Table of Contents
- Spring 2020 Graduate Enrollment Forecasts …………………………………………….... 1
- Graduate Recruiting and Communication Hub (GRCH) News ……………………..2
- How did your students first learn about ECU? ......................................................3
- ECU Graduate Programs’ Points of Distinction ……………………………………………..4
- Fall 2019 Thesis and Dissertation Submission Deadline ……………………………...5
- Three-Minute Thesis Award Winners …..……………………………………………………......6
- ECU 14th Annual Research & Creative Achievement Week (RCAW) …………….7
- Award Nominations Deadlines …………………………………………………………………........8
Spring 2020 graduate enrollment forecasts are up
The year 2020 is almost upon us! We’ve been hard at work communicating with prospective graduate students and applicants, and many of you have been contributing significantly to this effort - thank you! The good news is that our work is paying off. Leading indicators suggest we will experience a graduate enrollment increase of at least 5% to 10% this spring semester. On Monday, November 4, 2019, registrations for spring 2020 were up almost 20% compared to the same point in time last year; applications were up 25%, offers of admission were up 18.6%. In addition to an increase in new students compared to last year, we expect more returning students thanks to the increase and retention of new graduate students this fall semester.
Graduate Recruiting and Communication Hub (GRCH) News
We formally launched the new GRCH at our October 18, 2019, Graduate Recruiting Workshop, attended by more than 100 faculty and graduate student liaisons. As of 11/6/19, the GRCH placed more than 500 phone calls to applicants and prospective students, and the response to our outreach efforts has been fantastic.
GRCH Mission
The mission of the GRCH is to work with colleges, departments, and campus partners to engage in high-touch multichannel communications with different populations of suspects, prospective students, and applicants at different stages in the recruitment & admissions funnel. Professional and student staff in the Graduate Communication Center also serve as training resources for graduate student liaisons in your colleges and departments.
GRCH Structure
The GRCH consists of senior leadership in the Graduate School, four graduate assistants in the Graduate School, 67 graduate student liaisons in your colleges and schools working under the supervision of graduate faculty program directors and coordinators in your colleges. Partners include ECU Marketing and Communications, Academic Outreach, Continuing and Distance Education, IPAR, and others.
GRCH Strategies
When prospective students and applicants reach out to us, we CONNECT via email, chat, or telephone as quickly as possible. We LISTEN carefully to their questions and RESPOND with helpful information about our graduate programs, the application process, deadlines, admission requirements, and advice. To wrap up the conversation, we RECRUIT by inviting individuals to take action by submitting or completing an application. Since the launch of the GRCH, the Graduate School has made over 500 phone calls, mostly to applicants for the Spring 2020 semester. Calls are prioritized using data from our application system. Factors considered include contact recency and the number of partially completed applications. Our student ambassadors leave voice mail messages and often get prompt call-backs. Our student ambassadors report that their calls are well received. Based on the leading indicators, we're seeing these efforts paying off.
GRCH training for graduate student liaisons
To date, graduate student liaisons at the college and department level have participated in two different training sessions. These student liaisons, supervised by your graduate faculty program directors and coordinators, are being trained to respond to inquiries related to graduate programs in your departments and schools. Attendance has been excellent, and the students who are participating are enthusiastic. Video recordings have been made available to the few who have not been able to attend in-person. Training materials for graduate student liaisons include scripts, tactics, and strategies to help them communicate effectively and provide helpful responses to frequently asked questions. Small group training sessions for liaisons and program directors are scheduled this week and next week. At the completion of small group training sessions, each student liaison will have a customized dashboard in Radius that will allow them to see contacts assigned to them, track their communications with prospects, and track application materials submitted.
GRCH Plans for Fall 2020
As we wrap up recruiting efforts for Spring 2020, we will quickly transition to recruiting for the Fall 2020 semester. To ramp up these efforts, we recently launched email campaigns to three different populations of prospective students.
- ECU Alumni from the last six years – 13,700 contacts
- Currently enrolled ECU undergraduates that have completed 85 SCH or more – 6,500 contacts
- Stale inquiries & applicants – 8,600 contacts
These email campaigns are implemented in the Graduate School’s online application and customer relationship management (CRM) system. Campaigns will feed inquiries and applicants into the Radius case management system so that graduate student ambassadors, graduate student liaisons, and graduate faculty program directors and their staff can establish contacts with students interested in their programs.
How did your students first learn about ECU?
Since implementing our new online application and CRM system in 2016, prospective students have been presented the question: “How did you first learn about ECU?” The results from this survey in 16 different categories are provided by colleges and programs at this link: go.ecu.edu/firstlearnedaboutECU
Please take a few minutes to browse the tables for your program. Two sets of tables are provided for each college: 1) The number of responses per category and 2) Text responses for the category "other."
The response rate to this question is typically higher than 80%. Since 2016, we have accumulated nearly 43,000 responses. Please review this survey data for your program and use it to identify web sites, employers, and other referring entities that might serve as sources of contacts for recruiting prospective students into your programs.
In addition, we have received nearly 4,000 text responses in this survey. I have found that browsing the text responses is especially informative, and I encourage you to do the same.
ECU Graduate Programs’ Points of Distinction
IPAR has created a one-page infographic that highlights points of distinction about ECU's graduate programs and can be found here: https://public.tableau.com/profile/ecu.ipar#!/vizhome/GSESDashboard/TitlePage
The data was gleaned from the annual Graduate Student Exit Survey for the 2018-19 academic year. There many positive indicators highlighted in this infographic that might be helpful to you when promoting your own program. For example, the survey includes information about the quality of instruction, tuition and assistantship support, and employment plans after finishing the degree. Details for each college and individual graduate program are available for your use at the following link: https://public.tableau.com/profile/ecu.ipar#!/vizhome/GSES2016-2019PROGRAM_LEVEL_REPORT_FINAL_PUBLISHED/SectionA-C.
I encourage you to discuss the data for your program with your faculty colleagues and select a few key points for you to highlight when discussing your program with prospective students.
Fall 2019 Thesis and Dissertation Submission Deadline
Please advise your students that the last day to submit a thesis or dissertation is ten business days prior to the last day of final exams (November 25, 2019, for the Fall 2019 semester).
All students submitting a Thesis or Dissertation must do so through the Vireo Submission Process. (Link for submission: https://vireo.ecu.edu/). No paper submissions of theses or dissertations will be accepted. The thesis/dissertation uploaded to Vireo must be the final-approved version by your thesis/dissertation student advisory committee. Required elements with MS Word templates and other instructions can be found on the following web site: https://libguides.ecu.edu/c.php?g=694874&p=4925841. Please advise your students to contact Ms. Marquerite Bond (mail to:bassm@ecu.edu) in the Graduate School if they have formatting questions or questions about the submission process.
Three Minute Thesis (3MT) at ECU
Congratulations to the graduate student winners of ECU’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition held on November 6. The 6th annual ECU 3MT competition was held at the new Main Campus Student Center, with 33 graduate students presenting their research to the audience and judges. Each student had no more than three minutes to present a compelling talk to a non-specialist audience with a single static slide and no animations. This event has quickly gained popularity, originating in Queensland, Australia in 2008, now conducted at over 600 universities in 65 countries. The purpose of the event is to provide a forum to help graduate students learn to communicate their research to non-expert audiences. Two winners from each of three heats moved to the final round.
Peter Kann (mentor Dr. Trip Lamb) from the MS Biology degree program won the Grand Champion award with his presentation “In the Belly of the Beast," aka "Exploring the Evolutionary Relationship Between Pitcher Plant Flies and the Carnivorous Plants they Call Home.” Mallory de Araujo Miles (mentor Dr. Kyle Summers) from the MS Biology degree program, won the People’s Choice award based on audience votes for her presentation “Color Outside the Genes” aka “What genes give Poison Dart Frogs their Brilliant Colors, and Why Should You Care.” The 3MT Departmental Cup went to the Department of Biology, the department whose top three presenters had the highest combined scores. The Departments of Anthropology and of Chemistry also competed for the Departmental Cup.
The event was an engaging, educational, and fun experience for presenters and audience members from across the university and excellent training for communicating to key audiences, including the media, legislators, and potential employers. We look forward to 3MT in 2020!
ECU 14th Annual Research & Creative Achievement Week (RCAW)
Deadline for abstract submissions: February 6, 2020
March 30, 2020 - April 3, 2020
Awards Luncheon: Monday, April 6, 2020
Research and Creative Achievement Week (RCAW) is an important milestone in the career of graduate students at ECU. This year RCAW 2020 will be held March 30 – April 3. It is a week where the entire university community gathers to celebrate the research of undergraduate and graduate students. Students can find a format for displaying their work whether in the sciences, liberal arts, fine arts or technology fields. Students are welcome to begin submitting abstracts on January 6 and will be open until February 6. We encourage students and mentors to meet now to begin planning what the student will submit. All event details, including event categories and submission details can be found on the RCAW 2020 website.
Award Nominations Deadlines
8th Annual Distinguished Graduate Faculty Mentor Awards
Deadline for submission is 5:00 pm, February 11, 2020.
The Distinguished Graduate Faculty Mentor Award is given annually to recognize two East Carolina University graduate faculty members who exemplify outstanding commitments to academic, professional, and personal development of graduate students through mentoring and advising. One award for mentoring master's students and one award for mentoring doctoral students is given each year. Each recipient is recognized during Research and Creative Activity Week. Nominees must be full-time ECU graduate faculty (full, associate, or graduate teaching). Recipients of an ECU Distinguished Graduate Faculty Mentor Award within the past five years are not eligible for consideration this year. Ms. Marquerite Bond (bassm@ecu.edu) in the Graduate School can confirm graduate faculty status for any ECU faculty member. The deadline for submission of the complete PDF nomination package, along with directions, is February 11, 2020. Detailed instructions for the submission package can be found here: https://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/gradschool/Graduate-School-Faculty-and-Staff.cfm
ECU 10th Annual Thesis and Dissertation Awards
Deadline for Submissions: February 3, 2020
The Graduate School seeks nominations for an Outstanding Thesis Award and an Outstanding Dissertation Award in two different subject areas to recognize and honor outstanding research and scholarship at the graduate level. Each college is invited to nominate two theses in each of the two categories of thesis awards and to nominate two dissertations in each of the two categories of dissertation awards. Theses and Dissertations cannot be embargoed and must be Open Access (not Campus-Restricted) at the time of nomination, including the ECU repository (The Scholarship) and the ProQuest databases. Awardees will be recognized during ECU Research and Creative Achievement Week (RCAW). Please see link for eligibility and categories: https://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/gradschool/FS-Theses-and-Dissertations.cfm