Kansas State University

Graduate student success initiatives and progress

Submitted by Claudia Petrescu

Dear colleagues,

For the last three years, the Graduate School has been working to systematically build a comprehensive graduate student success plan. The initiatives we have developed and continue to enhance are critical as the university implements the Next-Gen K-State strategic plan. Our work supports graduate student retention, which is crucial for fulfilling strategic imperatives that aim to grow graduate student enrollment, expand our research enterprise, and contribute to the economic prosperity of Kansas. Our work has focused on facilitating graduate students’ academic success, equipping them with career readiness skills to be competitive for diverse careers and supporting their personal well-being.

View the Graduate Student Success Inventory to learn more about many of the components of our graduate student success initiatives listed here:

• Mentoring and individual development plans to support student-faculty relationships, academic progress and career readiness.
• Graduate student mentoring program in partnership with the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce to support skills development, create a sense of belonging in the Manhattan community, and connect graduate students to professional and personal resources.
• Creation of a Graduate Student Success symposium — a venue for graduate faculty to discuss best practices that support graduate student success.
• Expedited forms process for coursework-only master programs.
• Graduate milestones dashboard to track the progression of graduate students from one milestone to another.
• Probation and incomplete reports and notifications to graduate program directors and students.
• Student success plans developed to support progression toward graduation in a timely manner.
• Defense readiness surveys to support doctoral students who need assistance at the defense milestone.
• Expansion of Timothy R. Donoghue Scholarship to international graduate students.
• Awarding of Timothy R. Donoghue Scholarship in all three semesters, not only in the fall semester.
• Graduate Student Parent Success Scholarship to support graduate students who are raising children.
• Monthly “Know How” sessions to enhance communication and connection with graduate programs and to learn from each other.
• Conversations with the dean and leaders to connect with graduate students on timely topics and support community building.
• Enhanced partnership with Student Support and Accountability to help address hardships and challenges that impact student progress, as well as utilizing data to identify trends in graduate student issues and develop actions to help reduce the number of preventable challenges.
• Outreach to students delayed in progress to a specific degree milestone and development of a student success plan.
• Streamlining the assistantship hiring process. Developed templates for offers and position agreement/contract.
• Development and launching of webinars and welcome sessions for new graduate students to build a foundation for success, create a sense of belonging and support community building.
• Graduate student leadership development training in partnership with Staley School of Leadership.
• Annual research forums to support the development of presentation and communication skills, showcase graduate student research and scholarly work, and foster interdisciplinary community building.
• Graduate Student Council travel awards to support graduate student travel to professional conferences to showcase their K-State research and scholarly work nationally and internationally.

The accomplishments so far are the result of a dedicated team of Graduate School staff, work completed by the Graduate Council, and strong partnerships with graduate student leaders, academic graduate programs, non-academic units, alumni, donors and community partners.

We look forward to continuing the advancement of this work to help graduate students thrive in their academic and professional pursuits and to have a happy, fulfilling experience at Kansas State University.

Questions about these graduate student success initiatives may be directed to Claudia Petrescu, Graduate School dean, at cpetrescu@k-state.edu, and to Megan Miller, Graduate School assistant director of student success, at mmmiller@k-state.edu.

Claudia Petrescu
Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate School