Student Demand for Programs

February 16, 1995

Our programs are in great demand and this condition has been influenced in significant part by the Department's creation of a more enriched intellectual environment. Many years ago we realized that a diverse faculty and student body could carry out the mission of EPS better than a homogeneous faculty and student body. A primary mission of our Department is to help our students get the best possible education and professional development. To provide them with the best environment for learning once they are enrolled and to help them develop the personal and professional skills and attitudes they will need in their lives and careers, we try to provide for them the most diverse intellectual environment. We define that environment as one of differing perspectives and viewpoints which come with ethnic, gender, cultural, regional, and class diversity.

Consequently, about five years ago the Department intensified its efforts to recruit outstanding students, especially students from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We took many of our new recruits to such national conferences as the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Soon the Department gained national recognition as not only an outstanding department of educational policy studies, but also one with a significant number of minority faculty and students. This recruitment process and resulting reputation have generated a whole new network of talented and interested minority students. Thus, our pool of highly qualified applicants has grown much larger than we can accommodate. The denial rate for our programs will necessarily escalate over the next several years. Our challenge is to manage this "problem" in a manner that does not gain us a negative reputation, especially among groups of underrepresented students who have been difficult to attract in past years.

As already mentioned, the demand for our graduate programs and for courses at the doctoral level has increased significant over the past several years. Our graduate enrollment has increased from 42 in 1990-1991 to 70 in 1994-1995. During the Fall semester of 1994 the faculty met and decided to limit the number of students admitted in view of our declining number of faculty. We were forced to deny admission to several highly qualified students who applied to enter the Department for the Spring semester. We have received a large number of applications for the Fall of 1995, but it is clear that we will admit only about 10 to 15% of the current pool of applicants. This condition is likely to remain for the foreseeable future.

Escalating enrollments have increased the demand for our graduate courses, particularly at the 400 level. In the not too distant past we did not have to worry much about the number of 400 level courses offered in a particular semester. For instance, in 1990-91 only three of the ten 400 level courses that we offered exceeded capacity. During the Fall of 1994 five of the seven 400 level courses offered exceeded capacity. More EPS students are complaining about the unavailability of 400 level courses. This problem is especially acute in the social science and policy analysis areas. As we look ahead, we see a crisis of growing student demand and declining faculty resources. Resolving this dilemma is one of the biggest challenges facing EPS in the near future.