UCSC has developed nationally recognized graduate programs, with highly competitive admissions processes. Growth in enrollments and in development of programs was projected, but both have slowed in the current fiscal environment. These and the related issues of recruitment, retention, and graduate student support are discussed in this section.
The ability of graduate programs to meet their recruitment and enrollment objectives is closely linked to the amount of support available for students (discussed in the next section). Several boards report that they cut back on fall 1993 admissions in response to current budget cuts and in anticipation of further cuts that might preclude full support in the future. Concerns about the ability of the campus to achieve its stated goals with respect to graduate enrollments, however, actually predate the recent budget crisis. Figure B.1 shows actual and budgeted graduate headcounts. While the Office of the President, in response to the budget crisis, reduced the campus's allocation in 1991-92, actual enrollments had fallen short of the budgeted allocations in each of the previous four years. Thus, the campus was having difficulty keeping pace with the rate of allocated increases prior to the deterioration of the fiscal climate.
In Ph.D. programs, admission yields (the fraction of admitted students who actually register) have averaged around 50 percent in recent years. For example, between 1986 and 1992, the yield rate ranged from a low of 40.3 percent in 1987 to a high of 53.2 percent in 1988. The figure for 1992 was 49.3 percent. Admission yields also vary across the academic divisions. The 1986 to 1992 average in Natural Sciences was 41 percent (709 registered students of 1729 admits); in Humanities it was 60.4 percent (261 registered of 432 admits); and in Social Sciences it was 50.3 percent (216 registered of 429 admits). Recruitment of international students is becoming increasingly difficult due to recent increases in the costs for out-of-state students.
Graduate students in 1992-93 represented 9.7 percent of the total student body, up from 8.4 percent in 1986-87. The pattern of graduate enrollments over the last seven years is shown in Table B.1. It includes all students in master's, Ph.D., and certificate programs and also gives the breakdown of students across divisions. While the absolute number of graduate enrollments increased 37 percent between 1986-87 and 1992-93, the growth occurred mainly in 1989-90 and 1990-91, with more modest growth in 1992-93. Of the 968 graduate students enrolled in 1992-93 (three-quarter average) there were 136 certificate students, 117 master's students, and 715 Ph.D. students.
As shown in Table B.2, 50 percent of graduate enrollments are currently in the Natural Sciences Division. The next largest share is in Social Sciences (28 percent), followed by Humanities (18 percent), and Arts (4 percent). Despite the concern expressed in the Fourth Year Accreditation Report about the unbalanced distribution of graduate students among the academic divisions, this distribution has changed little as the total number of graduate students has grown. For example, in 1988-89, just prior to the main spurt of growth in graduate enrollments, the percent of graduate students in the four divisions was virtually the same as in 1992-93. Humanities and Arts, however, did increase their share of graduate enrollments from 1986 to 1989, a period during which enrollments were flat in Natural Sciences and fell slightly in Social Sciences. Figure B.2 illustrates the change in the divisional shares between 1986-87 and 1992-93.
Graduate growth since 1988-89 has been accommodated in roughly equal proportions by expanding enrollments in existing programs and by the addition of new programs. New programs launched since the last WASC review include the Music M.A.; Ph.D. programs in Anthropology, International Economics, and Linguistics; and both doctoral and master's programs in Computer Engineering. This last program accounts for almost half the total growth in the Natural Sciences Division. Among the older programs, History (with a revived Ph.D. program), Literature, Physics, Psychology, and Science Communications have shown significant increases.
The 2005 Report (a campus planning document) assumed an eventual graduate enrollment of 3,000 students or 20 percent of the total campus enrollment. This 20 percent figure remains the campus goal; however, graduate growth has recently been curtailed by budgetary constraints. It now appears unrealistic for the campus to expect to meet its objectives within the time frame originally envisioned; campus growth plans should be revised to reflect current realities.
Existing plans also call for 50 percent of graduate enrollments to be in Natural Sciences in 2005, 25 percent in Social Sciences, 18 percent in Humanities, and 7 percent in Arts. Thus, while growth is planned in each division (for example Natural Sciences would grow from just under 500 graduate students to roughly 1,500), growth would be particularly pronounced in Arts (mainly at the expense of Social Sciences).
Retention and Placement
Until recently, little data on retention and graduation rates has been available. In a study of graduate cohorts between 1984 and 1990, about 30 percent dropped out after two years of study. Based on cohorts entering between 1984 and 1986, between 21 percent and 33 percent received their doctorates after five years of study and about 36 percent after seven years of study.
Despite the fact that all UCSC master's programs are designed as two-year programs, completion rates after two years ranged from 31 percent to 49 percent. Another 23 percent to 40 percent of students are, after two years, still working on their degrees, while the remaining 24 percent to 43 percent have dropped out. Among recent cohorts of certificate students, around 25 percent drop out after the first year, while 42 percent to 52 percent have completed the certificate after two years.
There appears to be no systematic research at UCSC on the reasons students fail to complete programs. Particularly in Ph.D. programs, students often choose to take leaves of absence while working on their dissertations in order to avoid student fees, compounding the difficulty of data collection. Leave-taking is likely to increase if graduate student fee offset grants fail to keep up with fee increases.
Information on graduate student placement is collected and used in program reviews, but is not routinely analyzed or reported for the campus as a whole. Based on discussions with program directors, there appears to have been no major change in the nature of placements during the past five years. In the natural sciences, degree recipients commonly accept postdoctoral positions or research jobs in private industry (a few accept academic teaching positions). In the social sciences, teaching placements have been increasing with other graduates moving into industry and the government. Humanities graduates, although few, have been quite successful in obtaining college and university teaching positions.