Factors that facilitate or inhibit enrollment of domestic engineering PhD students: A mixed methods study

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).

This engineering education research award to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will employ researchers to understand the factors that facilitate or inhibit domestic student enrollment in engineering Ph.D. programs, and to identify strategies for reinforcing positive factors or removing barriers. The overarching goal of the project is to identify actionable strategies to increase domestic student enrollments. Specifically, this study will address why the percentage of domestic students pursuing a PhD in engineering has steadily declined, what factors inhibit domestic undergraduates from enrolling in PhD programs, and what changes would make PhD programs more attractive to domestic students. In order to attract more domestic students, universities need an empirical understanding of the factors that underlie the decision to pursue or forego an engineering PhD. This new understanding can form the basis for a new set of strategies for increasing domestic engineering PhD enrollments and graduates needed by universities and industry.