Report questions future of graduate education

The number of U.S. jobs that require a graduate degree is estimated to grow by 2.5 million by 2018.

With the availability of these positions on the rise, university and industry leaders called into question the effectiveness of the nation’s graduate programs.

“Our concern was that there needed to be an emphasis on graduate education at a federal level,” said James Wimbush, dean of the University Graduate School at IU.

In April, the Commission on the Future of Graduate Education released a report titled “The Path Forward: The Future of Graduate Education in the United States,” which highlighted vulnerabilities facing graduate schools across the country.

The report was a joint effort between the Council of Graduate Schools and Educational Testing Service.

Wimbush and 17 other commission members spent more than a year compiling data and determining recommendations on how to improve the schools.

“For over a year, we focused our efforts to collect and organize data to provide data to help build a case for the need to support graduate education,” Wimbush said. “What (the commission) did was provide input on what data to collect and how to interpret it.
“We spent a lot of time talking about ... what they would need to do in order to
address vulnerabilities at the federal, state and university levels.”

The report addresses four main areas of graduate education vulnerabilities: graduate school enrollment, changing U.S. demographics for graduate education, graduate education completion and changes influencing workforce needs.

“Overall enrollment in colleges and graduate schools continues to increase, but the gains have not kept pace with the increase in the general population of individuals of college age,” according to the report.

This vulnerability means that while graduate school enrollment is on the rise, the increasing number of students who do not continue on to higher education after high school complicates the data.

The second section argues that changes in demographics will bring in less academically skilled students in need of additional educational preparation as well as students looking to advance their careers but who do not have the financial support necessary.

One example is “nontraditional students” with work, family and other school activities who seek higher programs to improve employability.

“When you look at the type of jobs being created, they’re in the knowledge industry,” Wimbush said. “They require advanced knowledge, advanced training. If we don’t produce the talent, companies won’t have the staff that they need.”

A third serious vulnerability is degree completion. Half of the students going into graduate programs never finish, Wimbush said.

“We’re missing the opportunity to train important talent that won’t be available for jobs in the future,” Wimbush said.

Students do not finish graduate programs for a variety of reasons, including changes in family status, full or part-time employment status, needing to work or dissatisfaction with particular programs.

“Everyone used to look at the U.S. as the number one country for graduate education,” Wimbush said. “But when you look at the number of students going into programs, a lot of students never finish.”

A final vulnerability involves international changes in higher education.

“Other  countries’  universities have decided to improve graduate programs,” Wimbush said. “And they’re being very successful. (Those programs) are recruiting international students that would have come to the United States.”

After discussing the vulnerabilities, the report goes on to make recommendations for graduate education programs across the country.

One recommendation asks universities to develop business-university partnerships to gather interest in graduate programs by students in underrepresented groups.
Wimbush said IU’s graduate programs will focus on building programs to attract a more diverse population, work more closely with industry leaders, keep tabs on department completion rates and work to provide more loan forgiveness programs.

“Universities tend to move slowly,” Wimbush said. “It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s going to be a while before we see the fruits of our labor.”

“We’re going to continue to work with employers to help identify problems and career opportunities ... and help to give more choices in terms of what they want to do when they finish,” he said.

Wimbush said the council never before had hard data to back up the recommendations in the report, and now that they do, graduate schools need to pay attention.

“The United States is still the best in the world, but action needs to be taken to make sure it stays the best in the world,” he said.

— Bailey Loosemore