Dr. John V. Richardson Jr.,
Associate Dean, UCLA Graduate Division
NAFSA/EAIE, Amsterdam, 22 March 2007
Presentation Outline
 Introduction
 WAGS 2007 Case Study
 CGS’ data on International Students
 Applications, Offers of Admissions, and Enrollment
 Continuities
 Discontinuities
 Values and Measures
 Selected References
WAGS 2007 Case Study
 “Your Dean of Business comes to you with a concern. She
has worked hard to establish an exchange program for
MS/MBA students with a prestigious European institution.
Our part of that exchange is to accept students with the
European undergrad degree into the international business
program. Her colleagues in Europe have informed her that
they will be converting to a 3-year degree under the
Bologna process, but assure her that they have designed
their curriculum so that it is the same content as the
previous program. The faculty have reviewed the new and
old curricula, agree with that statement, and have prepared
a formal analysis of the programs.
 Can you continue to admit those European students to your
graduate program? What actions to you need to take?”
WAGS Case Study continued:
 “It becomes known on campus that you have accepted these
students as fully qualified graduate students. Now you have
other Departments approach you. The Computer Science
program wishes to have a similar relationship with a particular
three year program in India, the Dean of Business is back,
wanting to accept other European degrees, and the Dean of Arts
and Science simply wants to accept all international students
with a three-year degree. Aside from wishing that you had taken
up your true passion as a high school Band and Music teacher,
what do you do?”
 Source: Bill Feyerherm, Portland State University
CGS Trend Data, 2004-2006
 1986-2004; or, 9/11 and Later
 International Applications (February reporting)
 Offers of Admission (June reporting)
 Selectivity Issues
 Enrollment (September Reporting)
 Yield Issues
 2006 International Graduate Admissions Survey: Phase 3, Admissions
and Enrollment

SOURCE: “CGS is an organization of 460 institutions of higher education engaged in graduate education, research and the preparation of candidates for advanced degrees. CGS
member institutions award 90% of the doctoral degrees and over 75% of the master’s degrees in the U.S.”; see http://www.cgsnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=172
CGS, 1986-2004
 Graduate Enrollment and Degrees
 Perturbations in the collected data due to:
 departmental programs which fund
 a cohort of international graduate students and then
 wait until this group finishes before
 admitting their next cohort of international students
Graduate Applications
 Down 28% for Fall 2004 (n=113 graduate schools) from
previous year
 Down 5% for Fall 2005 (n=450), notably from China, India
and in engineering; 32% over two years
 Up 11% for Fall 2006 (n=150), mainly from China and India,
notably in sciences and engineering
 “Still down 23% since 2003”
Admission Offers
 Down 28% for international students, but domestic
student applications only dropped 5% (Fall 2004)

“The largest drops in admits were from China (-34%), India (-19%), and
Korea (-12%). The fields of engineering (-24%), life science/agriculture (19%), and physical/earth science (-17%) saw the largest declines in the
number of admits”
 Up 3% for Fall 2005, notably from India, Korea, and
Middle East, but not China
 Up 12% for Fall 2006, notably from India, China, Middle
East, and Korea
Graduate Enrollments
 From 2003 to 2004, overall 6% decline in international
students (n=450 schools); mainly in business, life
sciences/agriculture, engineering
 In 2005, international enrollment decreased by 3%
 Overall for 2006, overall enrollment for all graduate
students is down by 3%, but up by 1% for first-time
students, mainly from Middle east, Korea, China and
India; modest increases in engineering and physical
sciences
EHE Area’s Potential Impact
 A “more attractive and competitive” destination for the
best and brightest students
 Easier credential evaluations (ECTS)
 “Consistency and ease” of common format
 Grading by percentiles:
 A for the top 10%
 B for the next 25%, etc.
 Closer scrutiny of selected “majors”
 Explicit approval needed by the Academic Senate
Continuities
 Trend lines, down since 9/11 but now back up
 Between 2005 and 2006, the percentage of CGS survey
respondents who said that the three-year degree was
“not an issue” on their campuses rose from 41% to 56%
 Comparability with flexibility:
 Continue to accept students from those programs which
we know and respect (i.e., the comparability factor).
 Case by case exceptions (i.e., flexibility)
 Alignments which do not diminish quality is
desirable from a North American perspective.
Discontinuities?
 9/11, a temporally specific event; the nagging question
is whether it is short-term or a serious rupture in the
fabric of society?
 Potential loss of excellent students
 Need for a risk assessment?
 “Fairness issue” for 4 year degree holders
 Payment of extra tuition for one year
 Loss of one year’s income
 Certainly, there are unknowns in our future
Values and Measures
 “We tend to value what we measure rather than
measure what we value.”
 Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, Vice Chancellor for
Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate Division,
UCLA
References
 A search of ERIC reveals 48 articles and a Google search lists
561,000 links. Here’s my selection:
 Australian Vice Chancellors’ Response to “The Bologna Process and
Australia: The Next Steps” at
http://www.avcc.edu.au/documents/publications/policy/submissio
ns/AVCC-response-to-Bologna-Process.pdf
 Margit A. Schatzman, “The Bologna Process: Impact on
Transatlantic Exchange from the North American Credential
Review and Admission Perspective”
in the “Atlas of Student Mobility,” at
http://www.atlas.iienetwork.org/?p=41527
 Hans de Wit, New Century Scholar at
http://www.cies.org/NCS/2005_2006/ncs_hdewit.htm
 “The Bologna Process” at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_process
More References
 Mariam Assefa, “Evaluating International Credentials
in the New Environment” at
http://www.cgsnet.org/portals/0/pdf/mtg_am06Assef
a.pdf
 Susan Feinberg, “Ripples of Change in US Graduate
Education, Courtesy of Bologna,” Greentree Gazette,
March 2007 at http://www.greentreegazette.com/
Questions or Comments? Feel free
to email me at jrichard@ucla.edu