WIP: Factors Affecting Graduate STEM Student Attrition Rates

This Research Work-in-Progress paper presents a systematic literature review of existing work within graduate STEM education. Recently, engineering education researchers have begun to join the conversation of STEM education through studies exploring student attitudes and minority student experiences, among others. However, there is no centralized publication source for graduate STEM education leading to an under-saturated picture of existing research that causes researchers interested in graduate education to scour disparate sources to gain the necessary background to undertake their research. By conducting a systematic review of the existing literature, this work aims to give future researchers in graduate education a stepping off point for exploration understudied areas in graduate education. We conducted a search of the Journal of Higher Education and Frontiers in Education (FIE) proceedings from 2008-2018. Six articles were found that explored three factors that influence graduate student experiences. The factors are as follows: internal (e.g. advisor), programmatic (e.g. teaching assistantship) and external (e.g. family and future career). We have documented the initial conversations that have occurred in two sources. These results show graduate education as a relatively understudied area, but those seeking to do work in this area, can now more clearly understand the conversations that have occurred.