Developing a Strategy to Include Financially Disadvantaged Undergraduate Students into Graduate Engineering Programs

Abstract

Longitudinal analysis of nationwide single and multi-institutional data shows the positive relationship between student educational outcomes and a diverse student population. Various position papers and empirical studies have raised awareness about the importance of diversity in higher education within the academic community and policy makers over the past half century. However, lack of participation by underrepresented students in higher education remains a chronic and multidimensional problem. Mitigating any particular factor and expecting broad based impact has not worked and will not work. The U.S. Department of education suggested some proven, over-arching principles for institutions of higher education to increase diversity, viz.: institutional commitment, diversity at all levels, outreach and recruitment, support services for students, and an inclusive campus environment. While some of these principles can only be addressed at the institutional level, a department or college can adopt scaled versions of these principles and influence the policies at the institutional level. This paper discusses the journey of a school of engineering towards developing strategies for improving equity, inclusion, and diversity in the graduate programs in engineering. In the process, this group of researchers articulated some critical issues that prevent diverse and economically disadvantaged undergraduate students from seeking a graduate degree in engineering. The authors have identified the following major reasons hindering students from pursuing a graduate degree: lack of financial support and resources, fear of the unknown, imposter syndrome, and family pressure to start earning as soon as possible. Each of these areas requires a targeted approach to help diversify the graduate engineering programs. A GVSU team comprised of administrators and faculty members sought to build a comprehensive program that incorporates all of the aforementioned structures and others. This paper describes the development strategy of such a program that culminated with an NSF (National Science Foundation) award.