Overview

Graduate/professional education refers to in-depth training and specialized instruction after the undergraduate level of education. Studying and learning are usually more self-directed at the graduate level than the undergraduate level. The main credentials are academic certificates, degrees (e.g., master's degrees, doctoral degrees) and professional degrees (e.g., medical school, law school, business school, and other institutions of specialized fields such as nursing, speech–language pathology, engineering, and architecture). Producing original research is a significant component of graduate studies in the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. This research typically leads to the writing and defense of a thesis or dissertation. In professional graduate training, the degrees (e.g., MPA, MBA, JD, MD), may consist of coursework without a research or thesis component.

Graduate/professional education is a major part of the U.S. higher education system and a critical component of the learn-and-work ecosystem. It serves multiple roles:

1. Workforce Development: Contributes to the development of a highly educated workforce by preparing individuals credentialed at the master’s, doctoral, and professional education levels for entry to careers in a wide variety of fields. Many of these individuals are also prepared for licensing by external licensing entities.
2. Advances Knowledge and Innovation: Through research and specialized study, contributes to advancement of knowledge and technological innovation in various fields.
3. Career Advancement: Graduate/professional credentials can serve as a prerequisite for advanced professional roles, higher salaries, and leadership positions.
4. Professional Development: Graduate/professional programs can provide the skills and knowledge necessary for professional development, helping individuals stay current with industry trends and advancements (lifelong learning, meeting requirements for continued licensing).
5. Economic Growth: By fostering a highly educated workforce, can support economic growth and competitiveness on a global scale.
6. Social Impact: Graduates often contribute to society by addressing complex challenges, influencing policy, and driving social change through their expertise and leadership.

The broader ecosystem—including employers, policy agencies, career navigation entities, accreditation bodies, and technological advancements—continually influences graduate/professional education to remain relevant and responsive to the changing demands of the global economy.

Differences between Graduate/Professional and Undergraduate Education

There are important differences between graduate/professional and undergraduate level education— in the areas of curriculum, delivery, and timeline; collaboration among faculty and peers; expectations; and learning and performance verification systems.  Graduate/professional education is typically characterized as follows:

• Curriculum, Delivery, Timeline
  • Specialization and Depth—Graduate and professional programs typically offer specialized courses and opportunities for in-depth study within a particular field or discipline. Unlike undergraduate education which provides a broad overview, graduate education moves toward treater depth into specific topics. Students are often encouraged to tailor their studies to their interests, to begin to specialize more than would be expected at the undergraduate level.
  • Research Emphasis —Graduate education typically places a strong emphasis on research. Students are often expected to engage in scholarly inquiry, produce original research, and contribute to the advancement of knowledge in their field. Examples: conducting experiments, writing dissertations, publishing academic papers.
  • Advanced Curriculum—Graduate programs typically offer more advanced coursework than undergraduate programs. The curricula are designed to challenge students to master complex theories, methodologies, and practices within a chosen field. Relevancy of content (advancements in the field) is key to enabling programs to stay current with workforce changes, especially in STEM fields.
  • Applied Programs and Professional Development— Professional programs such as law, medicine, business, health care, and social work often incorporate practical training and experiential learning to prepare students for careers. These may include internships, externships, clinical rotations, or hands-on projects.
  • Flexible Scheduling—Many graduate programs offer flexible scheduling options to enable learners to balance their studies with employment or other commitments. This can include evening or weekend classes, online courses, or part-time enrollment.
  • Smaller class size — Graduate/professional programs often offer smaller class sizes (e.g., seminars, research projects, performance courses in art and music).
  • Timeline issues: cost, part vs. fulltime—Given the amount of time it often takes for students to complete coursework and conduct original research, especially in doctoral programs, it can take a doctoral student 10 years to complete a degree. Since many students are unable to attend graduate school full time, the extended timeline for degree completion may not be viable for many, especially given the cost of graduate-level programs.
• Collaboration With Faculty and Peers
  • Close Collaboration with Faculty— Graduate students often work closely with faculty mentors and advisors, especially in STEM disciplines where lab sciences are critical to advanced research. Students’ benefits often include personalized guidance, mentorship, and collaboration on research projects.
  • Peer Learning and Networking—Graduate/professional education allows students to engage with peers who share similar academic and professional interests; this fosters collaboration, networking, and the exchange of ideas.
• Expectations
  • Higher Expectations—Graduate and professional programs generally have higher academic standards and expectations than undergraduate programs. Students are expected to demonstrate a greater level of expertise, critical thinking, analytical skills, and discipline (work ethic).
  • Admissions Requirements—Graduate and professional programs often have more stringent admission requirements than undergraduate programs, including prerequisites, standardized tests (such as the GRE, GMAT, LSAT) and professional experience.
• Learning/Performance Verification Systems
  • Licensing and Certification—Professional programs (such as law, medicine, and engineering) may require students to obtain specific licenses or certifications to practice in their field. Graduate education is expected to prepare students for these requirements through specialized training and coursework.

Impetus for Change in Graduate/Professional Education

At the undergraduate level, millions of adults are left in limbo when they leave college with college credits but no credential to show for it. The National Student Clearinghouse (2023) reports that 40.4 million individuals have some college credits but no credential. The Clearinghouse reports do not include learners who left graduate-level programs, yet CGS research finds that significant numbers of graduate-level learners left their institution without completing a credential.

Research on doctoral completion rates and attrition patterns alone found that under highly favorable conditions, no more than three-quarters of students who entered doctoral programs completed their degrees (CGS, 2008, 2010). So, there is no doubt that nationwide there are more than 40.4 million individuals in the some college/no credential category when graduate level learners are included. (According to the institutions responding to CGS’ annual survey in Fall 2022, more than 1.8 million students enrolled in graduate programs. According to Fall term enrollments reported by the National Student Clearinghouse in 2024, roughly 3.1 million were enrolled in a graduate-level program in 2023.)

The lack of a degree or other credential often creates a stigma—even though many students acquire significant learning before leaving their programs. There is a growing view that students’ learning should be rewarded, even if they fall short of a credential. For example, students who do all the required coursework and examinations for a doctorate—but not the dissertation—are informally called ABDs (all but dissertation). These individuals typically receive no formal recognition of their learning, even though it is substantial at the doctoral level.

Solutions for recognizing learning are emerging in some departments, schools, and disciplines within universities. Some shorter-term and skills-oriented credentials are being developed—credit and noncredit—both as stand-alone offerings and in combination with degrees. Examples are especially growing in information technology, health care, cybersecurity, teacher education, and business (especially Masters of Business Administration programs).

Given the flux in the field, there is growing interest in changes in credentialing—including degrees, certificates, microcredentials, badges, and other types of incremental credentials. The potential benefits of recognizing learning through a wider array of credentials at the graduate level include:

• It can create more nimble credentialing that is sensitive to emerging workforce demands.
• It can build more pathways for students to gain access to graduate/professional education.
• It offers a low-risk way to test new academic programs.
• It can aid in the development and improvement of interdisciplinary degrees.

Within this environment of experimentation, there are questions about the adequacy of traditional academic measures of quality such as enrollment and completion; greater emphasis on employer satisfaction and career outcomes; questions about whether shorter-term credentials are better as stand-alone entities or subsumed within a degree; federal Gainful Employment Requirements that will demand evidence; and the rising costs of graduate and professional education.

Graduate-level educators are advised to consider a range of questions to guide their planning, such as:

• Will the trend toward nondegree credentialing continue and potentially expand?
• If this is a trend, will it impact master’s-level education more than Ph.D. level?
• Are we prepared to credential in smaller increments as graduate students move forward in their educational journeys? For example, will institutions grant a short-term recognition credential that might have value for individuals who are halfway through a master’s program, or who have completed all-but-dissertation in a doctoral program?
• Will the expansion primarily be in certain disciplines but leave out a large portion of graduate and professional programs?

Specific Areas of Change

Recent innovations at some graduate and professional education programs are moving toward more flexible, closely aligned programs with workforce needs. Four key areas of change are particularly emerging:

• Embedding industry certifications into degree programs, particularly at the master’s degree level.
• Developing certificate programs that are shorter-term than master’s and doctoral degrees to meet student interests and employer needs.
• Developing short-term, skills-oriented microcredentials, badges, or other credentials to enable individuals to qualify for careers in other fields. Such credentials especially benefit individuals who hold graduate-level humanities degrees and seek entry into other careers.
• Developing short-term, skills-oriented, advanced-level microcredentials, badges, or other shorter credentials to assist with upskilling or reskilling. Such credentials are increasingly sought by individuals employed in high-level careers.

These developments are occurring at a time when many employers are calling on higher education to do more to prepare new workers for high-demand industries and to help upskill and reskill the current workforce. Graduate-level educators face a growing challenge: how to meet the changing needs of employers while providing individuals with the high-quality programs and opportunities they need to succeed in their education and career.

Challenges to the Current System

Changes in the credentialing system has been uneven at the graduate/professional level. Many programs are still in the consideration stage because of resource constraints, enrollment challenges, and concern that, in the end, these shorter-term credentials may not serve students or employers well. This last concern is perhaps the most significant. Many higher education institutions are hesitant about offering incremental credentials. Their reluctance boils down to concern over quality and integrity: They are wary of any moves that may be perceived to erode quality. Faculty especially need help in understanding the reasons behind offering incremental credentials. What if the quality is diminished? What if short-term credentials take students away from degree programs?

On the administrative side, student information centers and registrars’ offices are not typically well designed to process an array of credentials, noncredit and credit—especially smaller, more specific credentials such as badges and microcredentials. Institutions often require major improvements in technology and data infrastructure to build a system that supports incremental credentialing.

The problems facing graduate-level education are twofold: (1) whether to embrace the major curricular reforms that a shift to incremental credentialing would require; and (2) if such a shift is to be made, how to make it? The latter concern leads to an important question: Should reforms be tested out at a deliberative pace or in only the most pressing disciplines, or is it better to wait for other institutions to make changes and learn from their experience?

These many challenges in graduate and professional education are impacting multiple stakeholders—students, universities, employers, and policymakers. For example, those planning new credentialing options at the graduate level are asked to consider:

• quality assurance and standards
• alignment with industry needs
• smooth credit transferability and recognition of noncredit and credit learning
• financial accessibility to the broader array of credentials
• integration and collaboration among higher education institutions including traditional and alternative providers of microcredentials
• data security and privacy (secure storage and sharing of credentials to maintain the integrity of the system).
• lifelong learning, upskilling and reskilling policies (that incentivize individuals to pursue various credentials to adapt to changing industry demands and ensure continuous professional development)
• technology infrastructure (development and maintenance of robust technology infrastructure and systems that facilitate the creation, verification, and secure sharing of digital credentials)
• public awareness and communication (dispel misconceptions, ensure broad acceptance in value of various types of credentials).
• regulatory frameworks (supporting innovation while maintaining quality, protecting learners from unscrupulous providers)

References

Berg, B., Causey, J., Cohen, J., Randolph, B., & Shapiro, D. (2024, January). Current Term Enrollment Estimates: Fall 2023, Herndon, VA: National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Council of Graduate Schools. (2008). Ph.D. Completion & Attrition: Analysis of Baseline Program Data.

Council of Graduate Schools. (2010). Ph.D. Completion & Attrition: Policies and Practices to Promote Student Success.

Credential As You Go. (2024). Playbook: Incremental Credentialing in Graduate Education.

Denecke, D., Kent, J., McCarthy, M. (ND). Articulating Learning Outcomes in Doctoral Education. Washington, D.C.: Council of Graduate Schools.

Linton, M., Zhou, E., Allum, J. and Rowe, M. (2024). Microcredentials and the Master’s Degree: Understanding the National Landscape to Support Learners and the Workforce. Washington, D.C.: Council of Graduate Schools.

McKenzie, B. D., Zhou, E., & Regio, A. (2023). Graduate Enrollment and Degrees: 2012 to 2022. Washington, DC: Council of Graduate Schools.