Chapter 4:
Graduate Academic and Graduate Professional Students
Goals
The California Master Plan for Higher Education gives the University of California the responsibility of enrolling and preparing graduate academic and graduate professional students to help meet the needs of California and the nation and to further the UC mission of teaching, research and public service. Thus, reviving adequate support for the University of California is particularly important as its graduate education enterprise fuels California’s role as a national and international leader.
UC’s goals for graduate education are to offer outstanding degree programs, advance research, support undergraduate instruction and prepare students to join a professional workforce. UC produces the leaders of the future — the teachers, artists, thinkers, innovators, scientists, inventors, doctors, lawyers and nurses; it creates an environment of exploration and discovery that stimulates innovation and invention. UC’s internationally renowned graduate education enterprise serves to drive California’s economy, allowing it to grow, create jobs and offer its residents the standard of living for which the state is well known.
Types of graduate degrees
UC awards both graduate academic degrees and graduate professional degrees.
Graduate academic degrees — These include academic doctoral and academic master’s degrees in education, physical sciences, social sciences, arts, humanities and engineering/computer science. Other doctoral degrees are offered in various disciplines (such as EdD in education, DrPH in public health, etc.). The largest proportion of graduate academic degrees awarded at UC is in the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In 2015–16, more than two-thirds of UC graduate academic degrees were awarded in STEM fields.
Graduate professional degrees — UC’s professional degrees include professional master’s and professional practice degrees in fields such as law, medicine, nursing, business, education, architecture, public policy and the arts. The graduate professional category includes professional master’s degrees (e.g., M.B.A., M.Ed.) and professional practice degrees (e.g., J.D., M.D.). In the field of medicine, UC offers the nation’s largest instructional program in health care and health sciences.
The University maintains multiple funding models for its graduate professional programs. Many state-supported graduate professional programs (i.e., M.B.A., law, medicine, etc.) assess professional degree supplemental tuition (PDST), in addition to the base tuition, which allows the professional schools to ensure their excellence, accessibility, inclusiveness and affordability. Programs assessing PDST commit substantial resources to grants and scholarships, reducing the amount that students pay from their own resources. Since professional degree supplemental tuition began in 1994, both the number of professional degree programs that charge professional degree supplemental tuition and the amount of supplemental tuition charged have increased.
Other UC graduate professional programs follow a self-supporting funding model. These are primarily master’s programs. The largest proportion of students in these programs are in business and management programs offered by the UC business schools. These programs receive no state support and are funded entirely by revenues generated by the program and/or with other non-state revenues. Self-supporting programs allow the University to serve additional students beyond those supported through state resources. They also fulfill demonstrated higher education and workforce needs. Many self-supporting graduate professional degree programs serve nontraditional populations such as full-time employees, mid-career professionals, international students with specialized goals and students whose education is supported by their employers. Many programs are offered through an alternative mode of delivery, such as online or hybrid instruction, alternative scheduling, or at off-campus locations.
Rising graduate professional enrollments
In recent years, enrollment in UC’s master’s and professional degree programs has grown significantly, while academic doctoral enrollment is essentially unchanged since 2010. Professional practice programs such as law, medicine, dentistry and other health science professional programs have grown about 1 percent per year since 2010. During the same period, professional master’s programs such as business, public policy, public health, journalism and education have grown by 4 percent per year. Academic master’s programs, primarily those in engineering and computer science, have grown the most rapidly, at 5 percent per year.
Overall, graduate professional enrollment has grown by about 3 percent since 2010, and much of that growth has been in self-supporting programs. Since 2010, enrollment in self-supporting programs has increased by 8 percent per year.
Graduate student well-being
Student mental health is a growing priority for higher education institutions. In spring 2016, UC administered a survey to a random sample of graduate students across all ten UC campuses to assess mental health and well-being. The survey had a response rate of 40 percent.
Recommendations deriving from the survey’s findings include the expansion and promotion of prevention efforts and mental health services for graduate students, helping students learn about career paths outside of academia and helping students manage their finances. A link to the full report can be found at the end of this introduction.
Supporting diverse career paths and making research accessible
To promote and highlight the work of master’s and doctoral students across UC campuses, UC holds an annual research communication competition called UC Grad Slam. The event challenges its ten participants — the winners of each campus’s own Grad Slam — to distill years of academic research into a three-minute presentation that is free of technical lingo. President Napolitano emcees the event and a distinguished panel of judges decides the winner. The Grad Slam encourages students to communicate their research in a clear and compelling way to non-specialists — a skill that employers need and value. Campuses provide workshops and resources for students to develop this useful skillset. The contest also demonstrates to the public that UC research benefits their lives in both ordinary and quite extraordinary ways. The winner of Grad Slam 2017 was UCLA student Leslie Rith-Najarian, whose work is making mental health more engaging and accessible, including an online program that rewards students for practicing positive habits to strengthen their mental health.
Equity and inclusion: Expanding academic pathways
Creating a more diverse community of scholars, at all levels, has been a longstanding goal for UC, but progress at the doctoral, postdoctoral and faculty levels, has been slow. UC’s difficulties reflect the national challenges in both enrolling individuals from underrepresented groups in doctoral programs and in attracting and hiring them as postdoctoral scholars and faculty. Systemwide initiatives aimed at increasing the diversity of UC’s academic community include:
UC LEADS – The University of California Leadership Excellence through Advanced DegreeS program prepares promising UC undergraduate students for advanced education in science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) fields. The program seeks to prepare underrepresented UC undergraduate students for doctoral education opportunities at a UC campus. From its inception in 2000–01 through 2014–15, 785 scholars have participated in UC LEADS. Given the importance of ensuring gender and ethnic equity within STEM-based doctoral programs, it is notable that half of these scholars are female and half are from underrepresented minorities. Of the first 12 cohorts, 98 percent earned undergraduate degrees and 70 percent are either currently enrolled in graduate school or have already earned graduate degrees. Moreover, twelve UC LEADS alumni are now serving as tenure-track faculty, including four within the UC system.
UC-HBCU Initiative – The University of California-Historically Black Colleges and Universities (UC-HBCU) Initiative was established to increase the number of African Americans completing Ph.D.s at UC by investing in relationships between UC faculty and HBCUs. The program has raised UC’s profile within the HBCU community and facilitated faculty research collaborations in addition to enrolling and retaining students. More information about the UC-HBCU Initiative is presented in Chapter 7.
University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP) – The PPFP program was established to encourage outstanding women and minority Ph.D. recipients to pursue academic careers at UC. The program offers postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development and faculty mentoring to outstanding scholars in all fields whose research, teaching and service will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity at UC. More information about the PPFP program is presented in Chapter 7.
Looking ahead
The University continues to develop programs and benefits designed to enhance the graduate student experience. UC’s overall excellence rests on the strength and scope of its graduate programs. Unlike undergraduate enrollment planning, which is based on California’s Master Plan, graduate enrollment planning is based on factors including the assessment of state and national needs, faculty expertise, program quality (which includes international competitiveness) and available financial support. Over the last 50 years, as the University accommodated California’s burgeoning number of high school graduates, undergraduate enrollment growth has far outpaced graduate enrollment growth. As a result, the proportion of graduate students to undergraduates on the general campuses has decreased from about 30 percent in the 1960s to less than 20 percent today. Given the critical contributions of graduate students to the University’s teaching and research mission and their role as innovation drivers, this change is notable and it places UC well below its peer institutions.
For more information
Universitywide graduate academic applications have increased substantially over the last ten years, while admits and new enrollments have remained relatively flat.
4.1.1 Graduate academic applications, admits and new enrollees by degree program and citizenship, Universitywide, Fall 2009 to fall 2016
Source: UC Corporate Student System. A small number of professional doctoral programs are also included in these data. Universitywide applications and admits are duplicated in this report since students often apply to more than one campus.
The demand for UC academic masters and doctoral programs >has increased steadily over the past eight years. Applications for admission grew from 75,180 in 2009 to 104,304 in 2016 – a rate of 5 percent per year. Nearly all of this increased demand has come from prospective international students, with international applications growing from 33,409 to 60,645 – a rate of 10% per year. Engineering and computer science programs have significantly higher demand from international students than do other disciplines.
Recent survey data compiled by the Council of Graduate Schools show a similar nationwide trend of growth in applications from international students, with the similar pattern of engineering as the most popular field for international applicants.1
Despite more robust demand, new admits and enrollments to UC academic master’s and doctoral programs have remained relatively flat since 2009, admits increasing from 16,332 in 2009 to 21,530 in 2016 and new enrollments increasing from 7,161 to 8,688. Though applications are now predominantly (58 percent) from international students, both admits and new enrollments of domestic students are above those of international students.
1 Council of Graduate Schools International Admissions Survey
Over the past eight years, the number and share of graduate academic admissions have modestly increased for underrepresented groups while growing more significantly for international students.
4.1.2 Graduate academic applications, admits and new enrollees by race/ethnicity and citizenship, Universitywide, Fall 2009 and 2019
Source: UC Corporate Student System
The largest increase in the number and share of graduate academic admissions is among international students. Underrepresented ethnicities (African American, American Indian and Hispanic/Latino(a)) showed very small gains.
Graduate enrollment, as a share of UC’s total undergraduate and graduate enrollment, has remained relatively steady over the past 17 years.
4.2.1 Graduate enrollment share of total, Universitywide, Fall 1999 to fall 2016
Source: UC Corporate Student System. Academic master’s students include post-baccalaureate teaching credential students. Graduate professional includes professional master’s (e.g., M.B.A., M.Ed.) and professional practice (e.g., J.D., M.D.) degrees.
Academic master’s students include a small number of post-baccalaureate teaching credential students. The graduate professional category includes professional master’s (e.g., M.B.A., M.Ed.) and professional practice (e.g., J.D., M.D.) degrees. Growth at UC has been distributed fairly evenly across academic master’s, academic doctoral and graduate professional programs.
With 20 percent graduate enrollment in 2014 including health science students, UC was lower than the average for non-UC AAU1 public institutions, at 23 percent, and the average for AAU private institutions, at 48 percent.
In fall 2015, the proportion of academic doctoral students varied across UC’s general campuses, from 6 percent at Merced to 14 percent at Berkeley. At San Francisco, an exclusively graduate health sciences campus, academic doctoral students made up 30 percent of fall 2015 enrollments. Since 2005, the share of academic doctoral students has declined at most campuses due to more rapid growth in the undergraduate, master’s and professional population.
As shown in indicator 10.3.1, UC awards 20 percent of California’s graduate academic master’s degrees, 63 percent of its academic doctoral degrees and 23 percent of its graduate professional practice degrees.
| Percent of students who are academic doctoral |
Fall 2005
|
Fall 2015
|
| San Francisco |
30%
|
30%
|
| Berkeley |
18%
|
14%
|
| Los Angeles |
13%
|
11%
|
| Davis |
11%
|
10%
|
| Santa Barbara |
11%
|
10%
|
| San Diego |
11%
|
10%
|
| Riverside |
9%
|
9%
|
| Irvine |
10%
|
9%
|
| Santa Cruz |
7%
|
7%
|
| Merced |
|
6%
|
|
|
|
| Universitywide |
11%
|
10%
|
|
(24,750)
|
(25,868)
|
Source: UC Information Center Data Warehouse
1A list of the institutions in the AAU comparison groups can be found in the appendix.
Fee amounts have grown considerably for students in professional degree programs.
4.2.2 Graduate academic and graduate professional average student charges, Universitywide, 2004–05 to 2016–17
Source: UC Budget Office and UC campuses
Many state-supported graduate professional programs assess professional degree supplemental tuition in addition to the base tuition, which allows the professional schools to maintain their excellence, accessibility, inclusiveness and affordability. The Board of Regents approves professional degree supplemental tuition levels. Considerations in setting these rates include the articulated program need and proposed use of the additional fees, availability of financial aid, tuition level of peer programs and other factors. The Regents’ policy on professional degree supplemental tuition is available here.
After several years of rapid growth, average total charges1 for most professional degree programs stabilized through 2015–16. Charges began to rise again in 2016–17 for several programs.
1 Includes mandatory systemwide tuition, health insurance, campus-based fees, and professional degree and supplemental tuition charges. Not all programs are shown. Averages are simple averages based on campus amounts; the number of students in each program is not taken into account.
UC net stipends remain below competitive offers, but the gap decreased between 2010 and 2013.
4.2.3 Average net stipend offered to graduate academic doctoral students admitted to UC compared with their first-choice non-UC schools, Universitywide, 2007, 2010 and 2013
Source: UC Graduate Student Support Survey. Graduate academic professional doctoral programs include Ed.D., D.Env., D.Ph., D.P.T. and D.N.S.
Doctoral students are crucial to a university’s research enterprise and instructional programs. To attract the most highly qualified applicants, universities offer an aid package that includes the cost of tuition and stipends. Net stipend is the amount of aid that students have for living expenses after tuition and fees are paid. It is calculated by subtracting total tuition and fees from a student’s support package (which includes gift aid and teaching or research assistantships). It does not include loans that the student may be offered. The “stipend gap” varies by discipline as shown in the chart above. Results from the 2017 administration of the Graduate Student Support Survey will be available in Fall 2017.
More than half of UC doctoral students graduate without debt. Doctoral students in the physical and life sciences have seen smaller increases in debt over the past 15 years, and graduate with less average loan debt than those in the social sciences and arts and humanities.
4.2.4 Academic doctoral students’ graduate debt at graduation, by discipline, domestic students, Universitywide, Graduating classes of 2000–01 to 2015–16
Source: UC Corporate Student System1
Depending on the field of study, between 57 percent (social sciences) and 85 percent (life sciences) of UC doctoral students take on no additional debt during graduate school.
Several factors account for the difference in debt burden between doctoral students in the physical and life sciences and those in other disciplines. Physical and life science students are more likely to be supported by research grants. Their programs take less time on average to complete than do programs in the social sciences or arts and humanities.
1 Debt categories are inflation-adjusted in 2015 dollars using CA CPI-W. “Other” includes interdisciplinary and professional fields. Life sciences include health sciences.
Graduates with the highest debt levels come from professional schools that charge higher supplemental tuition.
4.2.5 Graduate professional degree student debt at graduation, by discipline, domestic students, Universitywide, Graduating classes of 2000–01 to 2015–16
Source: UC Corporate Student System1
On average, about 39 percent of the aid awarded to graduate professional degree students comes in the form of loans rather than fellowships or grants. By comparison, loans constitute only 4 percent of the aid awarded to graduate academic students. Graduate funding models require greater reliance on loans for professional degree students as their programs are of shorter duration and many fields potentially offer higher incomes after graduation.
Most graduate professional degree students finance part of their education by borrowing. The increases since 2000–01 in average inflation-adjusted debt levels of graduating professional degree students vary considerably. Increases in graduate debt result from a combination of factors, including steady growth in tuition, cost of living increases and greater student reliance on federal student loan programs.
1 Average debt is among graduates with debt. Debt categories are inflation-adjusted in 2015 dollars using CA CPI-W.
Like other major research universities, UC awards a high proportion of graduate academic degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.
4.3.1 Graduate academic degrees awarded by discipline, UC and comparison institutions, Number of degrees grouped in 3-year intervals: 2003–04 to 2005–06, 2006–07 to 2008–09, 2009–10 to 2011–12 and 2012–13 to 2014–15
Source: IPEDS1
UC graduates have had major impacts on the nation and the world — creating much of California’s biotechnology and computer industries, developing research breakthroughs that have led to major medical advances, shaping ideas about our world and culture, creating the economic and social infrastructure of our communities, and assuming political leadership in California and the nation.
UC’s graduate STEM programs reflect the predominant industries in California’s economy. In addition to leading all California institutions in the production of engineering and computer science degrees, UC far outpaces them in the production of degrees in the biological sciences — key to driving the growth of California’s biotechnology sector.
More than 20 UC Ph.D. recipients have been awarded Nobel Prizes.
Over the past 12 years, the number of graduate academic degrees awarded at UC grew by 29 percent, compared to 49 percent at the group of AAU private institutions and 25 percent for the group of non-UC AAU public institutions.
1"Other" includes interdisciplinary and academic degrees in otherwise professional fields, such as architecture, communications and public administration.
UC’s doctoral completion rate increased in every field over the two most recent cohorts studied.
4.3.2 Doctoral completion rates after ten years, by broad field, Universitywide, Fall 1988–90, 1992–94, 1996–98, 2000–02, and 2004–06 entry cohorts
Source: UC Corporate Student System
The universitywide ten-year doctoral completion rate across all fields for the fall 2004–06 entering cohorts was 71 percent. This is an increase from the 67 percent completion rate reported for the 2000–02 cohort. Among broad disciplines, life sciences and health sciences continue to have the highest completion rates. Social sciences, humanities and arts showed the lowest rates, owing to the longer normative time in those fields and different financial support models, although all three experienced an increase compared to previous cohorts.
The overall improvement in ten-year completion rates may be attributed to at least two factors. First, student demographics have shifted to include a larger percentage of international students, who, as a group, have a higher ten-year completion rate than the overall cohort’s rate (a variety of factors influence this difference, including different tuition rates for international students). Second, the proportion of students pursuing doctoral degrees in life sciences, physical sciences and mathematics, and engineering and computer science fields increased 7 percentage points between the 2000–02 and the 2004–06 cohorts; students in these fields have a higher completion rate than do students in other fields.
For more information, reference the Doctoral Completion Rates dashboard, last updated in 2017.
Doctoral completion rates have improved on all UC campuses.
4.3.3 Doctoral completion rates after ten years, by campus, UC campuses, Fall 1988–90, 1992–94, 1996–98, 2000–02 and 2004–06 entry cohorts
Source: UCOP Institutional Research and Academic Planning
The proportion of students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines on a campus may play a role in its doctoral completion rates. The time spent in these degree programs is shorter than in arts and humanities and STEM programs generally have much more robust funding packages than arts and humanities; therefore, the ten-year completion rates of students in STEM fields tend to be higher than most other fields.
In general, the UC campuses with larger proportions of STEM students also tend to have higher overall completion rates. Davis, San Diego and San Francisco have the highest percentages of students in STEM fields and have shown some of the highest completion rates over the last four cohorts. Similarly, a larger percentage of students at Riverside, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz were enrolled in programs outside of STEM fields, and ten-year completion rates at those campuses are lower.
The Doctoral Completion Rates dashboard, last updated in 2017, is available here.
UC median ten-year time-to-doctorate compares well with AAU institutions.
4.3.4 Median ten-year time-to-doctorate, by discipline, Universitywide, AAU public and AAU private comparison institutions, 2013–15 exit cohort
Source: Survey of Earned Doctorates, National Opinion Research Center
The elapsed time-to-doctorate (ETD) at UC is roughly the same as at other academic research universities. There was no change in ETD for UC and the comparison institution groups in the 2007–09 and 2010–12 cohorts in the Survey of Earned Doctorates. UC’s individual campuses compare favorably to the Association of American Universities (AAU) members and the traditional public and private comparison institutions. For the 2010–12 cohorts, most UC campuses had the same ETD measure as the broad comparison institution groups.
The Time to Doctorate dashboard, last updated in 2017, is available here.
More than half of UC’s academic doctoral degree recipients plan to stay in California, a greater share than those who attended high school or college in California.
4.3.5 Origin and planned destination of UC academic doctoral degree recipients, Universitywide, 2010–11 to 2015–16
Source: Survey of Earned Doctorates. Excludes UC Merced.
The most recent data for UC’s doctoral degree recipients, based on those graduating between 2010–11 and 2015–16, show that over half plan to stay in California. Sixty-three percent of domestic doctoral degree recipients intend to stay, though only 41 percent of this cohort received their bachelor’s degrees in California, and only 39 percent attended high school in California. This proportion is higher in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, indicating that UC graduates are contributing to California’s robust economy in these areas.
Though a negligible share of UC’s international (not a U.S. citizen nor permanent resident) doctoral recipients attended high school or college in California, half intend to stay after graduation.
The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED) is conducted of all individuals receiving a research doctoral degree. It is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Endowment for the Humanities and NASA.
Half of UC academic doctoral and master’s graduates who stay in California work in higher education.
4.3.6 Industry of employment of UC graduate academic students in CA, by year after graduation, Universitywide, 2000 to 2013 graduating cohorts
Source: California Employment Development Department and UC Corporate Student System1
The job market for doctoral and master’s degree recipients is nationwide, and those who leave California are not tracked in this data source.
More than 28,000 graduates of UC academic doctoral and master’s degree programs in fields other than engineering/computer science have entered the California workforce since 2000. Over half of them (52 percent) have gone on to work in the state’s higher education workforce, which includes all of the two-year and four-year colleges, both public and private. This highlights the critical role of UC’s graduate academic programs in producing the cadre of faculty who teach California’s future college-educated workforce and conduct research that advances the state and national economies.
The contributions of UC academic doctoral and master’s graduates to the state workforce go beyond higher education. About 12 percent of the employed graduates of UC physical sciences and life sciences programs work in the state’s manufacturing sector, while another 25 percent work in the engineering industry. This shows that the skills gained in UC academic doctoral and master’s programs are both applicable and relevant to key high-tech industries.
UC graduate academic programs in engineering and computer science supply workers to the state’s high-skilled and high-tech industries. Since 2000, over 16,800 graduates of these programs have entered the California workforce, with 33 percent working in the manufacturing sector and 31 percent working in engineering services. Another 21 percent go on to work in the state’s fast-growing internet and computer services industry. About 15 percent of engineering and computer science graduates go on to teaching and research positions in the state’s college and university systems.
1 Includes very small numbers of graduate professional students, which do not affect the overall picture.
Like other major research universities, UC awards a high proportion of professional degrees in business.
4.4.1 Graduate professional degrees awarded by discipline, UC and comparison institutions, Number of degrees grouped in 3-year intervals: 2003–04 to 2005–06, 2006–07 to 2008–09, 2009–10 to 2011–12, and 2012–13 to 2014–15
Source: IPEDS1
The proportion of professional degrees awarded by UC is comparable to AAU private and public institutions, with the greatest proportion of degrees awarded in business. The number and size of graduate professional degree programs varies by campus, with UCLA awarding the greatest number of professional degrees. Over the past decade and a half, UC has opened new professional schools in several areas, including the Rady School of Management at UC San Diego in 2003, the School of Law at UC Irvine in 2006 and the School of Medicine at UC Riverside in 2013.
1 UC Merced has no professional degree students. “Other” includes disciplines such as public administration, architecture, communications and library science.
UC professional programs prepare graduates for careers related to their field of study.
4.4.2 Industry of employment of UC graduate professional students in CA, by year after graduation, Universitywide, 2000 to 2013 graduating cohorts
Source: California Employment Development Department and UC Corporate Student System1
Graduates of UC Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs contribute significantly to the state’s high-skilled and high-tech industries. The 17,000 UC MBA graduates who have entered the California workforce since 2000 have worked in a wide array of industries, including manufacturing (25 percent), finance and insurance (20 percent), retail and wholesale trade (19 percent), and internet and computer systems (19 percent).
Over 10,800 graduates of UC health science professional practice programs (e.g., M.D., D.D.S., Pharm.D.) have gone on to work in California since 2000. The majority of these graduates (62 percent) go on to work in the state’s health care and social assistance sector. This highlights UC’s role, per the Master Plan, as the state’s sole public provider of many health science professional practice degrees and validates UC’s success in fulfilling that role. UC health science graduates also play key roles in other areas of public service in the state, including 35 percent who go on to work in the state’s higher education system and 12 percent who work in state government.
UC law school graduates go on to work in two main areas — legal services and government. Of the 8,600 UC law school graduates who have worked in California since 2000, about 79 percent eventually find positions in the legal services industry. Another 14 percent go on to work in the public sector as government prosecutors and public defenders, and in other public agency roles. A large percentage of law school graduates start off in legal services initially after receiving their degree (76 percent), but by ten years after graduation this percentage has fallen to about 48 percent. The percent of UC law school graduates in government rises from 7 percent to 15 percent over the same period.
1 Includes very small numbers of graduate academic students (e.g., Ph.D. business), which do not affect the overall picture.