Goals Graduate students are essential to the University's success. They fuel the research enterprise, make it possible to attract world-class faculty and play an important role in undergraduate instruction. UC's post-graduate programs also play a crucial role in helping to meet the state's growing need for a highly educated and professional workforce.
Accordingly, in the coming decade, the University of California seeks, via a variety of means, to increase the proportion of graduate and professional school students, recruiting a diverse population from among the most talented individuals nationally and worldwide, encouraging their integration into campus communities and the completion of their degrees.
Measures UC categorizes its graduate students into two types: graduate academic and professional degree students. Graduate academic students (here simply labeled graduate students) are in both master's and doctoral programs in the sciences, social sciences, humanities and engineering. Graduate professional degree students (here simply labeled professional degree students) are in programs that lead to a professional degree, such as a J.D. (law), M.D. (medicine), or M.B.A. (business). The indicators displayed in this section show the size and diversity of graduate and professional school enrollment, types of degrees awarded, student outcomes and financial support measures for both graduate and professional degree students.
Most of the indicators in this section are separated into graduate and professional degree programs based on the common distinction used by the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). However, graduate and professional degree student measures and definitions vary across institutions and fields of study considerably more than those for undergraduates. Moreover, measures of graduate student characteristics and outcomes typically vary considerably by discipline, with broad categories often masking underlying variation. Future editions of this report will include additional indicators about graduate and professional degree student quality, access, affordability and success.