The Chronicle of Higher Education
From the issue dated June 29, 2001
POINT OF VIEW
10 Ways to Keep Graduate Students From Quitting
By CARY NELSON and BARBARA E. LOVITTS
For the first time in 14 years, the total number of Ph.D.'s granted
by universities in the United States has fallen -- with engineering and
physical sciences showing the largest percentage drops. Whether this
change presages a teacher shortage of "crisis" proportions, to quote
the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century, is
questionable. Higher-education institutions could remedy the situation
almost immediately if they encouraged students currently enrolled in
graduate programs to remain and earn their degrees.
Graduate programs have been notoriously wasteful of their students for
decades. The national attrition rate across disciplines has averaged
around 50 percent, and some departments have lost an even higher
percentage. With a seemingly endless supply of applicants, colleges and
universities have been able to treat graduate students as expendable
commodities. Some institutions enroll large numbers of students in
master's-degree programs to profit from their tuition payments, then
deny even highly qualified candidates admission to doctoral study.
Others provide little or no advising and other support, on the
assumption that there will always be new students seeking
admission.
Such attrition damages people. Students who leave graduate school,
especially those who depart after several years in a program, often
must reconstruct their lives at a time when they are demoralized and
deeply in debt. They have to fashion new career goals and self-images
when they are ill-prepared to do so. Many feel a sense of personal
failure for years, never realizing that the "failure" is often likelier
institutional than personal.
Now, however, the endless supply of graduate students may be drying up.
Our interviews with directors of graduate study in humanities and
social-sciences departments suggest that, over the past five years,
applications at some institutions have dropped by as much as
two-thirds. More-lucrative job positions outside academe have lured
away people who might have once considered graduate school, or
encouraged those currently enrolled in unsupportive programs to drop
out and pursue alternative careers.
As a result, economic pressures may finally force colleges to redress the human cost of attrition. Although early departure may pay off for some students, it can produce an unhealthy turnover rate on campuses. Departments that rely on graduate students to teach introductory courses will have to invest much more time and money to manage an increasingly transient and less experienced teaching staff.
It is well past time for colleges to work to keep good graduate
students. If students deserve admission, they deserve the support and
attention they need to complete their degrees. The departments that
lose 25 percent of their students to attrition are not better at
selecting graduate students than those who lose 75 percent; they are
simply better at retaining them.
Our research demonstrates that colleges can take a number of steps to create more-hospitable environments for graduate students:
- Prepare undergraduates for the culture of graduate school.
Academics often assume that a student's knowledge of the discipline is
all that matters, but advance awareness of the culture of graduate
school is equally important. Indeed, some activities, like
undergraduate involvement in research projects, can be
counterproductive if a student joins a graduate program that has no
tradition of collaborative research with faculty members. Students can
harbor false expectations about the nature of graduate training, which
only fuel their disenchantment. To avoid such misunderstandings,
colleges that have doctoral programs, or are located near another
doctoral-granting institution, could offer undergraduates the
opportunity to spend time shadowing graduate students.
- Provide balanced information about graduate programs and their
requirements. Departments want to put their best foot forward in
the promotional information that they distribute to students or post on
their Web sites. But they also have a responsibility to be frank about
factors such as attrition rates, the cost of living in the area, and
the job placement of graduates. The Web site and other informational
materials should also detail the requirements of the program, specify
the levels and nature of financial support that a student might
receive, and identify graduates willing to talk with applicants. In
addition, the department should post faculty résumés and
sample publications online, along with a record of Ph.D. recipients and
the titles of their dissertations.
- Encourage candidates to visit the campus. Departments have
traditionally considered campus visits to be recruiting opportunities
-- which they are. But such visits also can help ensure that candidates
understand the specific nature of different graduate programs. Some
departments are intensely competitive, others more collegial; some
encourage multidisciplinary work, others discourage it; some support
particular subdisciplines or specializations, others do not. Such
characteristics are not always apparent to applicants, who often
discover a department's strengths and weaknesses only after they
enroll. Institutions should conduct regular campus tours; organizations
that award graduate fellowships might help provide financial support
for such visits.
- Require prospective students to tailor their applications.
Applicants should do more than mention the names of faculty members
whom they have found on a department Web site as a reason for their
interest in a graduate program. Departments should ask applicants to
explain in some detail how and why they are drawn to a particular
program of study. By evaluating and commenting on specific faculty
publications, for example, students would learn more about a department
and whether it fits their goals.
- Expect all students not working in a laboratory to teach.
Teaching one course per year, even for fellowship recipients, can make
the difference between a graduate student who feels integrated into the
department and one who does not. To encourage such teaching, colleges
should also consider establishing graduate-student teaching awards. Of
course, fellowships that require teaching should pay more than
fellowships that do not. If payments are increased and spread over 12
months, students can more easily devote the summer to academic
pursuits.
- Pay a living wage to all research and teaching assistants.
Institutions should provide a combination of salaried teaching or
research assistantships and fellowship support that is adequate to
allow a graduate student to live through the year without going into
debt. Although debt levels have not ordinarily driven students to leave
graduate school, they are a major source of resentment for those who
depart -- and they may be a particular concern for economically
disadvantaged students. The institution also should offer full
health-care coverage to all employees and their dependents, which could
go a long way toward helping graduate students with children.
- Monitor advising relationships. Whenever possible,
departments should assign to each incoming student an adviser in his or
her field -- one who has a history of supervising dissertation research
and a commitment to graduate students. At the same time, students
should be informed that the assignment is provisional, and that there
are no penalties for changing advisers. Departments should implement a
system that allows students to choose their own advisers and that
provides information to help students understand how to make
appropriate choices.
- Offer continuing opportunities for professional growth.
Academic administrators can help graduate students expand their
knowledge and contacts in a number of ways. They can invite students to
participate in departmental governance, schedule regular seminars or
lecture series about research trends in the field and general
higher-education issues, encourage student membership in disciplinary
organizations, and offer paid subscriptions to professional journals.
Institutions should also provide financial support for lectures and
conferences that students organize, as well as for student travel for
professional purposes.
- Create a hospitable departmental environment. A good
atmosphere may be intangible, but it is crucial. Colleges should, for
instance, arrange detailed orientations for all new students. Senior
faculty members should invite students to social events every semester.
It would also be valuable to establish a departmental lounge with
comfortable seating, good lighting, books and journals, bulletin boards
with recognitions of student achievement, and refreshments.
- Conduct exit interviews with all departing students. Common
negative experiences are a good indicator that something is wrong with
a program, but students who leave before completing a degree often do
so quietly. As a result, faculty members and administrators are denied
valuable feedback that would help them redress any underlying
problems.
- All departments, and especially those with high attrition rates,
should open channels of communication with students. Academic
administrators should seek out students before they leave and encourage
them to participate in exit interviews. They should distribute
questionnaires to departing students and conduct phone interviews with
those no longer in the area. In addition, they could ask neutral
parties to organize groups of current students to discuss their
satisfaction or dissatisfaction with various aspects of the program.
The students' recommendations could then be communicated to
administrators.
Some departments do all of those things; others do few or none of
them. In our research, we found that departments in the latter group
have significantly higher rates of attrition. Our suggestions represent
only some of the ways that institutions might work to retain good
graduate students. But the fundamental message is clear: Departments
should seriously consider how they must adapt and change to ensure the
success of all students whom they consider worthy of admission.
Cary Nelson is a professor of English at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the co-author of Academic
Keywords: A Devil's Dictionary for Higher Education (Routledge,
1999). Barbara E. Lovitts is a senior research analyst at the American
Institutes for Research and the author of Leaving the Ivory Tower:
The Causes and Consequences of Departure From Graduate Study (Rowman
and Littlefield, 2001).
The Chronicle of Higher Education
June 29, 2001
Section: The Chronicle Review
Page: B20