FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

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

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) Board of Directors has announced its officers for the 2020 term. CGS is governed by a 12-member Board of Directors drawn from member institutions. Board members serve for set terms.

Dr. Sally Pratt, vice provost for graduate programs at the University of Southern California, was announced as the 2020 Board Chair at the conclusion of the 2019 CGS Annual Meeting. Appointed vice provost in 2010, Pratt is also a professor in the department of Slavic languages and literatures. She has served as dean of Academic Programs in USC Dornsife College and president of the College Faculty Council and the Academic Senate. Under Pratt’s leadership, a system of PhD Program Progress Data was implemented, and she established a group called Friends of the Graduate School comprised of representatives from academic departments, financial aid, campus security, health services, and other offices. She is interested in a variety of topics, including student wellness, increasing diversity in graduate study, academic professional development, ways of addressing sexual misconduct, and the nature and use of the PhD degree.

“CGS is honored to have Dr. Pratt’s expertise during this important time in graduate education. She has provided exceptional leadership during her tenure at USC and her expertise, particularly in PhD career pathways and student mental health and wellbeing, will help advance CGS’ mission to meet the evolving needs of our member institutions,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega.

The new Chair-elect, Dr. Andrew G. Campbell serves as the dean of the Graduate School at Brown University. Appointed to his role in 2016, Campbell is also professor of Medical Science in the Division of Biology & Medicine at Brown. He has taught and advised Brown undergraduate and graduate students since his faculty appointment began in 1994. He has received many honors, including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, American Foundations for AIDS Research Investigator Award, and Brown’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Faculty Governance. Campbell is PI and Co-PI for two National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants and leads the NIH-funded Initiative to Maximize Student Development in Brown’s Division of Biology and Medicine, a program to improve recruiting and performance of URM students in doctoral programs.

Beginning their three-year terms on the board on January 1, 2020, are Dr. Suzanne Barbour, dean of The Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Dr. H. Dele Davies, senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean for graduate studies at the University of Nebraska Medical Center; and Dr. Thomas Jeitschko, dean of the Graduate School and associate provost for graduate education at Michigan State University.

Dr. Christopher Sindt, provost and dean of the Graduate School at Lewis University, will remain on CGS’s Executive Committee for one year as immediate past chair.

“Dr. Sindt has provided exceptional leadership during his term as CGS Board Chair,” Ortega said. “He has contributed greatly to the success of graduate students at his own institution and to graduate education more broadly in his efforts to improve career and professional development and student success.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                             

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. Barbara A. Knuth, dean of The Graduate School at Cornell University, is the 2019 recipient of the Debra W. Stewart Award for Outstanding Leadership in Graduate Education. Knuth received the honor at an awards ceremony held during the CGS 59th Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN.

For her invaluable contributions to the Cornell University graduate community, Dr. Knuth becomes the fourth Debra W. Stewart Award recipient. A passionate advocate for graduate education, Dr. Knuth implemented an array of student and program assessment initiatives to foster student success and continual academic program improvement including student and alumni surveys and data transparency dashboards.

During her years as dean, Knuth secured external resources to improve graduate education through multiple awards from NSF, CGS, Teagle, etc. She has fostered an inclusive and holistic approach to graduate student success through supporting programs including My Voice My Story facilitated discussions, Future Professors Institute, NextGen Professors, and Careers Beyond Academia, and is Co-PI on Cornell’s McNair program and PI on Cornell’s AGEP award.

Knuth has been involved in many CGS projects, including Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement, Enhancing Student Financial Education and Literacy, and Preparing Future Faculty. She served on the Board of Directors of the Council of Graduate Schools, the GRE Board, the Executive Committee of the Association of Graduate Schools of the Association of American Universities (AAU), the AAU’s PhD Education Initiative Advisory Board, and on the Steering Committee for the Coalition for Next Generation Life Science.

“Barb’s colleagues in the higher education community recognize, as I do, her deep commitment to graduate education and her many leadership skills, including the ability to analyze and bring clarity to complex issues, to inspire staff and students, and to find creative ways to address problems,” said Cornell University Provost Michael I. Kotlikoff. “Dr. Knuth has been an extraordinarily effective leader for the Graduate School, improving accountability for student outcomes and graduate programs, increasing diversity and improving inclusion, and tirelessly advocating on key issues of most concern to graduate education, including immigration reform, financial aid, research support and healthcare coverage. Our university is indebted to Barb for her outstanding service.”

“Barb’s dedication and commitment to bettering the graduate school community is evidenced in many ways including the implementation of a suite of graduate student alumni surveys designed to inform program improvement and transparency regarding graduate outcomes,” said Dr. Christopher Sindt, provost of Lewis University and chair of the Council’s Board of Directors.   In addition, Sindt noted that “Barb is thoughtful, creative, and deeply committed to graduate education, both at the level of federal policy and at the level of each individual student’s welfare and success.”

The award was created in 2016 by the CGS Board of Directors to recognize outstanding leadership in graduate education, and 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 CGS 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.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:                                                                              

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. Judith Stoddart, senior associate dean, The Graduate School at Michigan State University (MSU), is the 2019 Winner of the Assistant and Associate Deans Leadership Award. The awards ceremony was held during the CGS 59th Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN.

The award was created by the CGS Board of Directors to recognize individuals who have demonstrated 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. Stoddart becomes the award’s first recipient for her valuable contributions to the Michigan State University graduate community. Her many accomplishments include developing new institutional guidelines for mentoring and advising, launching an internal grant program for departments that develop 3-year systemic change projects to recruit and retain traditionally underrepresented students, and formalizing a network among MSU and HBCUs that focuses on cross-institutional mechanisms for enhancing and expanding pathways to the professoriate. Stoddart serves on the steering committee for the Big 10/ACM Mellon Undergraduate and Faculty Fellows Program for a Diverse Professoriate and works with the advisory team for the gradSERU data project.

“Dr. Stoddart lives an extraordinary career of commitment to securing individuals’ aspirations through higher education. Her commitment to elevating higher education in general, and graduate education in particular, by creating more inclusive and more engaging spaces at MSU and beyond is a hallmark of her dedication,” said Thomas D. Jeitschko, dean of the Graduate School and associate provost for graduate education, Michigan State University. “Indeed, throughout her career, her focus has always been on finding resources—often through small grant programs (including some through CGS) or smaller-scale collaborative efforts—that she would leverage into programs, partnerships, and practices that would contribute to impactful and long-lasting institutional change.”

“Our committee viewed the pool of nominated colleagues for this award as exemplary,” stated William F. Tate, selection committee chair, and dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education, Washington University in St. Louis. “Dean Stoddart stood out among this outstanding group of leaders. Her invested leadership at Michigan State University resulted in transparent graduate program improvement including building a pathway for greater access for graduate study among underrepresented student groups. Her efforts represent the very best in intellectual leadership of graduate education. She establishes a high bar as the inaugural awardee.”

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 enrollment marketing and admissions management company, is a CGS Sustaining Member.

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For Immediate Release:

Contacts:

Katherine Hazelrigg, CGS

(202) 461-3888 | khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Ally Norton, ETS

(609) 683-2092 | amnorton@ets.org

Washington, DC – Today the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) and Educational Testing Service (ETS) presented Wayne State University (WSU) with the 2019 ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: From Admission through Completion. Dr. Ingrid Guerra-López, dean of the Graduate School, accepted the co-sponsored award on Wayne State’s behalf during the award ceremony at CGS’s 59^th Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN.

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.

Wayne State University’s program, “Success for Underrepresented students in Graduate Education (SURGE),” is an innovative, multi-faceted approach to increase inclusiveness and to build a steady pipeline of underrepresented students prepared for master’s programs. In partnership with WSU student support services and current graduate students, SURGE combines intensive peer mentoring, inclusive mentoring and leadership training, and scholarship funding to provide students with the support they need to be competitive applicants to a WSU master’s program.

“We are honored and grateful to be the recipient of this important award from ETS/CGS. SURGE embodies Wayne State University’s commitment to prepare a diverse student body to thrive, and positively impact local and global communities.  This initiative is designed to address common challenges faced by students from underrepresented backgrounds,” said Ingrid Guerra-López, dean of the Graduate School.  “SURGE will strengthen students’ support network, promoting a sense of belonging, a growth mindset, and specific skills that will prime them to be competitive applicants to WSU graduate programs.”

“We are grateful to ETS, whose support makes possible this innovative way to promote best practices among graduate schools, said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “The program Wayne State has developed addresses some of the most common barriers to graduate school that underrepresented students face, mitigating cost burdens, addressing feelings of isolation, and providing a network of mentors experienced with the graduate application process.”

“Wayne State University is being recognized for the university’s approach to addressing diversity and inclusion in graduate education by investing in support for underrepresented students as they navigate the graduate application process.” said David G. Payne, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of ETS’ Global Education Division. “Their program focuses on building a pipeline through mentorship, scholarship and leadership training – all critical pieces to ensuring an accessible, inclusive and diverse graduate program.”

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:    

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

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has awarded the 2019 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities to Dr. Nasser Mufti, associate professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The awards ceremony was held during the CGS 59th Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN.

The Arlt Award is given annually to a young scholar-teacher who has written a book deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to scholarship in the humanities. Dr. Mufti becomes the award’s 49^th recipient for his book, Civilizing War: Imperial Politics and the Poetics of National Rupture (Northwestern UP, 2017). He received his PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Irvine in 2012.

In Civilizing War: Imperial Politics and the Poetics of National Rupture, Mufti situates the place of civil war within the politics of empire by examining the “historical transformation of civil war from a civil affair into an uncivil crisis.” Through comparative readings of Thomas Carlyle, Benjamin Disraeli, Friedrich Engels, Nadine Gordimer, and others, Mufti demonstrates how these authors and intellectuals articulated a “poetics of national rupture” that came to signify the metropolitan nation and its colonial “others.” Through Civilizing War, Mufti “shifts the terms of Edward Said’s influential Orientalism to suggest that imperialism was not only organized around the norms of civility but also around narratives of civil war.”

“We are so pleased to present this year’s Arlt award to Dr. Mufti for the outstanding scholarship in his recent book Civilizing War. The Arlt award recognizes exceptional work by early-career humanities faculty, and Dr. Mufti’s work is an important contribution to understanding the complexities of imperialism and the inherent incivility of civil war,” said Dr. Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools.

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 World Language and Literature, Comparative Literature, and Drama/Theater Arts. The winner receives a $1,000 honorarium and travel to the awards ceremony.

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Contacts:

Katherine Hazelrigg, Council of Graduate Schools

(202) 461-3888 | khazelrigg@cgs.nche.edu

Alison Roth, ProQuest

(734) 707-2691 | alison.roth@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 Kishauna E. Soljour and Brian M. Sweis during the Council’s award ceremony at the 59th Annual Meeting in Nashville, TN. Dr. Soljour received her PhD in May 2019 at Syracuse University in history, and Dr. Sweis completed his PhD in 2018 from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities in neuroscience.

Bestowed annually since 1982, the awards recognize recent doctoral recipients who have already made unusually significant and original contributions to their fields. ProQuest, an international leader in educational technology and content – including dissertation archiving, discovery, and access – 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 Distinguished Dissertation Awards demonstrate the significant impact young scholars have in their disciplines,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “Dr. Soljour and Dr. Sweis’s innovative research contributes and expands upon work in their fields and demonstrates the value and impact of graduate education to the world. Their work deserves to be celebrated."

“Drs. Soljour and Sweis are exceptional scholars who have contributed critical insights to their disciplines,” said Angela D’Agostino, Vice President of Product Management for ProQuest’s dissertation products. “ProQuest is proud to partner with CGS to recognize their excellence. The works these scholars have published will contribute to significant advancements in their fields of study, and we’re excited to follow where their research takes them in the future.”

Dr. Soljour received the 2019 Award in Humanities and Fine Arts for her dissertation, Beyond the Banlieue: French Postcolonial Migration & the Politics of a Sub-Saharan Identity. Using oral histories from Black communities in Paris to reveal a rich legacy of sociopolitical, economic, and cultural efforts to navigate and negotiate this divide, Soljour details and historicizes the space between French state acculturation policies and the lived experience of Afro-French residents from 1945-2018. Her project mines the experiences of black diasporic populations in Paris over the past seventy years to reimagine the place and power of race in contemporary French history. Dr. Soljour is currently a senior program manager at Working In Support of Education (W!se).

The 2019 Award in Biological and Life Sciences was presented to Dr. Sweis for his dissertation, Beyond Simple Tests of Value: A neuroeconomic, translational, disease-relevant, and circuit-based approach to resolve the computational complexity of decision making. By combining neuromodulation technologies targeted to circuit specific memories along with neuroeconomics to dissociate complex decision processes, Sweis links specific memories to how decisions are made and how each can uniquely go awry. Through his research, Sweis hopes to “better understand individual differences in pathogenesis and to develop novel interventions tailored to an individual’s circuit-specific computational dysfunction.” Dr. Sweis is currently a physician-scientist trainee at the University of Minnesota Medical School, where is he completing his M.D. in neuroscience.

More information about the CGS / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award is available at www.proquest.com/go/scholars or at www.cgsnet.org.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

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

Washington, DC — Today the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) announced grant funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for The Humanities Coalition, a new effort that will expand CGS’s work to understand and support the careers of PhDs. This latest endeavor seeks to further enhance our understanding of humanities PhDs and their careers and to refine humanities-specific strategies for curricular change and program improvement. One component of the new initiative is additional research to better understand the nature of early career transitions for humanists.

The project, a component of CGS’s Understanding PhD Career Pathways for Program Improvement project, builds upon three earlier phases of CGS Best Practice and research initiatives: a feasibility study supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; a survey development phase supported by Mellon, Sloan, and the National Science Foundation (NSF); and a data collection phase supported by Mellon and NSF.  There are currently 70 universities contributing data to the project.

Through a competitive sub-award process, the new effort will select ten U.S. doctoral-granting institutions to develop and assess initiatives for better supporting humanities PhD students transitioning from graduate school into the workforce. CGS has also received additional support from Mellon to expand the number of institutions currently collecting data about the careers of PhD students and alumni in the humanities.

“The PhD Career Pathways project has already provided valuable information about the careers of humanities PhD alumni and the career aspirations of humanities PhD students,” said Suzanne Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools. “With The Humanities Coalition, we hope to learn more about the kinds of transitions humanities PhDs face as they move from graduate school to career. Humanities PhDs have a wide variety of career pathways in front of them. We need to make sure they know what they are and how to access them.”

Richard Kurin, distinguished scholar and ambassador-at-large at the Smithsonian Institution and member of the CGS Employer Roundtable, provided a perspective from a large employer of humanities degree holders. “We know from CGS’s work on PhD career pathways that humanities PhDs are employed in all major sectors of the economy, and there is no doubt they play a critical role in leading and supporting cultural institutions,” Kurin said. “I am delighted to see that CGS is building on its important work by helping universities develop and refine practices that will help support successful transitions from humanities doctoral programs to a wide variety of career pathways. This can help fulfill the professional aspirations of talented, creative and accomplished scholars and also improve the institutions and causes they serve.”

Over the five-year project, an advisory committee (listed below) will guide CGS’s efforts to increase the impact and reach of the project and provide insights for addressing challenges and opportunities specific to various humanities disciplines. CGS will issue a Request-For-Proposals (RFP) to CGS member institutions to participate in the project as funded partners and will continue to work with its current partners to collect data in both STEM and humanities fields.

Advisory Committee Members:

• Carlos Alonso, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University
• Antoinette Burton, PI, Humanities without Walls; Director, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities; Professor of History and Gender and Women’s Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Susan Carvalho, Associate Provost and Dean of the Graduate School, The University of Alabama
• Joy Connolly, President, American Council of Learned Societies
• Elizabeth Dolan, Deputy Provost for Graduate Education, Lehigh University
• Patricia Easton, Executive Vice President and Provost, The Claremont Graduate University
• Daniel Fisher, Project Director, Humanities for All, National Humanities Alliance
• James Grossman, Executive Director, American Historical Association
• Paula Krebs, Executive Director, Modern Language Association
• Preselfannie Whitfield McDaniels, Dean, Division of Graduate Studies, Jackson State University
• Mary Papazian, President, San José State University
• Rob Townsend, Director of the Humanities Indicators and Director of the Washington Office, American Association of the Arts and Sciences
• Maren Wood, Co-Founder, Beyond the Professoriate

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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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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 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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