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1. Persistence at what cost? How graduate engineering students consider the costs of persistence within attrition considerations

   https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20528  

   Sallai, Gabriella M. ; Bahnson, Matthew ; Shanachilubwa, Kanembe ; Berdanier, Catherine G. P. ( May 2023 , Journal of Engineering Education)

   While previous work in higher education documents the impact of high tuition costs of attending graduate school as a key motivator in attrition decisions, in engineering, most graduate students are fully funded on research fellowships, indicating there are different issues causing individuals to consider departure. There has been little work characterizing nonfinancial costs for students in engineering graduate programs and the impact these costs may have on persistence or attrition.

   Framed through the lens of cost as a component of the expectancy–value theory framework and the graduate attrition decisions (GrAD) model conceptual framework specific to engineering attrition, the purpose of this article is to characterize the costs engineering graduate students associate with attending graduate school and document how costs affect students' decisions to persist or depart.

   Data were collected through semistructured interviews with 42 engineering graduate students from R1 engineering doctoral programs across the United States who have considered, are currently considering, or have chosen to depart from their engineering PhD programs with a master's degree.

   In addition to time and money, which are costs previously captured in research, participants identified costs to life balance, costs to well‐being, and identify‐informed opportunity costs framed in terms of what “could have been” if they had chosen to not go to graduate school. As these costs relate to persistence, students primarily identified their expended effort and already‐incurred costs as the primary motivator for persistence, rather than any expected benefits of a graduate degree.

   The findings of this work expand the cost component of the GrAD model conceptual framework, providing a deeper understanding of the costs that graduate students relate to their persistence in engineering graduate programs. It evidences that motivation to persist may not be due to particularly strong goals but may result from costs already incurred. Through this research, the scholarly community, students, advisors, and university policymakers can better understand the needs of engineering graduate students as they navigate graduate study.

    

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2. Investigating the tension between persistence and well‐being in engineering doctoral programs

   https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20526  

   Shanachilubwa, Kanembe ; Sallai, Gabriella ; Berdanier, Catherine G. P. ( May 2023 , Journal of Engineering Education)

   While studies examining graduate engineering student attrition have grown more prevalent, there is an incomplete understanding of the plight faced by persisting students. As mental health and well‐being crises emerge in graduate student populations, it is important to understand how students conceptualize their well‐being in relation to their decisions to persist or depart from their program.

   The purpose of this article is to characterize the well‐being of students who endured overwhelming difficulties in their doctoral engineering programs. The PERMA‐V framework of well‐being theory proposes that well‐being is a multifaceted construct comprised ofpositive emotion,engagement,relationships,meaning,accomplishment, andvitality.

   Data were collected in a mixed‐methods research design through two rounds of qualitative semistructured interviews and a survey‐based PERMA‐V profiling instrument. Interview data were analyzed thematically using the PERMA‐V framework as an a priori coding schema and narrative configuration and analysis.

   The narratives demonstrated the interconnectedness between the different facets of well‐being and how they were influenced by various experiences the participants encountered. The participants in this study faced prolonged and extreme adversity. By understanding how the multiple dimensions of well‐being theory manifested in their narratives, we better understood and interpreted how these participants chose to persist.

    

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3. Professorial intentions of engineering PhDs from historically excluded groups: The influence of graduate school experiences

   https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20607  

   Fleming, Gabriella_Coloyan ; Cobb, Sydni_Alexa ; Borrego, Maura ( July 2024 , Journal of Engineering Education)

   In addition to the benefits of a diverse faculty, many institutions are under pressure from students and administrators to increase the number of faculty from historically excluded backgrounds. Despite increases in the numbers of engineering PhD earners from these groups, the percentages of Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino tenure‐track faculty have not increased, and the percentage of women remains low.

   The purpose of this study is to identify how experiences in graduate school encourage or deter PhD earners from historically excluded groups in pursuing an engineering academic career.

   We conducted 20 semi‐structured interviews with engineering PhD students and recent graduates, with half of participants interested and half disinterested in pursuing an academic career after graduation.

   Three key factors emerged as strongly influential on participants' desire to pursue an academic career: their relationship with their advisor, their perception of their advisor's work–life balance, and their perception of the culture of academia. Participants extrapolated their experiences in graduate school to their imagined lives as faculty. The results illuminate the reasons why engineering PhD earners from historically underrepresented groups remain in or leave the academic career pathway after graduate school.

   The findings of this study have important implications for how graduate students' and postdoc's relationships with their advisors as well as perceptions of their advisors' work–life balances and the culture of academia affect future faculty. We make recommendations on what students, faculty, and administrators can do to create a more inclusive environment to encourage students from historically excluded groups to consider academic careers.

    

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4. Engineering survivors: Students who persisted through academic failures

   https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20564  

   Emberley, Amanda C. ; Choi, Dong San ; Williams, Taylor ; Loui, Michael C. ( November 2023 , Journal of Engineering Education)

   In the United States, the current 6‐year completion rate in engineering is a mere 54% among full‐time students who enter a 4‐year course. Researchers have identified many reasons why students leave engineering, including academic difficulties and poor teaching. However, the problems experienced by the departing students are also experienced by students who persist in engineering. Why do some students persist in engineering while others depart?

   We sought to better understand persisters by investigating their responses to failure experiences. We left the definition of failure up to the students, who described experiences such as failing exams, failing courses, and temporarily abandoning their degree programs.

   We interviewed 26 undergraduate engineering students who had persisted in engineering after failing a required technical course. Using thematic analysis, we analyzed the students' responses to their failure experiences and developed themes to describe their responses.

   We constructed four themes to describe students' responses to failure experiences: unresponsive, avoidant, floundering, and rebounding.

   Since failure events are common among engineering students—even those who persist—we recommend that the engineering education community work toward removing the stigma traditionally associated with failure by normalizing failure as an opportunity for growth. We also recommend that faculty and administrators revise academic policies to promote student resilience and to enable learning from failure.

    

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5. The fallacy of “there are no candidates”: Institutional pathways of Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino doctorate earners

   https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20491  

   Fleming, Gabriella_Coloyan ; Patrick, Anita_D ; Grote, Dustin ; Denton, Maya ; Knight, David ; Lee, Walter ; Borrego, Maura ; Murzi, Homero ( December 2022 , Journal of Engineering Education)

   Despite many initiatives to improve graduate student and faculty diversity in engineering, there has been little or no change in the percentage of people from racially minoritized backgrounds in either of these groups.

   The purpose of this paper is to counter the scarcity fallacy, in which institutions blame the “shortage” of qualified people from traditionally marginalized backgrounds for their own lack of representation, related to prospective PhD students and prospective faculty from traditionally marginalized groups. This study identifies the BS‐to‐PhD and PhD‐to‐tenure‐track‐faculty institutional pathways of Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino engineering doctorate recipients.

   Using the US Survey of Earned Doctorates, we tracked the BS‐to‐PhD institutional pathways of 3952 Black/African American and 5732 Hispanic/Latino engineering PhD graduates. We also used the Survey of Doctorate Recipients to track the PhD‐to‐tenure‐track faculty pathways of 104 Black/African American and 211 Hispanic/Latino faculty.

   The majority of Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino PhD graduates in this study did not earn their BS degrees from Top 25 institutions, but rather from Not Top 25, non‐US, and minority‐serving institutions. The results also show the relatively small proportion of PhD earners and faculty members who move into highly ranked institutions after earning a bachelor's degree from outside this set of institutions.

   The findings of this study have important implications for graduate student and faculty recruitment by illustrating that recruitment from a narrow range of institutions (i.e., Top 25 institutions) is unlikely to result in increased diversity among racially minoritized PhDs and faculty in engineering.

    

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