CGS Releases Latest Graduate Enrollment and Degrees Report

This week CGS released the latest Graduate Enrollment and Degrees report, published annually since 1986. The report is the only national survey that collects data on first-time and total graduate enrollment across all fields of master’s and research doctorate programs in the United States. Key takeaways include:

• Applications for admissions increased substantially by 8.7 percent and first-time enrollment increased by 8.9 percent between Fall 2020 to Fall 2021.
• The rise in applications for admissions between Fall 2020 and Fall 2021 was driven by Doctoral Universities with Very High Research Activity (R1) (6.6 percent) and Doctoral Universities with High Research Activity (R2) (16.2 percent).
  • Together, these two categories of institutions accounted for 81 percent of the increases in applications between Fall 2020 and Fall 2021.
• The overall first-time enrollment increase was driven by the 94.5 percent increase in international graduate students in Fall 2021, rebounding from the 37.4 percent decrease in Fall of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• First-time graduate enrollment among underrepresented minorities (URM) decreased 4.5 percent among American Indian/Alaska Native students, 4.1 percent among Black/African American students, and 0.9 percent among Latinx students between Fall 2020 and Fall 2021. The decline in domestic students also comes after five years of gradual increases.

The Institute of International Education also released their latest Open Doors report, which revealed an 80 percent increase in new international student enrollments in the 2021/2022 academic year.