News Release

CHAPEL HILL -- The Council of Graduate Schools has named the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a university research partner in a project aimed at improving doctoral completion rates.

The three-year, $2.6 million project will link 21 universities with the council to implement strategies to quell attrition among doctoral students in the sciences, engineering, mathematics, humanities and social sciences. Each university will receive up to $100,000 to collect data on attrition and to implement interventions. UNC will receive $60,000 in funding for its initiatives.

Research has shown that the dropout rate for students in doctoral programs nationwide is between 30 percent and 50 percent, resulting in a financial burden to universities and often a devastating personal blow to the students. Most studies of doctoral student attrition find the same results: Women leave doctoral programs at a higher rate than men, minority students drop out more often than white students, and Americans leave at a higher rate than international students.

A number of programs at UNC have been particularly successful in retaining and mentoring doctoral students from underrepresented groups, said Dr. Linda Dykstra, dean of UNC’s Graduate School.

"We have learned from these programs that much of their success rests on the development of strong, supportive relationships between faculty and students," she added.

The Graduate School will lead the Council of Graduate Schools’ "Ph.D. Completion Project" initiatives at UNC. The university has proposed several, including:

· Expanded opportunities for departments to bring prospective students to campus for recruitment visits. These pre-admission visits allow programs and prospective students to learn more about each other to optimize a good fit between the student and the department.

· Support for students to attend professional meetings and to engage in other research-related activities. This initiative would increase the availability of travel awards for students to attend and present research at professional meetings and increase summer research support for students in the humanities and social science departments.

· Expanded financial support that extends for several years and includes both teaching and interdisciplinary opportunities. This initiative will increase the number of fellowship opportunities that build upon an existing partnership between private sources of funding, tuition support from the Graduate School and departmental funds.

· Workshops for faculty on the responsibilities and rewards of mentoring. These workshops will provide open discussion of the challenges of retaining all students and will be led by faculty members who have established reputations as effective mentors.

· Creation of student workshops to create an inclusive environment, particularly for female and other underrepresented students in the sciences. There is a great deal of evidence that successful student retention is accompanied by a committed mentoring relationship. These workshops would bring students together for interaction with faculty members who have a record of successful mentoring.

In addition, UNC will introduce a new survey of both enrolled students and those who complete their doctoral training. Data from these initiatives and the survey will be incorporated into the university’s program review process and shared with the Council of Graduate Schools for best practices.

More project information is available at www.phdcompletion.org. The project is being supported by grants from Pfizer Inc. and the Ford Foundation.

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Note: Contact Dykstra at (919) 962-3521.

Graduate School contact: Deborah Makemson, (919) 843-3494 or makemson@email.unc.edu

News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu