Graduate School Feedback and Improvement Survey

Graduate Education Strategy Group Past three years have intensely focused on undergraduates at the U. We are asking for feedback from faculty across campus Strengths of the Graduate School Areas for improvement Strategic direction Current resources New resources Survey at Graduate School webpage thru 4/1

Graduate student support & placement Stipend Is your program stipend competitive regionally and nationally? Do you have peer or aspirational peer stipend data? Should per-student stipend support be increased even if fewer assistantships? Number of students trained vis placement opportunities Are there shifts in post-graduate placement opportunities relevant to number of students we train and professional development activities the Graduate School supports? What professional development training should be offered to graduate students to improve their career prospects? writing support, academic integrity, public speaking, networking, time management, career planning, leadership

Services provided by the Graduate School What elements of the Graduate School support you successfully? What services are missing or in need of expansion?

Fellowships, research, travel support What is your opinion of the following ideas? Strengthen the fellowship office to facilitate student applications to existing programs (e.g., NSF-GRFP, NSF-NRT, Fulbright, Hertz, Boren, Gates, etc.) Develop summer term mid-candidacy fellowships for excellence in research Are changes needed to Graduate School travel funding, its amount, and its implementation/timing? How are students who participate in interdisciplinary training programs supported? Are improvements needed? How are students in your program affected candidacy limits on tuition and health insurance benefits?

Services provided by the Graduate School Graduate student recruitment Development of named University-wide (regardless of discipline) fellowships to improve the acceptance yield for the most talented and diverse applicants Development of targeted fellowships for students recruited by Asst. Profs Development of targeted fellowships for students co-advised by PIs from multiple colleges and multiple disciplines

Recruitment and retention of diverse graduate students Do your programs have specific procedures in place for recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority graduate students? What are they? Do they work? How could they be improved? Please share examples! What are specific barriers to recruiting an underrepresented minority students to Utah? How are your programs addressing them? How could the graduate school assist in these efforts?

Tracking post-graduate placements What does your program do to track placement outcomes? What could the graduate school do to support collection of placement outcomes? What kinds of shifts are you seeing in post-graduate employment? What changes have you implemented/are you considering implementing to support shifts in placement opportunities? What can the graduate school do to help?

Time to degree What are the trends in time to degree in your field and in your program at the U? What recommendations could be implemented to improve time to degree? improvements to the transition from coursework to research/scholarly activities greater support for graduate student writing?

Development of fee-based Masters programs Should the U encourage the development of professional certificate or degree programs at Master's level ? incentives via tuition return to program support from Graduate School to set up the structure (budget, billing) Would your program consider or is your program considering such efforts? What are employment prospects for Master's level graduates in your field?

Ideas for additional resources to support graduate education at the U Please discuss ideas for grants, donations, industry partnerships, state partnerships Any other ideas, suggestions, concerns? Please remind your colleagues to complete the survey if they cannot attend a townhall meeting