The second change to the GSS frame beginning with the 2014 data release will be the exclusion of graduate students in for-profit institutions. As with the prior analysis of new frame institutions, the impacts of this change on future GSS data are examined by using the 2013 GSS estimates, with a trend analysis that includes data from 1996 to 2013. The for-profit core institutions differ from the public and private nonprofit core institutions in terms of the types of graduate degree programs offered and student composition.
The 2011 GSS screening survey of new potentially eligible institutions identified 18 for-profit institutions. At the end of the 2013 survey cycle, 12 new for-profit institutions remained as eligible. In 2013, the GSS core institutions included two for-profit institutions—Walden University and Alliant International University. Walden University was added to the GSS in 1996 with three units (preventive medicine and community health; clinical psychology; psychology, except clinical) reporting 332 graduate students. Alliant International University was added in 2002, also with three psychology graduate degree programs (clinical psychology, organizational psychology, and forensic psychology) reporting 1,282 graduate students (figure 8). By 2013, Walden University enrolled 8,884 graduate students in eight degree programs and Alliant International University enrolled 735 graduate students in four degree programs; together these students represented 1.5% of all graduate students in the GSS (tables 7 and 8).
- = no value possible. NOTE: Units ordered by number of graduate students in 2013. SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (GSS), 2013. |
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Institution and unit name | Number of graduate students |
Percent | First year reported in GSS |
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---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
All eligible units | 9,619 | 100.0 | - | |||||||
Walden University | 8,884 | 92.4 | 1,996 | |||||||
Psychology, general | 3,521 | 36.6 | 2,007 | |||||||
Preventive medicine and community health | 2,375 | 24.7 | 1,996 | |||||||
Public administration | 1,980 | 20.6 | 2,008 | |||||||
Psychology, except clinical | 450 | 4.7 | 1,996 | |||||||
Clinical psychology (excluding PsyD) | 247 | 2.6 | 1,996 | |||||||
Computer science (excluding DCS) | 214 | 2.2 | 2,005 | |||||||
Public policy analysis | 77 | 0.8 | 2,011 | |||||||
Communication | 20 | 0.2 | 2,013 | |||||||
Alliant International University | 735 | 7.6 | 2,002 | |||||||
Clinical psychology | 526 | 5.5 | 2,002 | |||||||
Organizational psychology | 142 | 1.5 | 2,002 | |||||||
Forensic psychology | 63 | 0.7 | 2,002 | |||||||
International relations | 4 | 0.0 | 2,003 |
- = no value possible. a Percentage point (PP) change is the percent distribution of all institutions minus the percent distribution of core institutions. The PP change (rather than the percent change) describes the impact of adding the new frame institutions on the current distribution. SOURCE: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering, 2013. |
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Count | Percent distribution | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Characteristics | For-profit institutions |
Nonprofit institutions |
All institutions |
Percent change |
For-profit institutions |
Nonprofit institutions |
All institutions |
Percentage point changea |
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All graduate students | 9,619 | 623,391 | 633,010 | -1.5 | 100.0 | 100.0 | 100.0 | - | |||
Full-time | 5,637 | 463,316 | 468,953 | -1.2 | 58.6 | 74.3 | 74.1 | 0.2 | |||
Part-time | 3,982 | 160,075 | 164,057 | -2.4 | 41.4 | 25.7 | 25.9 | -0.2 | |||
Female | 7,050 | 284,330 | 291,380 | -2.4 | 73.3 | 45.6 | 46.0 | -0.4 | |||
Male | 2,569 | 339,061 | 341,630 | -0.8 | 26.7 | 54.4 | 54.0 | 0.4 | |||
U.S. citizens and permanent residentsb | 9,480 | 426,816 | 436,296 | -2.2 | 98.6 | 68.5 | 68.9 | -0.5 | |||
Hispanic or Latino | 677 | 36,606 | 37,283 | -1.8 | 7.1 | 8.6 | 8.5 | 0.0 | |||
Not Hispanic or Latino | |||||||||||
American Indian or Alaska Native | 80 | 2,437 | 2,517 | -3.2 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.0 | |||
Asian | 302 | 36,835 | 37,137 | -0.8 | 3.2 | 8.6 | 8.5 | 0.1 | |||
Black or African American | 3,813 | 33,384 | 37,197 | -10.3 | 40.2 | 7.8 | 8.5 | -0.7 | |||
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 22 | 1,015 | 1,037 | -2.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | |||
White | 3,495 | 277,859 | 281,354 | -1.2 | 36.9 | 65.1 | 64.5 | 0.6 | |||
More than one race | 263 | 8,897 | 9,160 | -2.9 | 2.8 | 2.1 | 2.1 | 0.0 | |||
Unknown race and ethnicity | 828 | 29,783 | 30,611 | -2.7 | 8.7 | 7.0 | 7.0 | 0.0 | |||
Temporary visa holders | 139 | 196,575 | 196,714 | -0.1 | 1.4 | 31.5 | 31.1 | 0.5 | |||
Primary source of supportc | |||||||||||
Federal | 145 | 76,695 | 76,840 | -0.2 | 2.6 | 16.6 | 16.4 | 0.2 | |||
Institutional | 35 | 189,405 | 189,440 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 40.9 | 40.4 | 0.5 | |||
Other nonfederal | 24 | 25,861 | 25,885 | -0.1 | 0.4 | 5.6 | 5.5 | 0.1 | |||
Self-support | 5,433 | 171,355 | 176,788 | -3.1 | 96.4 | 37.0 | 37.7 | -0.7 | |||
Fieldd | |||||||||||
Psychology | 4,949 | 49,153 | 54,102 | -9.1 | 51.5 | 7.9 | 8.5 | -0.7 | |||
Psychology, combined | 3,521 | 12,439 | 15,960 | -22.1 | 36.6 | 2.0 | 2.5 | -0.5 | |||
Clinical psychology | 773 | 9,136 | 9,909 | -7.8 | 8.0 | 1.5 | 1.6 | -0.1 | |||
Psychology, except clinical | 655 | 27,578 | 28,233 | -2.3 | 6.8 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 0.0 | |||
Preventive medicine and community health | 2,375 | 60,335 | 62,710 | -3.8 | 24.7 | 9.7 | 9.9 | -0.2 | |||
Social sciences | 2,061 | 105,217 | 107,278 | -1.9 | 21.4 | 16.9 | 16.9 | -0.1 | |||
Public administration | 1,980 | 20,519 | 22,499 | -8.8 | 20.6 | 3.3 | 3.6 | -0.3 | |||
Public policy analysis | 77 | 6,753 | 6,830 | -1.1 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 0.0 | |||
International relations and national security | 4 | 3,898 | 3,902 | -0.1 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.0 | |||
Computer sciences | 214 | 56,125 | 56,339 | -0.4 | 2.2 | 9.0 | 8.9 | 0.1 | |||
Communication | 20 | 11,094 | 11,114 | -0.2 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 0.0 |
The GSS has been working with institutions over the past decade to identify and exclude practitioner-oriented graduate programs. At the end of the 2013 data collection, the 47 units in the 12 newly identified for-profit institutions were evaluated because of continuing concerns about the eligibility of these units. The information provided by all for-profit institutions (including Walden University and Alliant International University), their program Web sites, and institutional mission statements were thoroughly reviewed. At the end of the review, it was determined that the primary mission and purpose of the 12 newly identified for-profit institutions and two extant for-profit institutions is to prepare students for professional careers. Thus, the graduate degrees offered are not research-oriented but rather practitioner-based programs, and are ineligible for the GSS.[11] For-profit institutions have also been excluded from the NCSES Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) survey frame because they have minimal research and development activities.[12]
Slightly more than 9% of all psychology students in the GSS were enrolled in for-profit institutions, and half (51.5%) of graduate students in for-profit institutions were enrolled in a psychology program. The impact of excluding for-profit institutions will lead to a 0.7% decrease in the proportion of graduate students in the psychology (table 8).
Though the overall impact on GSS trend data of removing the two for-profit institutions is minimal (figure 9), graduate student demographics, enrollment status, and funding characteristics differ across for-profit and nonprofit institutions. For-profit institutions enroll higher percentages of female, U.S. citizen and permanent resident, and black graduate students than the core institutions (table 8). In 2013, almost three-fourths (73.3%) of the graduate students enrolled at for-profit institutions were women, compared to 45.6% of students in nonprofit institutions. Overall, removing the two for-profit institutions will lead to a 2.4% decline in the number of female graduate students and 0.4% decrease in the proportion of women in the GSS. Almost all (98.6%) of graduate students attending for-profit institutions were U.S. citizens or permanent residents, compared to 68.5% of graduate students in nonprofit institutions. While 10.3% of black or African American graduate students in the 2013 GSS attended for-profit institutions, 40.2% of graduate students enrolled in for-profit institutions were black or African American.
Larger percentages of graduate students in for-profit institutions enrolled part time and were self-funded. In the 2013 GSS, 41.4% of graduate students at for-profit institutions attended part time, compared to 25.7% of students attending nonprofit institutions (table 8). Among full-time graduate students enrolled at for-profit institutions, 96.4% were primarily on self-support to pay for their graduate education. In contrast, only 37.0% of full-time graduate students enrolled in nonprofit institutions were on self-support.
[11] See the "Mission" statements at http://www.waldenu.edu/about/who-we-are/ and http://www.alliant.edu/about-alliant/mission/.
[12] See the HERD Survey Design target population at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srvyherd/#sd/.