Graduate Student and Faculty Trends from the CAUT Almanac

Some interesting tidbits from the 2012-13 CAUT Almanac: In 2009-10, women accounted for 54% of degree enrollment at the Master's level (down from 56% last year); holding steady at 47% at the Ph.D. level for 2009-2010. In 2010, 44,919 master's, and 5,736 degrees were awarded in Canada. Women accounted for 61.5% of Master's degrees; 44.3% of Doctorates that were awarded for 2009-2010. In 2011, 2,034 new full-time university teachers were appointed in Canada. 44.2% were women. The proportion of full-time university teachers employed beyond the age of 65 more than quadrupled between 2001 and 2011, to 5.1% of males and 3.8% of females. The number of 'senior' full-time university teachers exceeded the number of 'junior' teachers in 2010-11: 5.7% were within the 30-34 age bracket; 5.8% were between 65-69 years of age.

Canadian Trends in Graduate Education

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has released its annual Almanac of Post-Secondary Education in Canada. Highlights with regards to graduate education include the following:

- In 2008, Canadian universities awarded 36,423 Master's and 4,962 Doctorates.

- Women accounted for 56% of Master's program enrollments and 47% at the PhD level in 2008-2009.

- In 2008-2009, International students made up 15% of Master's and 21% of PhD program enrollments.

- In Newfoundland and Labrador, at the Master's level, the majority of Master's degrees awarded in 2008 went to women in all disciplines, with the exception of Architecture, Engineering, and Related Technologies, where they accounted for only 22.2%; and Mathematics, Computer and Information Sciences (28.6%). Overall, women accounted for 58.5% of Master's degrees that were awarded in the province.

- at the national level, women lagged behind men in the number of Doctorates awarded in 2008 in most fields, with the exception of the following fields: Business, Management and Public Administration (50.8%); Education (67.8%); Health, Parks, Recreation and Fitness (59.1%); Social and Behavioural Sciences, and Law (60.2%).

The full Almanac can be read here.

Trends in U.S. Graduate Education II

A new report, “Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2000 to 2010”, was released last week by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS). According to the press release, enrolment of new graduate students at U.S. schools decreased for the first time since 2003, by 1.1% from 2009 to 2010. This, despite an 8.4% increase in applications; the report states that approximately 42% of all graduate applications were accepted.

Other findings from the report include the following:

- women accounted for 58% of first time graduate students, and 59% of all graduate students, in fall 2010. They also earned two-thirds of graduate certificates, 60% of master’s degrees, and 52% of doctorates awarded in 2009-10. The academic year of 2009-10 academic year marks the second consecutive year women have earned the majority of doctoral degrees in the U.S.

- While approximately three-quarters of all graduate students were enrolled in masters’ degree or graduate certificate programs, total enrolment increased faster at the doctoral level (3.3%) than at the master’s degree and graduate certificate level (0.5%) between fall 2009 and 2010. First-time graduate enrolment increased 1.5% at the doctoral level, but fell 1.6% at the master’s degree and graduate certificate level.

- More than half of all graduate students in fall 2010 were enrolled in programs in education, business, or health sciences.

The full report can be read here.

Canadian and Local Trends at the Highest Levels of Tertiary Education

A new report has been released by the Canadian Education Statistics Council, entitled Education Indicators in Canada: An International Perspective 2011. With regards to graduate education, here are some highlights:

- Graduation rates at the tertiary-type A level (bachelor and masters degrees; other university degrees or certificates above a bachelor's degree but below a doctorate) for first-time graduates were higher for women in all Canadian provinces in 2008. The Canadian average was 45.8% for women and 28.3% for men. The earnings of women with any kind of tertiary education were still only 63% of men's however, an increase of only 2% since 1998.

- International students accounted for 1/5 (20.2%) of enrollment in advanced research programmes (doctorates and post-doctorates) in Canada in 2008. In Newfoundland and Labrador, international students accounted for 30% of those enrolled in these programmes.

-At the highest levels of tertiary education (Type-A and advanced research), Canada exceeded the international figure (25% versus 21%) for completion.

-While Newfoundland and Labrador exceeded the Canadian average (40.3% versus 36.9%)for completion of tertiary-type A education as a first-time graduate, the province had the lowest employment rates of those aged 25-64 years at all levels of educational attainment.

Canadian Graduate School Enrolments Continue to Rise, but Women Still Lag Behind at Doctoral Level

A recent article in The Gateway, the official student newspaper at the University of Manitoba, discusses gender equality at the highest levels of education, noting the fact that women still lag behind men in doctoral enrolments. At U of M, women outnumber men in doctoral programs in a number of disciplines, including medicine and architecture. It is a very different picture if we look at engineering and the hard sciences, however, where women are least represented. The article makes reference to a recent report released by Statistics Canada, which examines trends in doctoral program enrolment, earned doctorates, and university faculty, with a focus on gender.

According to that report, women accounted for 58% of undergraduate and 56% of master’s program enrolments in 2008/2009, while accounting for 47% of doctoral enrolments. Women also accounted for 44% of doctoral degrees granted in 2008. Female doctoral graduates represented the majority of earned doctorates in four fields: education; social and behavioural sciences, and law; health, parks, recreation and fitness; business, management and public administration. Women are least represented in architecture, engineering and related technologies; and mathematics, computer and information sciences, accounting for less than 30% of earned doctorates in each of these two fields.

According to data made available from Statistics Canada that is complied yearly and included in the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) Almanac of Post-Secondary Education in Canada, women accounted for 50.2% of full-time doctoral enrolments in the 2005-2006 academic year; this is the only time that women have outnumbered men in enrolments at this level. Full-time doctoral enrolments have risen by roughly three-quarters in the last ten years, but the enrolment of women in doctoral programs has only risen by a little less than 3% over this period; in fact enrolment has decreased in the last three years by 3% from the 50.2% accounted for in 2005 to 47% reported in 2008. Meanwhile, women’s full-time master’s program enrolments have exceeded the enrolment of men for quite some time; have steadily risen by a little over 3% since 1998.

Canadian Doctoral Graduates, Class of 2005: Where are they now?

A report was recently released by Statistics Canada, entitled, “Expectations and Labour Market Outcomes of Doctoral Graduates from Canadian Universities.” Data for the report was drawn from two sources- the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), and the National Graduates Survey (NGS). In summary, two concerns are raised about doctorates in Canada: the number being produced; how doctorate holders (graduates) are employed in this country. With regards to the first concern, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reports that Canada lags behind other developed countries in the production of doctoral degrees. In 2005, about 4,200 candidates earned a doctorate degree in Canada- approximately one tenth the number awarded in the United States in the same year (43,400). While differences in population size and number of institutions are not accounted for, this is still concerning.

A related concern that is noted in the report is where graduates live and work after completing the doctorate. Slightly more than a quarter of 2005 doctorate graduates (about 27%) moved out of Canada upon completion of their degree and many still resided in the United States two years after graduation. However, 24% of those who moved to the United States after graduation in 2005 had returned to Canada by 2007, and many others were still planning to return. Slightly more than one out of ten 2005 doctoral graduates (12%) were living in the United States in 2007. About seven out of ten graduates who lived in the United States in 2007 (69%) moved for work-related reasons. The majority of those who moved (9 out of 10) had a job awaiting them. However, more than eight out of ten graduates living in the United States in 2007 (83%) intended to return to Canada.

Of those graduates of Canadian universities who are employed in this country, fewer are employed by the private sector than in other countries. Employment rates were found to vary according to field of study; graduates from the humanities reported the highest unemployment rate at 16%. The median income for doctoral graduates in 2007, two years after graduation, was $65,000. While women accounted for 46% of doctoral graduates in the class of 2005; an increase of 11 percentage points compared to their proportion in the class of 1995, across all fields of study, men were paid a median income of $65,000 compared to $61,000 for women. Approximately one in five graduates(19%) said they were overqualified, compared to 30% who reported that less than a doctoral degree was needed to obtain the job they were in. The majority of graduates (56%) were employed in educational services; with most working in a university (87%).

It would be interesting to know what current attrition rates are. What is needed is a longitudinal study examining the total number of students enrolled in first year doctoral studies in a given year, following up at several points to determine the number who complete, average time-to-degree, as well as the number that do not complete. Differnces between institutions and disciplines could be analyzed; comparisons made with American data.

Doctorate Degrees Granted in U.S. Reach Record Levels

According to a recent article in the International Herald Tribune-the global edition of the New York Times, the number of doctorate degrees granted by American Universities has reached the highest level ever recorded: 49,562 students in the 2008-09 academic year; an increase of 1.6% over the 2007-08 year. The stats are provided by the National Science Foundation's Survey of Earned Doctorates. Some of the findings were as follows:

-In 2009, 67.5% (33,470) of doctorates went to students in science and engineering (S&E), 13,593 of whom were women- a 4.8% increase over 2008. The number of men earning these degrees declined slightly.

-The number of doctorates awarded in non-S&E fields increased from 2008-2009 for both men (1.2%) and women (0.8%).

-The number of doctorates earned by international students declined- by 3.3% in science and engineering; and 4.6% in other disciplines.

The full report can be found here.

University Rankings: Do Grad Students Not Count?

Today’s blog post is a bit of an opinion piece, so I apologize in advance for those not fond of blog naval lint. I was excited to have finally gotten my hands on a hard copy of Maclean’s 2010 University Rankings. My excitement was diminished, however, when I discovered that once again, a significant portion of Canada’s student population was virtually ignored- graduate students. The focus of the rankings, has, and continues to be, high school students and graduates seeking advice on choosing ‘the right university’. I feel very strongly that this focus should now shift to include those students considering the option of continuing on or returning to school to enroll in graduate programs. Indeed, as the number of students choosing to do so continues to increase, the needs of this burgeoning population beg to be addressed. Information that I myself would be interested in knowing include university rankings and student opinions with regards to such matters as access to and quality of various student services, including professional development initiatives, resource availability, funding for research, and opportunities for teaching. The only segment of the graduate student population that is singled out, is, interestingly enough, international students. Other than this mention, the views of graduate students are lumped together with the voices of undergraduates attending primarily Medical/Doctoral and Comprehensive Universities. In the meantime, I was quite pleased to see issues of gender over- and under-representation being addressed, as well as other concerns of great relevance to both current and potential students.

U.S. Doctorate Program Assessment

Yesterday the National Research Council released a report entitled A Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States. According to the report brief, this assessment consists of data on over 5,000 doctoral programs in 62 fields at 212 universities, and includes "information on faculty research productivity, institutional support for students, and the diversity of faculty and students, among many other characteristics."

The assessment provides data for each program on 20 characteristics, which were collected from the academic year 2005-2006 through questionnaires sent to doctoral faculty, as well as heads of doctoral programs, administrators, and students. Information on characteristics such as publications and citations came from public sources and uses a considerably longer timeframe.Data on these 20 characteristics also served as the basis for the illustrative rankings included in the assessment.The report also offers illustrative ranges of rankings for each program on three separate dimensions of doctoral education- research activity, student support and outcomes, and diversity.

Finally, the report examines findings and trends in doctoral education. Some interesting points are as follows:

-The number of students enrolled has increased in engineering (4%) and in physical sciences (9%) but declined in the social sciences (-5%) and humanities (-12%).

-On average programs in all fields have experienced a growth in the percentage of female students. The smallest growth (3.4%) was in the humanities fields, which were already heavily female, while the greatest growth (9%) was in engineering - to 22% overall.

-Over 50% of students complete their degree in six years or less in the agricultural sciences and in engineering. In the social sciences 37% complete in six years or less, while the same percentage of humanities students complete by eight years.

-The majority of students in the five fields surveyed for the report (chemical engineering, physics, neuroscience, economics, and English) were "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with the quality of their program. Over 60% in most fields felt they benefited from the program's intellectual environment, but only 40% or less of were satisfied with the program-sponsored social interaction.

According to the news release, the assessment is designed to help universities evaluate and improve the quality of their programs and to provide prospective students with information on the nation's doctoral programs.

Further information, and a download of the full report, can be accessed here.

Trends in U.S. Graduate Education

According to this news release, the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS)has released a report today entitled "Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 1999 to 2009". The report contains statistics on graduate applications and enrollment for fall 2009, degrees conferred in 2008-09, and trend data for one-, five- and ten-year periods. Data is based on the findings of an annual survey of U.S. graduate schools, co-sponsored by CGS and the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) Board, and "the only annual national survey that covers enrollment in all fields of graduate study and is the only source of national data on graduate applications." Interesting findings include the following:

* Applications for admission to U.S. graduate schools grew 8.3% from 2008 to 2009

* Enrollment of new students at U.S. graduate schools grew 5.5% from 2008 to 2009

* First-time and total graduate enrollment in 2009 was higher for men than for women. First-time enrollment of men increased 6.7%, compared to 4.7% for women, while the growth in total enrollment rose 5.2% for men compared to 4.4% for women.

* The enrollment of new international graduate students declined in 2009, by 1.7%, compared to 6.0% growth for U.S. students.

* For the first time ever, women earned the majority of doctorates (50.4%) in the 2008-2009 academic year. Women also accounted for 6 out of 10 graduate student enrollments. Inside Higher Ed
notes that female graduates are still under represented in such fields as engineering (22%), math and computer science (27%), and physical and earth sciences (33%).

* First-time graduate enrollment increased faster at the doctoral level than at the master’s level: 6.3% vs. 5.1%.

* The representation of minority groups in U.S. graduate schools rose from 28.3% to 29.1% of first-time domestic enrollment.

* Approximately three-fourths of all graduate student enrollments were at the master’s level, and almost 90% of graduate degrees conferred in 2008-09 were master’s degrees.

* The number of master’s degrees awarded increased 4.3% and the number of doctoral degrees conferred grew 3.9% between 2007-08 and 2008-09.

The full report can be read here