Indicator: Enrollment in graduate education

Definition

Students enroll in a graduate education program after completing an undergraduate degree.

RECOMMENDED METRIC(S)

Percentage of bachelor’s degree recipients enrolling in post-baccalaureate or graduate programs within one to five years of completion. Other time frames, such as within 10 years of completion, should also be reported for this measure.

Type(s) of Data Needed

Administrative data

Why it matters

Graduate education represents one of many pathways to economic mobility and success along the pre-K-to-workforce continuum. Graduate degree holders earn substantially more during their lifetimes than people who hold only a bachelor’s or high school degree, and enrollment in a graduate program is a necessary first step before degree completion. However, Black and Latino students are underrepresented in graduate school relative to students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds, though research indicates that these disparities disappear when comparing only students with a bachelor’s degree. This finding suggests that higher education indicators measured before graduate school enrollment are critical for addressing inequities in educational attainment.


Among students who hold a bachelor’s degree and pursue graduate school, disparities by race, ethnicity, and income emerge along institution type and field of study. For example, 24 percent of Black graduate students and 12 percent of Latino graduate students enroll in for-profit institutions, compared with 8 percent of White graduate students and 7 percent of Asian graduate students. Among students who enroll in doctoral programs, Black students (14 percent) and Latino students (18 percent) were less likely to pursue a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) degree than White students (27 percent) and Asian students (29 percent). These results underscore the importance of examining enrollment patterns by institutional sector and field.

What to know about measurement

Because students can pursue graduation education in a different institution than where they completed an undergraduate degree, this indicator requires linking student data from multiple institutions. Currently, 35 state longitudinal data systems include data from postsecondary institutions. As noted earlier, state longitudinal data systems sometimes draw on enrollment records from National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) to track enrollment in institutions outside of the state. NSC enrollment data coverage is highest (almost 98 percent) for students in four-year colleges but varies by type of institution: for instance, NSC covers only 80 percent of students in four-year for-profit institutions, where students of color are more likely to enroll. In addition, 12 percent of enrollment records reported to NSC do not include information on whether the student is enrolled at the undergraduate, master’s, or doctoral level. This area is also one in which data collection and sharing can be improved, both with the NSC and within states.


Aggregate data on graduate enrollment are collected regularly and reported via the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Systems (IPEDS), though these data report only the number of students enrolled in graduate education and cannot be used to measure the share of college graduates from a given cohort who go on to enroll in graduate education.

Source frameworks

This indicator appeared in three source frameworks reviewed for this report. Our proposed measure aligns with work by the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

References

The framework's recommendations are based on syntheses of existing research. Please see the framework report for a list of works cited.