Grad Students Turning Away From UC System

The University of California’s premier research campuses could lose their top rankings unless they spend millions of dollars to expand programs and financial support to attract graduate students they are losing to other schools, experts say.

There is near consensus among the UC Board of Regents, deans, professors and outside academicians that dramatic steps must be taken soon or the UC system’s mission to attract the world’s best researchers will be threatened.

“UCLA, as well as the other UC campuses, are losing some of most talented and potentially creative and productive graduate students to other institutions,” said Jim Turner, assistant vice chancellor of graduate studies at UCLA.

The dearth of graduate students threatens all eight general campuses, from longtime academic powerhouses such as UC Berkeley to younger institutions like UC Irvine. In the last decade, California was one of only five states where graduate enrollments dropped. The other four were Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Connecticut.

UC master’s and doctoral programs have suffered from an emphasis on increasing the number of undergraduate students. Other schools also are offering graduate students better financial packages and are waiving out-of-state fees. In addition, the high cost of housing near most UC campuses has made the financial squeeze even more difficult.

The Commission on the Growth and Support of Graduate Education is so concerned that in a report to UC regents next month it will warn that the system needs to add 11,000 graduate students and spend an additional $215 million annually to remain competitive. The commission, appointed by UC President Richard Atkinson and the regents, is made up of students, faculty, administrators and regents.

The problem strikes at the heart of the UC system’s identity as a place where Nobel Prize winners train those who will make the groundbreaking discoveries of the future.

Graduate students conduct their own research, aid faculty with their projects and teach undergraduates.

But at schools like UC Irvine, the number of undergraduates has grown rapidly in recent years, dwarfing the number of graduate students.

“If we do not act now, UCI’s mission of research and graduate training--as well as public service--will be subordinated to its responsibility for undergraduate education,” said a recent UC Irvine internal report, echoing sentiments of faculty throughout the UC system. “If this occurs, the nature of undergraduate education itself will be compromised.”

The last three decades have seen a steady decline in graduate students as a percentage of the student body at UC campuses, according to UC figures. While undergraduate enrollment has doubled, the number of graduate students has increased just 7%. These figures do not include students in professional programs, such as law, medicine and business.

Just 17% of UC Students in Graduate Schools

Thirty-five years ago, 30% of UC students were in graduate school. Now, the figure is closer to 17%--about half the proportion at comparable universities.

The UC Irvine study concluded that it is “a campus at risk.”

“We can develop strategies to increase graduate enrollment and pursue excellence in advanced education,” the report said. “Or, alternatively, we can continue on our existing course and become primarily an undergraduate institution. The latter path would fail to meet our mission as a campus of the University of California.

UCLA is in the same spot. “If we lose the capacity to bring in the best grad students, it will have ripple effects and impact the basic mission of UCLA,” Turner said.

UC officials and social scientists also noted that the holders of graduate degrees play a key role in pushing the California economy forward and solving social problems.

“Not only the quality of graduate education, but the production of a skilled work force--that’s all at risk in California,” said William Parker, vice chancellor for research at UC Irvine.

Unlike undergraduates, nearly all graduate students receive financial aid packages made up of tuition reimbursement, fellowships, teaching assistant positions and health insurance.

In five to 10 years, as the booming stock market inflated endowments of private research universities such as Harvard, Princeton and Stanford, the contest for the best grad students has become more competitive.

UC officials said they have not been able to offer financial packages comparable to schools with billion-dollar endowments. Stanford, for example, recently received a $400-million gift from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Most of that money will be used for endowed professorships and graduate fellowships.

“The more I look into it, our programs are strong, but we cannot compete resource-wise with the private institutions,” said Sue Johnson, chairwoman of the Board of Regents.

Housing costs near most UC campuses and the lack of graduate student housing contributes to the financial squeeze, especially when competing for students against a school like Cornell, in Ithaca, N.Y., where the monthly rent for an apartment would buy a tent in California.

Ron Stern, UC Irvine’s dean of physical sciences, said graduate students there are offered $5,000 to $7,000 less a year than at competing schools.

While a UC school might offer a prospective doctoral student a one-year fellowship followed by four years as a teaching assistant, Princeton might offer a four-year fellowship and one year as a teaching assistant. So, instead of spending 20 hours a week teaching, a grad student can spend the time on his own research.

Financial Aid Is Often a Deal Breaker

Surveys show that although the reputation of a program attracts students, the deal they are offered may make a difference in what school they attend.

“The faculty told me, if you look at the academic reputation of our programs, we are much better than competitor X and Y, but students are choosing competitors X and Y because of the money, not because the overall quality and reputation is better,” UCLA’s Turner said.

Graduate school recruiting is a national--even international--contest, one made more difficult for UC campuses by out-of-state fees of an additional $10,700 a year. By the second year, most U.S. citizens are able to claim state residency. Foreign students, however, must continue to pay the additional fee.

Many public schools, such as the University of Michigan, waive the out-of-state fee for graduate students.

Even though UC schools have the mission of turning out PhDs, UC policy has for decades concentrated on increasing the number of undergraduates, and watched their numbers grow in proportion to grad students, according to the state’s higher education master plan.

As long ago as 1988, the regents approved a plan that would have increased graduate enrollments 47% by 2005-06, with campuses other than UC Berkeley and UCLA growing the most. But the recession arrived, forcing cuts to the state budget. The UC system concentrated on preserving its core. The plan never was implemented, and graduate enrollments remained flat.

UC campuses have increased recruiting efforts, from flying in prospective students to meet professors and other students, to better Internet presentations and brochures.

But most UC schools have made little effort to raise money for graduate fellowships. Turner said UCLA has raised millions of dollars in the last seven or eight years, but less than 1% has gone to help graduate students.

So individual campuses are embarking on their own solutions.

UC Berkeley Seeks $200 Million for Fellowships

UC Berkeley is about to start a campaign to raise $200 million for graduate fellowships, said Mary Ann Mason, dean of the graduate division.

Several are targeting the high cost of living. UC Berkeley is looking at partnerships with private developers for graduate student housing, while UC Irvine is going to ask the regents to approve two major housing projects to serve graduate students.

But as happened in 1988, the sputtering economy and cuts in the UC budget may scuttle the efforts. Johnson said any efforts to bring in more graduate students may have to wait three or four years.

UC Irvine’s Stern said the number of graduate students deciding to take offers from the School of Physical Science increased 50% this year, which he credited to offering better financial packages. “With hindsight, I could say, ‘Duh.’ Once we dollar-for-dollar match competing institutions, they come here. That tells you something.”