Why gradSERU?

How gradSERU can help your institution

gradSERU gathers information about student engagement in activities that have been empirically shown to influence student learning and positive educational outcomes, both inside and outside of the classroom.

  • Responses provide actionable information for faculty, staff, and administrators.
  • Data serve as indicators of academic program and institutional effectiveness.
  • SERU results can be compared across institutions as a way for a college or university to make peer comparisons.

Examples of reforms in graduate education

Changes made at leading institutions as a result of gradSERU implementation:

  • More deliberately structured curricular requirements geared toward the array of professions the program is intended to serve.
  • Clearly stated skills students are to acquire and expectations on their academic performance – including competencies for collaborating and working in multidisciplinary and sometimes international teams.
  • Articulating the mentorship responsibilities of faculty.
  • Coordination with the professions and businesses to better match training with labor needs.
  • Collaboration with the private sector in providing internships as part of graduate training and integrating graduate students into faculty led university-industry research.
  • A focus on quality of life of graduate students and efforts to support their financial and social needs to make them productive members of the academic community.
  • Improved integration of graduate education into the larger purpose and operations of the university – including supporting the teaching, research, and public service engagement of first professional degree students.
  • More rigorous assessment of the graduate student experience via program review, faculty advancement criteria and processes, and accreditation where applicable.
  • Internationally, increased use of English in courses and for master’s theses and dissertations in programs attempting to attract and retain international talent, and for preparing future academics and business leaders whose professions are increasingly global in context

Issues assessed through gradSERU:

  • The survey explores the differences in the graduate/professional education experience of students both within and between institutions of higher education in the United States and abroad, and how the experiences may change over time.
  • It identifies demographic and individual characteristics associated with different patterns of enrollment in graduate/professional school.
  • Survey data document the changes graduate/professional students undergo while enrolled in graduate/professional school.
  • Survey data allow comparison of the experiences and development of graduate/professional students in different institutional contexts.
  • The survey identifies specific links between certain features of graduate/professional education (advising, financial support, research and teaching experiences, etc.) and graduate/professional student development.
  • The survey explores the impact of various institutional support systems (e.g., financial, research, career, etc.) on graduate/professional student educational outcomes.
  • The survey shows how program characteristics are related to graduate/professional student development.
  • The survey illuminates the relationship of contextual influences such as the effects of student engagement in relation to the quality of advising, the program environment, and campus context on outcomes such as: proficiency levels, career plans, and overall satisfaction.
  • The survey documents trends in graduate/professional student career plans/aspirations and employment outcomes and how they change over time.

Data Uses

Participating institutions use gradSERU as a primary tool for the evaluation of their graduate programs, enhanced by the ability to benchmark data at the discipline level with other participating SERU campuses in the survey.

Participating institutions use gradSERU data to:

  • Collaborate in collecting survey data on the background and experiences of doctoral, master’s, and graduate professional students and the outcomes of attending top-tier research-intensive universities in the U.S., Europe, and throughout the world;
  • Share best practices and SERU data among member universities under agreed protocols;
  • Promote and support the systematic use by the Consortium members of data and analysis as tools for policy and scholarly relevant research and institutional self-improvement;
  • Develop research collaborations and conduct studies related to the student experience;
  • Provide a global network of peer universities with similar challenges.

Longitudinal data

As with the SERU Undergraduate Survey, a key objective is to provide longitudinal data and to support these internal and external data uses:

Internal

  • Catalyst for campus discussions on strengths & weaknesses
  • Program review
  • Campus studies & departmental use
  • Common source of info: what does gradSERU tell us?

External

  • Campus accreditation
  • National accountability regimes - in U.S. VSA
  • Media & public relations

Policy

  • Research and policy analysis on global skills, international students and research engagement
  • New HEI's policies and informs the gradSERU survey