Obstacles That May Result in Delayed Degrees for Graduate and Professional Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Graduate and professional students have reported significant hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic which they believe will negatively impact their ability to complete their degrees on-time, according to the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium survey administered from May to July 2020 of 15,346 graduate and professional students at ten universities. Specifically, 24% of graduate and professional students expected the pandemic to delay the semester or term they intend to graduate, 35% were uncertain if the pandemic would delay their graduation, and 41% did not expect the pandemic to delay their graduation. The top three obstacles to graduate and professional students’ degree completion include the lack of access to an appropriate study space or a distracting home environment (52%), inability to conduct research (43%), and inability to attend professional conferences (35%). We observed differences between the obstacles students experienced by students’ academic factors (e.g., degree type, academic program), employment, and demographics (i.e., gender, social class, caregiving status, race/ethnicity, and disability). We highlight some of the large differences in students’ obstacles by those academic factors, employment, and demographic characteristics below.