Editorial: Attacking attrition

The Executive Committee of the Graduate Faculty is trying to figure out why over one third of graduates students leave Duke without obtaining their doctorate. At a time when the University is investing heavily to recruit candidates for the Graduate School, problems with attrition remain a stumbling block for health of many of the graduate programs.

The high rate of attrition has both financial and human implications, and the Graduate School is beginning to take steps to address attrition and to reduce the number of students who leave.

If people drop out of a competitive graduate school such as Duke, this hurts the University, since those individuals took spots from others who could have stayed to receive their doctorate.

In addition, the University also invests a lot of money in each of its graduate students, and if they depart before getting their degree, then Duke's investment is wasted. Part of the reason Duke has graduate students is to contribute to the next generation of academics and to support those academics already at work-both goals are stifled if there is significant attrition.

The primary way the Graduate School can address the attrition problem is by more closely evaluating the applicants. Students need to be matched better with their departments. If students are interviewed and closely examined, it should be possible to choose students who will mesh well with each other and are interested in the subjects. This admissions side of choosing the right people to begin with is the most important aspect of reducing attrition.

However, there are also things the University can do to encourage graduate students to remain at the school after they have matriculated. For example, ensuring that all graduate students have a strong relationship with their mentor, a person who can encourage the graduate student, will reduce attrition. Also, it is important to build community among the graduate students so that students feel some tie to Duke. Increasing financial support for graduate students could also make their lives less stressful and reduce attrition. Lastly, it is important for the University to establish a strong career advising system where students can get help knowing what sort of options they have once they have received a doctorate.

Of course, if the intellectual matching is not done well during the admissions process, all of the mentoring and career advising in the world will not prevent attrition. While of course attrition cannot be reduced to zero,the Graduate School should still redouble its efforts to selectively choose the right students in order to reduce attrition to as low a level as can reasonably be expected.