Exploring graduate engineering students’ reasons for original enrollment and current persistence in engineering master’s and PhD programs

Gabriella M. Sallai; Matthew Bahnson; Catherine G. P. Berdanier

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Formation and Development of Engineers
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--44643
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/44643

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Paper Authors

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Gabriella M. Sallai Penn State University

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Gaby Sallai is currently a graduate student in the Mechanical Engineering department at Penn State University. She is working under Dr. Catherine Berdanier in the Engineering Cognitive Research Laboratory (ECRL) studying the experiences of engineering graduate students. She received her Bachelor's degree from Franklin & Marshall College in physics and women and gender studies.

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Matthew Bahnson The Pennsylvania State University orcid.org/0000-0002-0134-0125

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Matthew Bahnson is a postdoctoral research scholar in engineering education with the Engineering Cognitive Research Laboratory with Dr. Catherin Berdanier at Pennsylvania State University. He completed his Ph.D. in the Applied Social and Community Psychology program at North Carolina State University. His previous training includes a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Northern Iowa and an M.A. in Social Sciences from the University of Chicago. Matthew’s research focuses on postdoctoral mentorship experiences in engineering and computer science and sociocultural inequality in engineering graduate education with the intention of increasing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in STEM graduate education. Matthew has published in the leading engineering education journals: Journal of Engineering Education; Studies in Engineering Education; and International Journal of Engineering Education. His conference participation includes coordinating engineering education sessions at the leading education conference: American Educational Researcher Association (AERA) in 2022 and 2023; paper presentations at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), The Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity (CoNECD), Frontiers in Education (FIE), as well as major psychological conferences.

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Catherine G. P. Berdanier Pennsylvania State University orcid.org/0000-0003-3271-4836

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Catherine G.P. Berdanier is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. She earned her B.S. in Chemistry from The University of South Dakota, her M.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering and her PhD in Engineering Education from Purdue University. Her research expertise lies in characterizing graduate-level attrition, persistence, and career trajectories; engineering writing and communication; and methodological development.

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Abstract

The purpose of this research paper is to capture reasons engineering graduate students enroll in and persist through their graduate degrees. Graduate enrollment literature has largely focused on undergraduate students’ perceptions of graduate education and has also characterized the factors, including research experience, high self-efficacy, and math proficiency, that contribute to undergraduate students’ intentions to pursue a graduate degree. Few studies, however, have explored how the reasons and motivations graduate students say they had for enrolling in a graduate program compare with the reasons that they have for persisting. From the perspective of Expectancy-Value Theory, we posit that in order to persist in graduate engineering programs, it is important to know what students expected and valued in the past when enrolling in graduate programs and the current value they place on an advanced degree. Given that graduate engineering enrollment is a critical issue for national competitiveness in industry and academia and given volatile trends in graduate enrollment through and after the pandemic and current political climates, particularly for international students in the last five years, it is important to understand why today’s graduate engineering students enroll in school and how enrollment and persistence motivations are related. To this end, we describe the reasons students indicate for enrolling and persisting in engineering graduate programs in this paper. We report quantitative results of a nationwide study of n=1084 engineering graduate students enrolled in Master’s and PhD programs in the United States. As part of the survey, participants were asked two separate questions, using pre-determined lists of options, to determine i) why they chose to enroll in their program and ii) why they are persisting through their program. They were also asked to rank their choices for each question in order of most contributing to least contributing factor. The descriptive statistics presented here provide a deeper understanding as to why students originally decided to attend graduate school and why they are currently persisting. In this paper, we also explore the patterns in this data with regard to gender, race/ethnicity, and year in graduate program. While results indicate that students’ main reason for both original enrollment and continued persistence was to continue learning specialized knowledge, this was a more dominant rationale for originally pursuing a graduate degree. Our data also show that participants’ reasons for persisting in a graduate degree are more varied than the original reasons that they enrolled, indicating that graduate engineering students’ experiences are causing them to change their perspectives on why they should continue in school. This paper is one of the first to explore why graduate students are deciding to enroll in engineering programs and to understand how enrollment and persistence relate.

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Sallai, G. M., & Bahnson, M., & Berdanier, C. G. P. (2023, June), Exploring graduate engineering students’ reasons for original enrollment and current persistence in engineering master’s and PhD programs Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44643

TY - CPAPER
AB - The purpose of this research paper is to capture reasons engineering graduate students enroll in and persist through their graduate degrees. Graduate enrollment literature has largely focused on undergraduate students’ perceptions of graduate education and has also characterized the factors, including research experience, high self-efficacy, and math proficiency, that contribute to undergraduate students’ intentions to pursue a graduate degree. Few studies, however, have explored how the reasons and motivations graduate students say they had for enrolling in a graduate program compare with the reasons that they have for persisting. From the perspective of Expectancy-Value Theory, we posit that in order to persist in graduate engineering programs, it is important to know what students expected and valued in the past when enrolling in graduate programs and the current value they place on an advanced degree. Given that graduate engineering enrollment is a critical issue for national competitiveness in industry and academia and given volatile trends in graduate enrollment through and after the pandemic and current political climates, particularly for international students in the last five years, it is important to understand why today’s graduate engineering students enroll in school and how enrollment and persistence motivations are related.
To this end, we describe the reasons students indicate for enrolling and persisting in engineering graduate programs in this paper. We report quantitative results of a nationwide study of n=1084 engineering graduate students enrolled in Master’s and PhD programs in the United States. As part of the survey, participants were asked two separate questions, using pre-determined lists of options, to determine i) why they chose to enroll in their program and ii) why they are persisting through their program. They were also asked to rank their choices for each question in order of most contributing to least contributing factor. The descriptive statistics presented here provide a deeper understanding as to why students originally decided to attend graduate school and why they are currently persisting. In this paper, we also explore the patterns in this data with regard to gender, race/ethnicity, and year in graduate program. While results indicate that students’ main reason for both original enrollment and continued persistence was to continue learning specialized knowledge, this was a more dominant rationale for originally pursuing a graduate degree. Our data also show that participants’ reasons for persisting in a graduate degree are more varied than the original reasons that they enrolled, indicating that graduate engineering students’ experiences are causing them to change their perspectives on why they should continue in school. This paper is one of the first to explore why graduate students are deciding to enroll in engineering programs and to understand how enrollment and persistence relate.
AU - Gabriella M. Sallai
AU - Matthew Bahnson
AU - Catherine G. P. Berdanier
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Exploring graduate engineering students’ reasons for original enrollment and current persistence in engineering master’s and PhD programs
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/44643
DO - 10.18260/1-2--44643
ER -