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​Summit Program and Compilation of Papers*

*Individual papers below have been updated and edited for the electronic proceedings.

We invite you to explore the electronic proceedings of the 2015 Global Summit, Implications of "Big Data" for Graduate Education. Panel summaries provide an overview of the papers and discussion, with individual papers accessible at the links below.

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.

Implications of "Big Data" for Graduate Education

Singapore
September 27-29, 2015

"Big Data" has been broadly defined as "the collection, aggregation...and analysis of vast amounts of increasingly granular data."¹ Contemporary debates about big data have raised both interest and concern in the global graduate community.

On the one hand, graduate leaders are accustomed to using data to inform decision-making and have expressed curiosity about the potential of big data experiments in graduate education, such as the collection of data on student learning in large online courses. On the other hand, big data have been associated with a number of problems that directly concern graduate leaders, posing a number of challenges and questions:

• How should large amounts of data be managed and stored?
• What methods should be used for analysis and interpretation?
• How do we think about informed consent and privacy rights in a big data context?
• How should we be preparing the next generation of graduate degree recipients to manage the world of big data?

Participants from 15 countries addressed these and other pressing questions at the 2015 Strategic Leaders Global Summit, a collaboration between CGS and the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Event Materials:

• The Implications of Big Data for Graduate Education: A Proposal for Further Action
• Online Proceedings

Reference:
¹ Cate, F.H. (14 November 2014). The big data debate, Science 346(6211), 818.

[Photo credit: Singapore Tourism Board.]

CGS contributions to the Summit were supported by generous gifts from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and ProQuest.

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.

The Council of Graduate Schools conducted a pilot project in 2014-16 to study the professional development needs of graduate students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields and the programs and resources in place to meet those needs.

Project Overview

Enhanced professional development of STEM graduate students has emerged in recent years as a high priority as evidenced by calls from students, employers, funding agencies, and graduate deans. The CGS pilot study gathered perspectives from stakeholders representing each of these groups to answer four key questions:

1. Beyond research skills, what other professional skills are particularly important for STEM graduates?
2. What STEM workforce skills needs are not currently being met by graduate programs?
3. How can resources and investments be most effectively mobilized to meet that demand through enhanced professional development?, and
4. What structures and learning environments are most effective in responding to the career tracks for PhD and master’s students?

The project entailed a survey of CGS members, interviews with employers from across the STEM workforce including industry and government, a workshop convening a wide array of stakeholders, and an online searchable database of existing professional development programs for STEM graduate students. 

Results

Promising practices, common challenges, recommendations, and possible next steps toward coordinated improvements to the professional development of STEM graduate students, including PhDs, master’s degree holders, and postdoctorates are available in the report: Professional Development: Shaping Effective Programs for STEM Graduate Students. This report also includes discussion of useful tools and resources, as well as of issues that commonly arise in university discussion around professional development. Hard copies of this report are available to CGS members and non-members for purchase here.

Press Release: Report Recommends Broader Professional Develoment for Graduate Students in STEM Fields

Professional Development Programs: An Online Compendium

CGS has compiled an online searchable database of existing professional development programs for STEM graduate students that draws from survey results, web research, and feedback from institutions. The primary purpose of this database is to spotlight promising programs, enhance understanding of the skills and structure of these programs, and to provide an opportunity for graduate schools to connect to others as they seek to develop robust professional development programs for graduate students. While all are welcome to explore this database, the resource was designed especially to inform individuals in university leadership roles who seek to enhance professional development for STEM graduate students and postdocs at U.S. universities.

View the Compendium

Workshop

A one-day, workshop-style meeting to identify needs and opportunities for improving U.S. graduate education with a focus on enhanced professional development for STEM PhD’s and master’s students took place in Washington, D.C., on  November 8-9, 2015.  The meeting convened key employers from industry, government, and non-profit sectors; graduate deans and university researchers on graduate education and the STEM workforce; and representatives from federal agencies that fund STEM graduate students.

Workshop Agenda and Presentations

Contact

Julia Kent

Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF #1413827)

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this project do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.