Overall enrollment in Penn State's graduate school has continued to decrease since reaching its peak in 2003, an official said at Wednesday's Graduate Council meeting.
Enrollment data shows graduate student enrollment has dropped by 1,795 students since 2003, Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School Eva Pell said in a presentation. This year, 9,088 students are enrolled in the graduate school.
"It will not be healthy if it drops too much more," Pell said.
Pell explained that the decrease can be attributed to the instability of the economy and faculty insecurity about funding for doctoral students.
She said many people expected graduate school enrollment to increase once the economy took a turn for the worse a few years ago, but that has not proven true in Penn State's case.
"Graduate education is not top-down, it's bottom-up," Pell said. "Some of these are trends that will turn around in time."
Although some members in attendance expressed concern over the statistics, Pell said applications to the graduate school have risen each year since she began working for Penn State 36 years ago, despite the drop in enrollment.
However, World Campus graduate student enrollment has increased since 2006, from 1,967 graduate students to 3,426 this fall. Minority graduate student enrollment, although down from its peak in 2003, has increased this year as well, from 561 to 583 students.
However, the latter statistic is misleading because the increase was primarily in Hispanic American students, with African American enrollment falling by 20 students and American Indian students continuing to be severely underrepresented, Pell said.
Alfonso Mendoza, president of the Graduate Student Association, said the decrease in enrollment had never been brought to his attention before.
He added he hasn't heard any concerns from students to date on enrollment or diversity in the graduate school.
"If you attend our general assembly meetings, there is a diverse group of graduate students who come," Mendoza said. "We don't really talk about diversity compared to the undergraduate population."
Despite the uncertainty of enrollment numbers and other changes within the graduate school, Pell said she feels confident Penn State's reputation in the academic community will continue to improve.
"As long as we bring in the very best, that's what we're after," Pell said.
"We are very much sought after as a graduate school."
