The Council of Graduate Schools recently released a new report on enrollments and degree attainments in master’s and doctoral degree programs at U.S. universities. The report shows that in 2014 there were 1.7 million students enrolled in graduate education programs in the United States. The report stated that first-time enrollments in graduate programs in the fall of 2014 stood at more than 479,642 students. This was up slightly from the previous year.
Among the first-time graduate students in 2014, Blacks were 8.8 percent of all students. Among the Black first-time graduate students, women were 69.1 percent of the new students. For students of all races, women were 56.9 percent of all new first-time graduate students. So the gender gap in new graduate students is far greater among African Americans than is the case generally.
Among first-time graduate students, African Americans were 17.5 percent of total enrollments in the field of public administration and services, 12.5 percent in education, and 12.3 percent in the social and behavioral sciences. But African Americans were only 3.2 percent of the new first-time graduate students in the physical sciences and 5.6 percent in engineering.
Since 2004, Black enrollments in graduate programs have increased an average of 5.2 percent annually. During the same period White enrollments have increased by 1 percent annually. Black enrollments have seen their largest increase in graduate programs in the health sciences.
The full report, Graduate Enrollment and Degrees, 2004 to 2014, may be downloaded by clicking here.
