Julia Kent, CGS                                                  

(202) 461-3874                                       

jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Tom Ewing, ETS

(609) 683-2803

tewing@ets.org  

Washington, DC – The seventh annual ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: From Admission through Completion was presented to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The award is sponsored by CGS and Educational Testing Service (ETS). Dr. Robin L. Garrell, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of The Graduate Division, accepted the award on UCLA’s behalf during the 55th Annual Meeting of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS).

The award recognizes promising, innovative proposals to enhance student success and degree completion at the master’s or doctoral level 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.

UCLA plans to build upon an existing web-based platform, the Graduate and Postdoctoral Educational Support (GRAPES), and create a new tool – Smart Recommendations (Smart Recs) – that will provide funding information to students based on their unique backgrounds, academic pursuits, and aspirational goals. Once the Smart Recs platform for funding information is built, UCLA plans to expand it to include other recommendations to support student success, such as information on campus seminars and workshops, professional and career development opportunities, and key deadlines.

[From left: Robin Garrell, Vice Provost, Graduate Education and Dean, Graduate Division accepts on behalf of University of California, Los Angeles, the 2015 ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education: From Admission through Completion; David Payne, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Global Education, ETS ]

“We are excited about developing a dynamic, customized recommendation system that will support the success of UCLA graduate students. The potential impact of Smart Recs extends well beyond our campus. We hope that other institutions will take note of our UX design methodology, with its focus on the graduate student user experience.” Dr. Garrell said. “Because the software architecture is largely open-source, we look forward to exploring ways the underlying technology and infrastructure can be shared.”

“The practices showcased by this award competition greatly benefit the graduate education community,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “On behalf of our members, I thank the University of California Los Angeles for sharing their creative expertise with graduate institutions everywhere by designing a platform that will provide graduate schools with better tools to bolster graduate student success. And of course, I thank ETS, whose support makes possible this novel way to promote best practices among the graduate community.”

David Payne, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Global Education at ETS, also lauded UCLA’s innovation. “Smart Recs will provide much needed support to prospective and current graduate students and postdocs as they move through admissions, deadlines, courses and seminars, professional development and especially funding,” said Payne. “With this initiative, UCLA brings it all together in one place to save students time, reduce frustration and make for easier access to necessary information to help them pursue their studies and careers. Importantly, Smart Recs will meet students where they spend a great deal of time and where they look to gain information – online and connected to useful and needed information.”

This year, the selection committee chose one institution to be named as Honorable Mention: The University of Buffalo, SUNY for the “Master’s 360 – Enhancing Opportunities for Academic Success and Professional Development.” This project’s aim is to expand the existing initiatives of the iSEED program to enhance and improve academic success for all URMs in any discipline at the master’s level. Graham Hammill, vice provost for graduate education and dean of the Graduate School, was recognized during the award luncheon.

Julia Kent, Council of Graduate Schools                                               

(202) 461-3874                                                            

jkent@cgs.nche.edu                 

Beth Dempsey, ProQuest

(248) 349-7810

beth.dempsey@proquest.com                           

Awards recognize outstanding research by graduates in the fields of Biological & Life Sciences and Humanities & Fine Arts

Washington, DC – The Council of Graduate Schools / ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Awards, the nation’s most prestigious honors for doctoral dissertations, were presented to Jeongmin Choi and Timo Schaefer at an awards ceremony during the Council’s 55th Annual Meeting. Dr. Choi completed her PhD in 2014 at University of Missouri, in Plant Science, and Dr. Schaefer received his PhD in 2015 from Indiana University, in History.

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 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, a $2,000 honorarium, and funds for travel to the awards ceremony.

“The Distinguished Dissertation Awards demonstrate the dramatic impact young scholars have on their fields,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “It’s a testament to the vitality and value of graduate education when recently minted PhDs contribute and expand upon knowledge to raise the level of understanding in their fields.”

Austin McLean, director, ProQuest Scholarly Communication and Dissertations Publishing said, “ProQuest has devoted decades to improving both discovery of and access to dissertations because of the vital roles they play in advancing knowledge. We’re delighted to honor the excellent examples Dr. Choi and Dr. Schaefer have provided of the fresh perspectives and innovative thinking that are found in graduate works.”​

The 2015 Award in the Biological and Life Sciences was presented to Dr. Choi for her dissertation, “Identification of an extracellular adenosine 5’–triphosphate receptor in Arabidopsis thaliana.” Recent research demonstrates Adenosine 5’-triphosphate (ATP) plays an important role in plant growth, development, and stress responses. This project focuses on the enigmatic mechanism of extracellular ATP recognition in plants. Choi describes “a mutant screen that identified a key molecular component involved in extracellular ATP recognition in Arabidopsisthaliana. The gene identified by isolation of an ATP-insensitive mutant was termed DORN1 (Does not respond to Nucleotides 1).” She argues that DORN1 is “essential for perception of extracellular ATP and likely plays a variety of roles in plant stress responses.” Dr. Choi is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge.

[From left: Suzanne T. Ortega, CGS; Jeongmin Choi, winner, 2015 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award; Marlene Coles, ProQuest]

Dr. Schaefer received the 2015 Award in Humanities and Fine Arts for his dissertation, “The Social Origins of Justice: Mexico in the Age of Utopian Failure, 1821-1870.”  His project is a “comparative study of legal-institution building in indigenous towns, mestizo towns, and estate (hacienda) settlements in post-independence Mexico.” Schaefer argues that “struggles over the shape of Mexico’s post-colonial justice system turned on different conceptions of the appropriate place of labor in social life.” He concludes that “the historical failure of liberalism in nineteenth-century Mexico was linked to the defeat of a civic imagination that had conceived of labor not as the subordinate or alienated pole in an antagonistic property relation but as the constitutive and ordering power of all social life.” Dr. Schaefer is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of History at the University of British Columbia.

[From left: Suzanne T. Ortega, CGS; Timo Schaefer, winner, 2015 ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award; Marlene Coles, ProQuest]

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

International Students Continue to Drive Growth

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

Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) today reported a 3.5% one-year increase in first-time graduate enrollment between Fall 2013 and Fall 2014—the largest since 2009. Institutions responding to the CGE/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment & Degrees received more than 2.1 million applications for Fall 2014, extended over 850,000 offers of admission in Fall 2014, and enrolled nearly 480,000 incoming, first-time graduate students in fall 2014 graduate certificate, education specialist, master’s or doctoral programs—all new highs.

CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega emphasized that enrollment growth is critical to meeting the needs of the U.S. economy. “The increase in overall enrollments is good news, but the disparity between U.S. and international growth is a cause for concern.”

Ortega pointed to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting employers to add nearly 2.4 million jobs requiring a graduate degree or higher between 2012 and 2022. At this rate, Ortega said, additional master’s and doctoral degree holders are needed to make that projected result possible. “Greater investments in graduate education and research—supporting both domestic and international students—will be required to keep up with the demand for graduate level talent in the future,” Ortega said.

The contributions of international graduate students are becoming increasingly important to the U.S. graduate education enterprise. From 2004 to 2014, international students accounted for over two-thirds of the growth in first-time enrollment headcounts at U.S. graduate institutions. Furthermore, international students are more likely than their domestic counterparts to study in STEM fields. In Fall 2014, 65.9% of all temporary resident graduate students were enrolled in biological and agricultural sciences, engineering, mathematics and computer sciences, physical and earth sciences, or social and behavioral sciences. In contrast, only 27.1% of U.S. citizen/permanent resident graduate students were enrolled in these fields.

Other report findings include: 

Findings by field

• Applications to graduate programs in business increased 5.4% between Fall 2013 and Fall 2014.
• The largest one-year changes in graduate applications between Fall 2013 and Fall 2014 occurred in mathematics and computer sciences (22.0%) and engineering (10.5%).
• In terms of first-time enrollment, the fastest-growing fields were mathematics and computer science and engineering, growing at 21.3% and 10.7%, respectively, between Fall 2013 and Fall 2014.  
• First-time enrollment in education programs decreased 1.3% for Fall 2014.
• The largest fields by total enrollment were education and business, respectively accounting for 19% and 15% of total graduate enrollment at responding institutions in Fall 2014.

Findings by degree level

• Three-quarters (73.1%) of all graduate students in Fall 2014 were enrolled in programs leading to a master’s degree or a graduate certificate, according to survey respondents.
• Responding institutions awarded approximately 73,000 doctoral degrees, 526,000 master’s degrees, and 36,000 graduate certificates in 2013-14.
• Between Fall 2013 and Fall 2014, first-time enrollment increased by 1.9% at the doctoral-level and increased by 3.7% at the master’s-level.

Student demographics

• Nearly six in ten (57.9%) of all first-time graduate students in Fall 2014 were women, according to survey respondents.
• According to survey respondents, women earned nearly two-thirds (65.9%) of the graduate certificates, 59.0% of the master’s degrees, and 52.2% of the doctorates. Academic year 2013-14 marked the sixth straight year women earned a majority of doctoral degrees.
• Nearly one quarter (24.2%) of all first-time graduate students who were U.S. citizens and permanent residents were from racially/ethnically underrepresented populations. Although there were increases in first-time graduate enrollment between Fall 2013 and Fall 2014 among Hispanics/Latinos (6.8%) and Blacks/African Americans (2.0%), there was a 3.0% decline among American Indians/Alaska Natives.

About the report

Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2004 to 2014 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, which includes responses from 636 institutions, presents statistics on graduate applications and enrollment for fall 2014, degrees conferred in 2013-14, and trend data for one-, five- and ten-year periods.

International Applications Up 2% for Fall 2015

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

Washington, DC—New data from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) provides a first-ever breakdown of international graduate applications by degree objective. The report, 2015 CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey: Preliminary Applications, collects data on international graduate applications by all geographic regions and fields of study, revealing trends important to the graduate research enterprise and our understanding of the global competition for top talent. Conducted annually since 2004, the survey was expanded this year to distinguish between applications to programs at the doctorate and master’s & certificate levels. 

The findings show that degree objectives of international applicants vary dramatically by country of origin and field of study, and in some cases contrast with those of their domestic U.S. counterparts.

No sending country favored master’s studies more than India, where 84% of graduate applications were for admission to master’s & certificate programs. The master’s share of graduate applications was also large among students from China (64%) Saudi Arabia (60%), and Taiwan (52%). Smaller shares of graduate applications went to master’s programs from prospective international graduate students from Mexico (50%), Canada (45%), Brazil (43%), Europe (35%), and South Korea (30%).

Overall, international students applied to doctoral programs in higher proportion than their domestic U.S. counterparts. Thirty-seven percent of international graduate enrollments were in PhD programs, compared to only 17 percent among U.S. citizens and permanent residents, according to the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees.

According to CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega, the additional data on degree objectives is illuminating for U.S. graduate schools, even as it leads to more questions about the goals and motivations of international graduate students. “Now that our international survey offers data by degree objective, we will have a more nuanced picture of the encouraging growth we have seen in international applications to U.S. graduate programs,” Ortega said. “Our challenge is to investigate what these new data can tell us about the market for advanced skills. Are students preparing for careers in the U.S. or at home after earning their degree? Are they drawn here by academic reputations, employment prospects, or professional advancement? How do economic conditions in the U.S. and abroad influence international graduate enrollments?”

Trends by country of origin

International graduate applications for Fall 2015 increased 2% from Fall 2014, for a total 676,484 applications received by the U.S. institutions responding to the survey. For the third consecutive year, applications from China were down (-2%) while applications from India posted double-digit growth (12%). China remains the largest source of prospective students for U.S. programs, representing 39% of all international graduate applications. India continues to narrow the gap between first- and second-largest source country, reaching 28% of international applications for Fall 2015. South Korea, the third-largest sending country, increased 4% after three straight years of declines.

Trends by field of study

Growth in applications was driven by engineering and physical & earth sciences, which gained 4% and 14%, respectively. Together these STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields account for 50% of all applications to U.S. graduate programs from prospective international students for Fall 2015. This makes international graduate students crucial to U.S. research and workforce needs. Experts (including CGS) have pointed out the American economy’s demand for advanced STEM skills is unlikely to be met by homegrown talent alone, as only 16% of U.S. citizens and permanent residents enrolled in graduate programs are studying in STEM fields, according to the CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees.  

In another finding of the Preliminary Applications report, international applications to graduate programs in business fell 2%, the first decline in this field since the survey launched in 2004. Nevertheless, business was the third largest field of study, accounting for 13% of international graduate applications.

About the report

Findings from the 2015 CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey: Preliminary Applications are based on an annual survey of international graduate student applications among U.S. institutions. Some responding institutions may continue to receive international applications after the completion of the report. For this reason the figures are preliminary. Final application, admission and enrollment figures will be reported in late 2015. Final application numbers have traditionally tracked very closely to the preliminary numbers. Analysis from the 2015 Preliminary Applications report includes responses from 377 schools, including 80% of the top 100 institutions awarding the largest number of degrees to international graduate students. Collectively, the respondents to this year’s survey award about 70% of the degrees granted to international graduate students in the U.S. The full report is available at http://cgsnet.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/Intl_I_2015_report_final.pdf.

Contact:
Nate Thompson, CGS: (202) 223-3791 / nthompson@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) today announced it will partner with ProQuest to explore the future of doctoral dissertations in a new Best Practice project, which will culminate in a workshop to be held in Washington, D.C. in January of 2016. The two-day workshop will convene graduate deans, publishers, library and information professionals, and other stakeholders to discuss how emerging technologies and other innovations in doctoral training may shape the Ph.D. dissertation of the future.

CGS plans to invite scholars and experts from different stakeholder groups to write short pieces on their view of the current state and future prospects of doctoral dissertations, and to collect these papers into an edited volume that will be distributed to CGS membership. “Ultimately, the goal will be to determine the questions that will require more sustained consideration by the graduate community,” explained CGS President, Suzanne Ortega. “What information do deans need to navigate the shifting landscape of doctoral dissertations? What kinds of questions should we be asking of our structures and policies, our staff and faculty partners, and our students?”

The changing nature of academic publishing and scholarly dissemination, new technologies, and new paradigms for graduate education have caused some to question whether the traditional doctoral dissertation should remain a strict requirement for the completion of the PhD. Might dissertations take different forms (such as through a series of blog posts or as collaborative work)? How might the dissertation be structured to reduce time to degree? What is needed to ensure nontraditional dissertations are archived sustainably? What, if any, differences exist among the broad disciplinary fields of humanities and social sciences and STEM dissertations? What roles do open access dissertations and embargoes play? These questions, among others, will continue to structure the conversation in the graduate community about doctoral dissertations.

ProQuest, renowned as a gateway for discovery and access to dissertations and theses from the world’s leading universities, will support this project. “This collaboration with CGS is both exciting and important,” said Niels Dam, ProQuest Vice President, Product Management. “As holder of the world's largest collection of dissertation and theses, and partner to over 3000 global institutions we are pleased to be sharing data, metrics, and on-the-ground insight that will inform the discussion about the next generation of doctoral dissertations and help the dissertations community prepare for the future.”

CGS plans to share results of the project in the spring of 2016.

Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that Edelma Huntley, Dean of the Graduate School and Chief Research Officer at Appalachian State University from 2006 to 2014, has been named the CGS Dean-in-Residence for 2015-16. Dr. Huntley brings to the post significant experience leading graduate education, including serving as President of the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools (CSGS) from 2012 to 2014, and serving two terms on the CGS Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Huntley will join CGS on August 1. 

The CGS Dean-in-Residence program was created to infuse a campus-based perspective and vision across a variety of the Council’s programs and initiatives. The Dean-in-Residence works on multiple projects aligned with his or her interests and the Council’s needs.

“Dr. Huntley has been at the forefront of national initiatives to develop professional master’s programs in arts and sciences, and she has supported students in these programs by creating additional research opportunities for them,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “Her expertise in master’s education will greatly benefit CGS members, especially as the Council prepares to launch new research efforts in this area.”

In accepting the appointment, Huntley pointed to important issues in graduate education she will help the Council address. “CGS has been a valuable resource for me throughout my career, and I look forward with great excitement to participating more fully in the work that CGS is doing, particularly in preparing future faculty, preparing graduate students for careers outside the academy, and exploring new developments in master's education.”

As Dean of the Graduate School and Chief Research Officer at Appalachian State University, Huntley oversaw development of the institution’s first Professional Science Master’s programs, graduate certificates, dual degrees, and accelerated baccalaureate-to-master’s programs. She chaired a committee that envisioned and developed the Research Institute for Environment, Energy, and Economics. Huntley also created the Graduate Research Associates Mentoring Program at Appalachian State, providing two years of support for promising master’s-level researchers to work with faculty mentors.

Dr. Huntley holds a PhD in Restoration and 18th Century British Literature from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. At Appalachian State, she was the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award and a campus-level, North Carolina Board of Governors Teaching Award.

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

Findings Suggest New Strategies for Improving Retention and Completion

Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) today released findings from the Doctoral Initiative on Minority Attrition and Completion (DIMAC), a 3-year study that examined patterns of degree completion and attrition among underrepresented minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF #1138814), the project collected data from doctoral students at twenty-one universities in the United States, including universities affiliated with NSF’s Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program.

The most recent project in a series of CGS research studies on doctoral completion trends, DIMAC has resulted in the most comprehensive account of STEM doctoral completion and attrition for underrepresented minorities (URM) in the U.S. In the context of the study, URM includes U.S. students and permanent residents who self-identify as American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African-American, and Hispanic/Latino.

Completion Trends

The DIMAC report provides completion rates, attrition rates, times-to-degree and times-to-attrition of URM STEM doctoral students using data spanning academic years 1992/93 to 2011/12. There is some data to suggest that from the earliest cohort to the most recent, there have been slight improvements in completion outcomes.

A key finding of the data on student completion rates is that completion outcomes vary by student characteristics, with some of the most notable differences emerging in the analysis of race/ethnicity and field of study. Over a ten-year period, 54% of students completed a doctorate. Looking at ten-year completion data by student characteristics,

• doctoral students in the life sciences completed at 63%, while candidates in physical &mathematical sciences experienced a rate of 45%.
• Hispanic/Latinos completed at a rate of 58%, while Black/African Americans completed at a rate of50%.
• women completed at a rate of 56%, while the ten-year completion rate for men was 52%.
• ten-year completion was 57% for students with a prior master’s degree, and 52% for those withouta master’s.

More analysis of trend data by student characteristics can be found in Chapter 3 of the report.

Student Experiences

DIMAC also collected data on students’ experiences of their doctoral programs through a Doctoral Student Survey, conducted in fall 2012, and focus group interviews at 16 institutions conducted throughout 2013. While many respondents reported a positive sense of their peers, advisors, and their doctoral programs overall, a minority expressed uneasiness as they moved into the dissertation phase of study. Students in this advanced stage of study, for example, were more likely to report that faculty did not understand the challenges they were experiencing.

CGS President Suzanne Ortega remarked that the findings demonstrate the need to support underrepresented doctoral students at every stage of a doctoral program. “One of the striking lessons from this study is that the dissertation phase is a particularly critical time for students. Our country’s STEM workforce will lose a great deal of potential talent if we don’t help underrepresented doctoral students cross the finish line.”

Key Recommendations

The study also explored institutional practices that can help support underrepresented minorities working to complete STEM doctoral programs. Data sources shed light on the value of four particular elements: 1) conducting interventions throughout the entire doctoral process; 2) providing students with enhanced academic support; 3) monitoring and evaluating programs and interventions; and 4) cultivating a culture of diversity and inclusion.

Additional information about student experiences of program features and interventions (i.e., advising and mentoring, networking, research and professional development, and non-financial support) can be found in Chapter 4 of the report.

About the report

The DIMAC project collected and analyzed four main sources of data: student-level enrollment data provided by institutions; an inventory of institutional policies; responses to a student survey; and information obtained from focus group interviews with students and university personnel. Active participation from 21 institutions resulted in over 7,500 student records. Over 1,600 URM STEM doctoral students were surveyed and 320 URM STEM doctoral students (and as many or more faculty and administrators) participated in focus groups at 16 institutions.

Contact
Nate Thompson
nthompson@cgs.nche.edu
(202) 223-3791

Washington, D.C. — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) today announced it has been awarded grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to advance national and local understandings of the career pathways of PhD holders. Over the next nine months, with input from a range of stakeholders in the higher education community, CGS will develop a survey instrument and guidelines for data collection across a broad range of fields. These guidelines will be designed to help universities gather long-term career information from their PhD students and alumni with the goal of improving PhD programs.

A recently-completed CGS feasibility study also funded by the Sloan and Mellon Foundations found evidence that a lack of clear national standards for data collection is a major barrier to institutions seeking to understand the career pathways of their PhD alumni. In the project just announced, CGS will convene an advisory committee of graduate deans and other experts, which will advise CGS staff in developing a survey instrument and a framework document outlining methodological standards for data collection. This data collection instrument and framework document is intended to support universities’ collection and use of program-level PhD career information from matriculation through 15 years past graduation in STEM, social science, and humanities fields.

CGS will also convene two day-long workshops to develop partnerships and benefit from the expertise of stakeholder groups. One workshop will bring together higher education associations, disciplinary societies and federal agencies that use or collect career data on PhDs, while the other will convene graduate deans, provosts and other senior academic leaders. These workshops will provide occasions for these groups to share perspectives and expertise that will inform the work of the project.

CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega explained, “We have heard for many years, and from many sectors, that universities need a better understanding of the long-term career outcomes of their PhD graduates. This information is critical for helping graduate educators to develop curricula and professional development programs that better prepare students for the full range of careers they are likely to follow. We are delighted that the Alfred P. Sloan and Andrew W. Mellon Foundations are lending their support to CGS as we begin to address this important knowledge gap.”

Support for the CGS project is part of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s longstanding commitment to fostering improvement and innovation in STEM higher education. Past Sloan-supported efforts in this area include fostering college and university data collection on student entry and retention in STEM fields, the creation of the Professional Science Master’s degree, and the founding of eight University Centers of Exemplary Mentoring devoted to improving graduate education of underrepresented minorities in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering.

“Understanding the career pathways of doctoral recipients is absolutely essential to creating PhD programs that maximize value both to students and society as a whole, and CGS is very well-positioned to lead this initiative.” says Elizabeth S. Boylan, Program Director of the Sloan Foundation’s STEM Higher Education program.  “We are proud to be partnering with the Mellon Foundation in support of this vital effort to craft national data-collection standards and practices that have the potential to transform what we know about the careers of Ph.D. recipients and to improve the quality of programs for future students.”

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has long supported efforts to improve the intellectual and professional outcomes of doctoral education in the humanities. The Foundation assists universities and professional organizations in launching initiatives that broaden the preparation of PhD students for a variety of professional trajectories in as well as outside the academy. It also fosters collaborations within and among institutions that support disciplinary innovation.

“We are delighted to partner with the Sloan Foundation in supporting CGS in its initiative to make progress on this important issue,” stated Mariët Westermann, Vice President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  “We believe an approach that combines PhD career path tracking in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences is most likely to be successful across American universities.”

Results of the project will be shared with the higher education community in December 2015.

Contacts:
Julia Kent, CGS
(202) 223-3791 / jkent@cgs.nche.edu

Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that Robert M. (Bob) Augustine, Dean of the Graduate School, Research and International Programs at Eastern Illinois University (EIU), has been appointed to a two-year term as the Council’s Senior Vice President. In addition to serving two terms as President of the Illinois Association of Graduate Schools, Augustine served on the CGS Board of Directors from 2011 to 2014 and held the position of Board Chair in 2013. He will join CGS on August 1, 2015.

The newly created Senior Vice President’s role will expand the services that CGS provides to master’s-focused institutions. Working with colleagues in CGS’s Best Practices division, Augustine will be responsible for developing an infrastructure for research on issues related to the master’s degree and for delivering programs relevant to the needs of master’s-focused institutions. He will also be responsible for the management and convening of the CGS Master’s Committee.

“For a number of years now, Bob Augustine has shared his deep knowledge of trends in master’s education with CGS members through board service and voluntary leadership roles in CGS meetings,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “I am delighted that he will be extending his impact in this important area, and in graduate education more broadly, as a member of CGS’s leadership staff.”

Augustine will bring to CGS diverse experience in developing best practices for serving master’s degree students. During his tenure as graduate dean, EIU’s graduate school earned the ETS/Midwestern Association of Graduate School’s Award for Excellence in Graduate Education for the First Choice Graduate Programs Initiative. His institution was also awarded the ETS/CGS Award for Promoting Success in Graduate Education for developing the Integrative Graduate Studies Institute, as well as the CGS/TIAA-CREF Award for Enhancing Financial Literacy, which allowed EIU to launch a center devoted to Literacy in Financial Education.

Commenting on the appointment, Augustine said, “I am energized by this fantastic opportunity to contribute to the mission and values of the graduate community through the work of the Council of Graduate Schools. I look forward to advancing my new priorities as Senior Vice President.”

Augustine holds a PhD in communication sciences and disorders from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where he earned a Department Distinguished Alumni Award. Following clinical experience in speech-language pathology, he launched an early intervention language clinic focusing on integrative language strategies at EIU. Augustine guided expansion of the program, launched the first technology-enhanced courses, and developed the program’s first international outreach efforts before becoming Dean of the EIU Graduate School in 2000.

Contacts:
Julia Kent, CGS: (202) 223-3791 / jkent@cgs.nche.edu
Barri Bronston, Tulane University:  504.314.7444 / bbronst@tulane.edu

New Orleans and Washington, DC — The Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) has announced that Brian S. Mitchell, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Tulane University, has been named the Council of Graduate Schools/National Science Foundation Dean-in-Residence for 2015-16. Dr. Mitchell brings to the post significant experience leading graduate education at his home university, having served as Tulane’s Associate Provost for Graduate Studies and Research from 2006 to 2014. Mitchell will join CGS on February 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, Mitchell 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.

“Dr. Mitchell’s experience in graduate education is both broad and deep,” said CGS President Suzanne T. Ortega. “His particular experience establishing interdisciplinary graduate programs, collaborating on international research projects, and overseeing the training of graduate teaching assistants are just a few of the areas where he will be able to facilitate communication between CGS member institutions and NSF.”

In accepting the appointment, Mitchell stated that he looks forward to collaborating with NSF and CGS on important issues in graduate education.

"NSF has not only been a leader in supporting graduate student training, but in shaping the content of those students' professional development,” Mitchell said. “From innovative training programs to international research experiences, their leadership has been a critical component of enhancing graduate education. Similarly, CGS is the established leader in evaluating trends in graduate education and advocating on its behalf. My goal as Dean-in-Residence is to not only support those ongoing activities, but to explore innovative ways to document and demonstrate the positive societal and global impact that graduate education has, not only in the STEM and related fields, but in all scholarly and creative disciplines."

After receiving his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1991), Mitchell conducted research in numerous positions, including an NSF-NATO postdoctoral fellowship at the University Karlsruhe and Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowships at the German Aerospace Agency and the Max Planck Institute for Colloids and Interfaces. His primary research areas of interest are nanostructured materials and materials processing.

In addition to his research experience, Mitchell has been a national and international speaker on issues in research and graduate education. His public service in STEM education has included frequent presentations to Louisiana elementary school children through the state’s “Speaking of Science” program.