Graduate Student Enrollment Research Articles

Plant Science Graduate Students: Demographics, Research Areas, and Recruitment Issues

Graduate student enrollment in the plant sciences has decreased over the past several years, and there is increasing interest in recruitment/retention strategies. Before successful strategies can be implemented, however, the status of current plant science graduate programs needs to be determined. Survey data on graduate student demographics, research area, support levels, current recruitment strategies, and career opportunities were collected from 23 plant science graduate programs. Overall, 55% of graduate students in plant sciences were male and 45% were female; about 60% were domestic and 40% were international. Cellular/molecular biology and breeding/genetics were the two disciplines that had the greatest number of graduate students and the greatest number of job opportunities. Most programs cited financial support as the biggest obstacle to recruitment. However, stipend number, the guarantee of multiple years of support, the funding of tuition waivers, and health insurance costs also impact student numbers. As more of these costs are shifted to faculty, there appears to be an increasing inability and/or reluctance to invest grant funds (which support 60% of the plant science graduate students) in graduate student education. These data suggest that the decline in plant science graduate student enrollment may be due to shifting of more of the total cost of graduate training to faculty, who may be unable/unwilling to bear the cost. There is also a clear shift in the research focus of plant science graduate students, as postdoctoral and career opportunities are weighted toward molecular biology/genetics, leaving the more applied plant science areas particularly vulnerable to low graduate enrollment.

Plant Science Graduate Students: Demographics, Research Areas, and Recruitment Issues

Graduate student enrollment in the plant sciences has decreased over the past several years, and there is increasing interest in recruitment/retention strategies. Before successful strategies can be implemented, however, the status of current plant science graduate programs needs to be determined. Survey data on graduate student demographics, research area, support levels, current recruitment strategies, and career opportunities were collected from 23 plant science graduate programs. Overall, 55% of graduate students in plant sciences were male and 45% were female; approximately 60% were domestic and 40% were international. Cellular/molecular biology and breeding/genetics were the two disciplines that had the greatest number of graduate students and the greatest number of job opportunities. Although most programs cited financial support as the biggest obstacle to recruitment, there was not a strong correlation between graduate student number/program and stipend amount. However, other funding factors besides stipend amount; such as stipend number, the guarantee of multiple years of support, the funding of tuition waivers, and health insurance costs, likely impact student number. As more of these costs are shifted to faculty, there appears to be an increasing inability and/or reluctance to invest grant funds (which support 60% of the plant science graduate students) in graduate student education. These data suggest that the decline in plant science graduate student enrollment may not be directly due to low stipend amounts, but rather to shifting of more of the total cost of graduate training to faculty, who may be unable/unwilling to bear the cost. There is also a clear shift in the research focus of plant science graduate students, as postdoctoral and career opportunities are weighted towards molecular biology/genetics, leaving the more applied plant science areas particularly vulnerable to low graduate enrollment.

A Master's program in Applied Behavior Analysis: Contingencies for initiation and maintenance.

We describe a Master's program in Applied Behavior Analysis that involves collaboration between an academic graduate program in psychology and the departments of an institution dedicated to the delivery of behavioral services: in this instance, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the Kennedy Krieger Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The launching of a new program and its subsequent maintenance involves a variety of contingencies, both academic and professional. This paper discusses a few of them, and demonstrates how quickly and effectively progress can be made when compatible and reciprocal contingencies of support are identified for all of the various participants in a program. As we enter the Decade of Behavior, we hope this program will provide a source of more practitioners of applied behavior analysis, so sorely needed to meet the growing demand for our demonstrably successful interventions. ********** One hallmark of behavior analysis and one source of its success in interventions is its recognition of multiple causation in the determination of complex behavior. Multiple causation operates, for example, in verbal behavior, as when the order that someone places at a fast food restaurant is simultaneously determined by many different variables: the person behind the counter as an audience, the menu as an occasion for textual behavior, the food visible in pictures and on the trays of other customers as an occasion for tacting, the overheard orders of other customers as an occasion for echoic behavior, the factors that make the food to be ordered reinforcing as establishing operations, and so on. When many variables that each occasion the same verbal response come together at one time, the verbal behavior that follows may be virtually inevitable. It is no surprise that many causes also enter into institutional behavior, and because much of our own activity as behavior analysts occurs in institutional settings, it may be useful to explore the multiple causation that may be involved in the creation and maintenance of behavior analytic programs. History It is difficult to pinpoint just when discussions began about a possible collaborative program involving the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and the Kennedy Krieger Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (KKI); they may go back two decades or more. Some of the more recent and key administrative discussions (within the past five years) involved A. Charles Catania at UMBC, the chair of the Department of Behavioral Psychology at KKI, Michael F. Cataldo, and the chair of the UMBC Department of Psychology, Carlo DiClemente. Once agreement had been reached about the desirability and feasibility of the program and the nature of its administration, Wayne W. Fisher and A. Charles Catania undertook the implementation of the program, with special attention to design of courses and professional training. The mutual interests of all participants quickly became evident. They included but were not limited to the following: The growing field of applied behavior analysis called for more well-trained practitioners; the UMBC administration wanted to expand the enrollment of graduate students, especially at the Master's level; and, the behavior analysts at KKI needed more qualified people to staff inpatient treatment units and wanted more opportunities to interact with students of behavior analysis. The collaborative program was approved by the UMBC Department of Psychology during the 1997-1998 academic year, and the call for applications went out late in Spring 1998 with a July 1 deadline. Under those circumstances, the numbers were of course too small to really constitute a class, and a couple of students who were unable to complete applications in time were provisionally admitted to course work as special students. More standardized application procedures brought in four more students in the 1999-2000 academic year (including one student from Iceland) and six more in the current (2000-2001) academic year. …

Student-Run Support Organizations for Underrepresented Graduate Students: Goals, Creation, Implementation, and Assessment

Despite the trend toward increased enrollment of minority graduate students in universities, low retention and graduation rates continue to be a problem. Many universities operate at status quo, without making efforts to accommodate to the needs of minority students to help them continue their studies and finish graduate degrees. Rather than making an effort to help students become part of the culture, these universities expect the student to change to fit the institutional academic environment. This article describes the development, implementation, and assessment of the Graduate Mentorship Program (GMP) in the School of Education at the University of California-Berkeley, which addresses this critical issue and provides a support system for students who come from varied backgrounds. In the article, we discuss the unique structure of the organization and the principles and implementation mechanisms by which GMP functions. Finally, we provide an assessment of the program and the challenges it has faced throughout its life span.

Commitment to Graduate Students?

As a disgruntled, underemployed, unfunded, and almost disenfranchised Ph.D. scientist, I feel qualified to comment on Floyd E. Bloom’s editorial “Future imperfect and tense” ([14 Feb., p. 907][1]). I suggest that any educational institution which grants a doctoral degree to someone must, if that person becomes unemployed for a significant time, provide him or her with a full-time position at that institution with an office, laboratory, and start-up funds. The commitment would be available only up to, say, 20 or 25 years after the degree is granted. After that, the former student would be on his or her own. I suspect the initial response will be, “You gotta be kidding!,” but we should remember that a graduate student puts much time, effort, and commitment into getting a doctoral degree. Why should we not insist that the granting institution put a commitment into it also? One major consequence of this type of commitment on the part of colleges and universities would be that they would be much more circumspect about granting a new degree, and the number of new grantees would drop considerably. We have been turning out Ph.D.’s with the help of federal money for many years now, and it is time we developed a monitoring system to prevent a severe overabundance from occurring again. Undoubtedly, colleges and universities will complain: “That would take too much money, money that we don’t have.” Undoubtedly it would, but with graduate student enrollment severely curtailed at the same time, the money saved from graduate student salaries and tuition could help defray the new expenses. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.275.5302.907

Market research to recruit graduate students in dietetics

In this study we conducted market research to develop a recruitment plan for the master's degree program in nutrition and dietetics at Louisiana Tech University. When individualized experience routes to dietetics registration were eliminated by The American Dietetic Association's Standards of Education in 1988, graduate student enrollment could not be predicted. The steps of the Baron graduate recruitment model were followed to develop and implement a recruitment plan for the master's degree program in nutrition and dietetics. The steps included (a) assessment, (b) developing recruitment and enrollment objectives, (c) developing a recruitment plan and recruitment strategies to meet the objectives, (d) implementing a recruitment program, and (e) monitoring and evaluating the recruitment program. The assessment step involved institutional, student, competitive, and job market analyses. Written questionnaires, telephone surveys, and focus group interviews completed the student analysis. Of the 92 respondents surveyed, 42 were interested in taking graduate classes. Career advancement, specialization, and personal growth were cited as reasons to pursue graduate study. The Baron model provided a useful guide for developing and implementing the graduate recruitment plan.

The Dirty Act of Seeking Personal Gains by Taking Advantage of One's Position and Power; Disregard of Law and Discipline Punished According to Party Rules and Administrative Regulations

Nanchang, April 9: Wang Shaoxiong from Guangming Daily and our reporter Zhao Xiangru reported that the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and Commission for Discipline Inspection recently investigated and severely punished a major case of malpractice in the enrollment of graduate students at the Jiangxi Medical College. Ma Ti, former member of the party committee and vice-president of the college, was expelled from the party and demoted from the level of deputy chief of a provincial governmental department to that of section chief, and his salary reduced by one level. Shang Junjia, deputy party branch secretary and deputy chief of the scientific research section, was dismissed from all his posts inside and outside the party. Yu Changfeng, a functionary in the scientific research section, was expelled from the party and put on a two-year probation pending discharge. The Provincial Party Commission for Discipline Inspection publicized this incident through the province so that cadres at all levels will learn a lesson.

Strategies for success in academe

The U.S. land-grant universities have been undergoing significant change in the last decade, and these changes have had profound effects on faculty. In particular, faculty in colleges of agriculture and departments of crop and soil science have been affected by major changes in undergraduate and graduate student enrollments, the nature of research and extension, and in expectations of the faculty for research productivity. These changes affect all faculty, but are particularly acute for women and minority faculty who face the special challenges of underrepresentation and bias. This article details some of the changes that have occurred in U.S. land-grant universities and colleges of agriculture, and the resulting issues and challenges facing faculty. Strategies for addressing these challenges are proposed.

Answers Given by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on the Enrollment of Graduate Students

Beijing, March 17 (Xinhua)—The following are answers provided by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on the enrollment of graduate students: Q: What are the requirements for graduate studies in the various disciplines of the academy? A: Applicants should be outstanding workers, poor or lower middle peasants, educated young people, research personnel, or teachers and workers in other fields, and worthy of further training. They should have good political attitudes. They should be liberal arts graduates or the equivalent, and conversant in their specialties. They should have mastery of one foreign language and good research and writing skills. They should be healthy and under age thirty-five (born after March 1, 1942).

Discrimination in Recruitment, Admission, and Retention of Minority Graduate Students

Minority student enrollment in graduate schools is declining. The expectations of the early 1970s that minority groups at long last would be represented in graduate schools in proportionate numbers have not been realized. Black student enrollment in graduate schools plunged from 65,326 in 1976 to 54,686 in 1982, a 16.3 percent decline. By contrast, white graduate student enrollment dropped from 906,626 to 880,616, a 2.9 percent decline. Although total minority enrollments increased until 1980, by 1982 a decline was in progress, as Hispanic joined black enrollments in the decline.1 This article focuses on those American racial and ethnic minority groups who are least well represented in graduate schools: blacks, American Indians, Puerto Ricans, and Mexican Americans. To be sure, this underrepresentation is not solely the result of malevolent discrimination. Yet, segregation and discrimination gave birth to the situation, and their vestiges make underrepresentation difficult to eradicate. From a number of perspectives, recruiting minorities for graduate study is an important endeavor. Enrolling students with different cultural, experiential, and cognitive backgrounds into grad-

Graduate Students from Less Developed Countries: The Continuing Demand for U.S. Training

Four years ago, in June 1974, the writer compiled information on the enrollment of LDC graduate students in U.S. university departments of economics and agricultural and resource economics covering five academic years, 1969-73 (AJAE). The 1974 survey revealed without question that a significant percentage of graduate students studying in fields related to the economics of agriculture comes from LDC countries. Among the fifty-five departments in that five-year period, there were a total of 5,094 entering graduate students of whom 1,480 or 29.05% came from eighty LDC countries. In some departments the percentage of LDC students was higher than 50%. The presence of such a large number of LDC students in U.S. graduate programs underscores the importance of efforts to strengthen their professional training within the host departments. Early in 1978 the International Committee of the American Association of Agricultural Economics (AAEA) set in motion a further study of U.S. training and related research activities for LDC students with special funding from the Agency for International Development. The primary target group was the network of Land Grant Universities-including the 1890 colleges-with departments of agricultural, food, resource, and applied economics, including those universities where agricultural economic interests are subsumed within a single department of economics. We also included a sample of private university economics departments where international agricultural economic interests are served.

Electric Power Engineering Educational Resources--1975-76

This fourth biennial(1,2,3,4) committee report covers results of a survey of Electric Power Engineering Educational Resources at ECPD (Engineers Council for Professional Development) accredited universities in the United States of America for the academic year 1975-1976. This report includes a listing of faculty active during the subject year, their level of academic involvement and professional experience, together with information on undergraduate student enrollment in various subject matter. Also included is information concerning graduate student enrollment in various subject matter, degrees granted and research- funding support activity.

Gaseous and Quantum Electronics in Nuclear Engineering Education

The roles of gaseous and quantum electronics in nuclear engineering, and consequently in nuclear engineering education, are growing at a significant rate. The nuclear engineering program of the University of Illinois currently has 10 students, out of a total graduate student enrollment of 90, specializing in these areas. Course work follows an interdisciplinary approach to supplement the basic nuclear engineering core of courses. Research is primarily focused on radiation- induced plasmas. Both theoretical and experimental aspects are investigated; however, the major effort is devoted to the study of radiation coupling to laser plasmas. This coupling has been shown by the enhancement of electrical lasers and by the direct nuclear pumping of laser plasmas. A typical example of this research is a study of a gas mixture of He-Ne-O$sub 2$ irradiated by neutrons from the University of Illinois TRIGA reactor. Although conclusive proof of lasing has not been demonstrated, indications of gain and a population inversion have been achieved. (auth)