>From the issue dated June 29, 2001
http://chronicle.merit.edu/weekly/v47/i42/42b02001.htm
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..
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.
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.
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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 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
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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
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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
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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).
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