Indicator: Graduate degree completion

Definition

Students complete a graduate degree (master’s degree or higher) within a specified time frame after entering graduate school.

RECOMMENDED METRIC(S)

Percentage of graduate students completing a graduate degree within 150 percent of their current program’s length. Other time frames, such as 100 percent and 200 percent of program length, should also be reported for this measure.

Type(s) of Data Needed

Administrative data

Why it matters

A graduate degree 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 bachelor’s or high school degrees. For instance, in 2020, workers with a master’s degree earned 18 percent more than those with a bachelor’s degree only, whereas those with a professional degree earned 45 percent more, on average. About 14 percent of adults in the United States age 25 and older have completed a master’s degree or higher, though only 11 percent of Black adults and 6 percent of Latino adults hold a graduate degree. Disparities in graduate degree completion are particularly large in certain fields of study, with Black and Latino students less likely to complete a graduate degree in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) field compared to students of other racial and ethnic backgrounds.

What to know about measurement

Institutions regularly track and report certificate and degree completion for their students. State longitudinal data systems that incorporate the postsecondary sector include individual-level completion data from in-state institutions (making it possible to measure completion more broadly), but can only obtain completion data from other institutions through National Student Clearinghouse (NSC), which collects individual records provided by participating institutions. However, as noted earlier, NSC’s completion records are sometimes missing information on the type of degree earned, and 12 percent of enrollment records reported to NSC do not include information on whether the student was enrolled at the undergraduate, master’s, or doctoral level.


Aggregate data on graduate degree completion are collected regularly and reported via the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Systems (IPEDS), though these data report only the number of students earning a degree. They do not track cohorts of students and cannot be used to calculate graduation rates.

Source frameworks

This indicator appeared in two source frameworks reviewed for this report. The Institute for Higher Education Policy’s metrics framework does not explicitly measure graduate degree completion, though the data are captured in its general graduation rate metric.

References

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