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Fourth year of 9% growth in US grad school admissions

Graduate school admissions in the United States have risen for the fourth consecutive year according to the Council for Graduate Schools (CGS). Data released by the organisation shows admission offers rose 9% again this year after similar increases since 2010 on the back of rising demand from Indian students.

Final application figures and preliminary admission reports for fall 2014

2014 marks the first time in eight years that admission offers to Chinese students have not experienced an increase

For the first time, the organisation has also reported on international experiences among domestic graduate students revealing that most graduate school deans (59%) say none of the programmes at their institutions had a requirement for research or study abroad.

The rise in admissions reflect a 10% rise in applications meaning that supply is meeting demand for US postgraduate studies. Source countries also mirror application reports with Indian students dominating admission offer recipients for the second year in a row while China remains stagnant. Brazil also showed significant growth despite being a smaller student cohort.

“We need to continue to do everything possible both through our visa process and allowing talented students who complete their degrees to stay and work here”

CGS President Suzanne Ortega says the increase by a quarter of admission offers to Indian students could be the beginning of a trend.  “While historically India’s applications have been more volatile, we’ve now got two years which suggest it’s more than just a one year blip anyway,” she commented.

Brazil also stands out for its growth in admission offers by 98%. “The numbers are smaller so you get pretty high growth rates yet we think we’re starting to see the results of Brazil’s investment in sending more of of their students abroad for graduate study,” said Ortega.

2014 marks the first time in eight years that admission offers to Chinese students have not experienced an increase. Still offers to Chinese students continue to far outnumber those for any other country.

Ortega welcomed the increased interest from other countries. “This diversity in sending countries is a healthy sign for the US graduate programmes,” she said but added that  “perhaps some of the flat growth of incoming Chinese students is due to the increased growth of Chinese institutions”.

“We need to continue to do everything possible both through our visa process and allowing talented students who complete their degrees to stay and work here. That’s should be a priority,” she urged.

Beyond India and Brazil, admission offers for Canadian students increased 4% despite a 5% fall in applications. Meanwhile admission offers fell for students from South Korea and Taiwan that did reflect a decline in application numbers.

Arts & Humanities programmes increased admission offers by 5% however Engineering and Physical & Earth Science degrees saw the largest increases, 11% and 13% respectively.

The statistics are based on Phase II of CGS’s tri-phase annual reports marking trends in applications, admission and enrolments to US graduate programmes.

Final figures on admission statements will be reported in November, however CGS says so far 186,583 admission offers have been issued for autumn 2014 based on responses from 299 institutions.

Just one in ten graduate school deans reported that an international experience was required by 50% or more of graduate programmes

The report also reveals finalised statistics on application figures. A total of 747,577 applications were made showing a 10%  increase on 2013’s 2% gains and a slightly higher amount than preliminary figures released in April’s Phase I report.

Baring any major upset in visa issuance, CGS expects final enrolments to mirror the admission offer numbers in the report.

“Usually we treat the offers of admission numbers as early indicators of enrolment figures,” confirmed Jeff Allum Director of Research and Policy Analysis at CGS. “I would expect then that enrolment figures that we release in early November will continue to increase just the same as they have over the past several years.”

And for the first time this year, the organisation also polled its constituency on the international experience of graduate domestic students.  Just one in ten graduate school deans reported that an international experience was required by 50% or more of graduate programmes.

Short-term study abroad of six weeks or less, international research opportunities, field research and joint or dual degree programmes were among the experiences most listed by respondents as existing or in the planning stages at their institutions.

Despite the low participation levels, Allum says he was surprised to see the variation in types of experiences.

“There remains a lot that we don’t know,” he added. “A lot of these are international programme specific or discipline specific and that’s something that I think we as an organisation and community will explore in the future.”

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