This grant supports efforts by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) to improve the ways colleges and universities collect data on the career pathways and outcomes of graduate students in doctoral programs. CGS will spearhead the development and dissemination of an instrument to be used by departments at colleges and universities to track the careers of those that graduate from their doctoral programs. In addition, it will provide universities with a framework for administering the surveys and analyzing responses. Unlike the data collected in the Survey of Doctorate Recipients and the Survey of Earned Doctorates, which are aggregated nationally, the CGS effort would be focused on data aggregated at the departmental and institutional levels and would focus on improving individual graduate programs; enhance institutional services to graduate students; inform prospective and current graduate students about careers associated with particular degree programs; and increase the awareness of policymakers, funders, and the broader public about the professional and social contributions of doctorate holders—wherever their lives take them. Data collection is envisioned to continue for 15 years post-matriculation.

Funds from this grant support the establishment of three University Centers of Exemplary Mentoring: one at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; one at the University of California, San Diego; and one at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. These centers will aim to increase the diversity of underrepresented minorities in STEM graduate education through providing fellowships, peer and faculty mentoring, professional development, and various other services to STEM graduate students from traditionally underrepresented groups. Together, the three new grants will fund $40,000 scholarships to 61 Sloan UCEM Scholars over the course of three years. In addition, the three universities will provide full packages (tuition, stipend, fees) to these 61 UCEM Scholars and to 61 UCEM Institutional Match (IM) students. Additional funds will support a host of activities at the UCEMs aimed at helping minority students succeed in their graduate studies. The National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering administers the program, disburses funds to the Sloan UCEM Scholars and universities, reports on student progress and finances, and monitors and enforces policies on student eligibility, nomination, expenditure rules, and time-to-degree expectations.

The Doctoral Scholars Program (DSP) of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) sponsors the Compact for Faculty Diversity’s Institute for Teaching and Mentoring (Institute), the largest gathering of minority doctoral students in the country. The yearly institute brings minority students together to help provide young scholars with the resources they need to succeed in graduate study and in their future careers in academia. In addition, the Institute provides scholars opportunities to meet one another, share knowledge, and discuss common problems and strategies to overcome them. The gathering is an effective and efficient gathering point for all those in the Sloan Minority Ph.D. (MPHD) program, including Sloan Scholars, program directors, program administrators, and faculty, as well as staff from Sloan and its administrative partners: the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering and the Social Sciences Research Council. The number of Sloan participants has grown to over 15 percent of total attendees in the past three years, and the Institute totals now routinely exceed 1,000 per year. This grant provides four years of support to the Southern Regional Education Board to defray costs associated with hosting the Institute.

This grant supports a project by Harvard University’s Department of Economics, in partnership with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) and economists in other Harvard schools (e.g., the Kennedy School of Government and the School of Public Health), to support 24 “student-years-worth” of post-baccalaureate training in mathematics and economics for very promising underrepresented minority (URM) students. Resources available to students through the program will include a paid research assistant position with a participating Harvard faculty member, up to four courses per year of undergraduate or graduate coursework, access to one of the math boot camps taken by entering graduate students in Harvard’s economics Ph.D. program, support for GRE preparation, travel funds to attend conferences; and peer and faculty mentoring. The project aims to increase the number of Ph.D. graduates in economics and related fields by 8 to 10 percent, and to serve as a model for other universities and institutions interested in increasing the representation of minorities within economics or other scientific fields.