Overall first-time graduate enrollment fell almost 5% from Fall 2021 to Fall 2022, along with decreases in first-time enrollment among underrepresented minorities (URM), according to a new report from the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS).
Dr. Brian McKenzie
The report, Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2012 to 2022, publishes the findings of the longstanding CGS/GRE Survey of Graduate Enrollment and Degrees, which received usable responses from 558 colleges and universities this cycle and ran from November 2022 to May 2023.
"We think of this Graduate Enrollment and Degrees Report as sort of an indicator of the workforce for tomorrow," said Dr. Brian McKenzie, director of research at CGS and lead author of the report. "We track graduate enrollments at both the master's, certificate, and doctoral level for major institutions in the U.S. We do that to keep up with the output and production of people for the knowledge economy essentially, well-trained, graduate education-trained people."
During data collection, CGS asked schools to report on their prior classes, McKenzie said.
Though the number of graduate school applications increased by 3.9%. between Fall 2021 and Fall 2022 – the largest rises being at master’s institutions (18.8%) and doctoral schools with High Research Activities (R2) (10.4%) – first-time enrollment saw an overall decline of 4.7%.
The largest decline in first-time graduate enrollment was observed at doctoral universities with Very High Research Activities (R1) with 6%, followed by a 4.7% fall at Doctoral or Professional Universities (D/PU). Master’s degree institutions proved to be the exception, instead seeing a 2.5% increase.
Though men were overall more likely than women to enroll full-time in Fall 2022, of the 508,646 graduate students who enrolled for the first time, 57.8% were women, according to the report. Women were also the majority of first-time enrollees in sectors such as public administration and services (79.6%), health sciences (79.5%), education (77.7%), and social and behavioral sciences (66.1%).
