Strategies for Increasing the Number of PhDs Awarded to Underrepresented Minorities (URM) In the Geosciences

This session will discuss diversity strategies used by the nearly 80 graduate schools that are involved in 22 National Science Foundation (NSF) Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP). These institutions are engaged in comprehensive institutional cultural changes that are leading to sustained increases in science and engineering PhDs awarded to African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders. The AGEP framework for change focuses on institutional and departmental policies and practices related to graduate student admissions and selection, curriculum, academic support and advising, faculty mentoring, work-force skills development, and use of student and faculty data to inform change. Indicators to measure change in AGEP institutions include longitudinal data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and citizenship on graduate students, including new enrollees; overall enrollment, Ph.D.s awarded, and post-PhD. employment. Institutional transformation indicators focus on changes in departmental practices and faculty involvement.

Comparisons of data from selected AGEP institutions for academic years 2000/01 and 2006/07 indicate that the number of underrepresented minorities (URM) enrolled in geosciences-related graduate programs (including Earth, Atmospherics, and Ocean Sciences and Chemistry) is increasing. While the numbers are small, a selected number of institutions report increases in the number of PhDs awarded in these geosciences-related fields for this same time period.

Another major graduate school diversity effort is the Council of Graduate Schools PhD Completion Project. CGS is working with academic institutions (including some of the AGEPs) to create intervention strategies and to examine the doctoral completion rates and attrition patterns. Early CGS data indicates that the seven-year PhD completion rate for URM in the physical sciences and mathematics is about 48% and the ten-year PhD completion rate in these fields is a little over 54%. More information and data about both of these initiatives can be located at on the WWW at http://nsfagep.org and http://www.phdcompletion.org .