incentives and disincentives of existing tuition models in the United States and abroad with the goal of identifying fiscal mechanisms that best support educational goals in graduate education,” continued Schroeder. “Although graduate programs in the U.S. are still providing the highest quality education, other countries are catching up fast. I look forward to exploring these issues further during my time as Dean‐in‐Residence.”

Dr. Schroeder assumed his current position at the University of Minnesota in 2010, and previously served as the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at the College of Pharmacy. He holds a faculty appointment as professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics.

After receiving his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Düsseldorf, Germany, Dr. Schroeder worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Nobel laureate Ferid Murad at Stanford. His research and teaching has been recognized with numerous awards, including a Heisenberg fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the 1997 Innovation Prize from the Martin Luther University of Halle‐Wittenberg.

Contacts:

Julia Kent, CGS: (202) 223‐3791 / jkent@cgs.nche.edu
Molly Schwartz, University of Minnesota, Graduate School: (612) 626‐3314 / haug0068@umn.edu

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

Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) today released the results of its pilot study of completion and attrition trends in master’s programs in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The CGS study, which was made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is the largest of its kind, using data from five institutions to describe completion and attrition rates in STEM master’s programs and MBA programs, and investigating the factors that contribute to the successful completion of the degree. The findings of the project are documented in a new CGS publication, Completion and Attrition in STEM Master’s Programs: Pilot Study Findings.

According to the study, 41 percent of STEM master’s students completed their program of study within two years, while 60 percent completed within three years, and 66 percent completed within four years. With respect to attrition rates, 10 percent of STEM master’s students left their program of study after six months; 17 percent left after one year; and 23 percent left after two years. The median time-to-degree for students in STEM programs was 23 months, and median time-to-attrition was eight months.

Completion rates are on the rise

Completion rates in STEM master’s programs improved gradually between the academic years of 2003-04 and 2006-07. As shown in Figure 1 below, cumulative rates of completion by individual student cohorts increased by six to eight percentage points during the period studied.

According to CGS President Debra W. Stewart, the steady climb in completion rates should be applauded by graduate education stakeholders, but she cautioned that work remains to be done. “Students are investing several years of their lives in graduate programs in order to develop their potential and become leaders in the workforce,” Stewart said. “In turn, graduate schools are making commitments to support their students with academic and career advising programs; employers are providing incentives and financial resources to develop their human capital; and family members are offering emotional support to keep their students on track throughout the rigors of graduate coursework. And yet completion rates in STEM fields, as they appear in this pilot study, are far from optimal, as compared, for example, to MBA completion rates.”

Figure 1. Cumulative Completion Rates by Student Cohort, STEM

Comparisons between STEM, MBA

STEM fields were chosen as the focus of the study due to their close association with innovation, job creation, and positive employment outcomes for degree holders. Masters of Business Administration (MBA) programs were also included in the study as a basis of comparison.

According to the study, 67 percent of MBA students completed their program after two years, compared with 41 percent of STEM students. By years three and four, STEM students continued to trail behind the MBA students, completing at the rates of 60 percent by year three (as compared to 81 percent for the MBA), and 66 percent by year four (compared to 86 percent). The median time-to-degree is almost identical for both types of programs: 23 months for STEM master’s programs and 21 months for MBA programs.

Factors contributing to completion and attrition

The most important factor identified as contributing to the successful completion of a master’s program were motivation and determination, cited by 92 percent of graduating students surveyed. Non-financial family support and pursuing graduate study full-time were tied for second at 82 percent each.

The factor most likely to lead to the inability of a student to earn a master’s degree was interference from employment, cited by 40 percent of respondents. When asked about their future plans, 62 percent of students who had stopped out or dropped out of their programs said they intended to continue working in their current jobs.

Among students who reported having concerns about their ability to complete the degree, the most frequently mentioned source of concern was finding the time required to manage school, work and family commitments. Eighteen percent of first-year students cited concerns with their school/work/life balance. With respect to employment in particular, respondents were worried about balancing work priorities with the demands of schoolwork, noting that job responsibilities received the highest priority.

About the Master’s Completion Project

CGS began an exploratory study on the topic of master’s completion and attrition in 2009 and launched the current pilot study in November 2010 with funding provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.  Elizabeth Boylan, Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation commented, “This pilot study is a milestone in understanding master’s education in STEM fields. It represents the Foundation’s commitment to assisting institutions to better understand the progress of students to their degrees, and then into the STEM workforce that is essential to America’s economic and scientific competitiveness.”

Five institutions were selected through a competitive process to participate as research partners for the study: Loyola University Chicago, Purdue University, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Texas A&M University, and Wright State University. For more about the Master’s Completion Project, please visit http://www.cgsnet.org/masters-completion-project.

CGS President Debra W. Stewart responds to an editorial in the Washington Post that supported student loan changes, but overlooked the importance of graduate education.

CQ Weekly profiles CGS Vice President for Public Policy and Government Affairs, Beth Buehlmann.