Officials have continued rolling out new graduate certificate programs over the past five years, but GW’s certificate enrollment has dropped over the same period, University data shows.

Enrollment in the programs has dropped by about 15 percent since 2017 – falling each year from 372 students in 2017 to 314 in 2021 – while the University has continued to add more than 20 new graduate certificate programs, according to institutional data. Higher education experts said while the programs can help students gain specialization in professional skills, they are a risk for students because of their high cost and nonguaranteed career value.

GW now offers more than 100 graduate certificates in the School of Business, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Graduate School of Education and Human Development, School of Nursing, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, College of Professional Studies and the Milken Institute School of Public Health.

Peter Linquiti, the director of the Environmental Resource Policy Program – which offers two graduate certificates – in the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, said the certificates are intended for “working professionals” whose career may require knowledge of environmental policy but have no previous education in the field. He said their curriculum entails policy analysis, environmental science, environmental law and environmental economics.

“This ‘deep dive’ into the field helps them climb the learning curve in what can be a complicated and confusing policy area,” Linquiti said in an email.

All of GW’s 12 peer schools offer graduate certificate programs that vary in subjects like business, the environment, policy and technology. Officials designed GW’s 12-credit certificate programs to offer working professionals more specialized skill sets while accommodating their busier schedules and offer most of the courses at night or online.

Pradeep Rau, a professor of marketing who served as the chair of the marketing department when officials instituted the graduate certificate programs in the School of Business, said GW offers two different marketing certificates among the variety of University-wide certificate programs. But the highly specialized certificates can’t compare in career value to an actual university degree because degrees are more challenging, take more time to earn and demonstrate a broader range of expertise, he said.

“The real choice is ‘Do you want a degree or you want a certificate?’ because they’re not the same thing,” Rau said. “You can say ‘I have a certificate,’ but you don’t have a degree.”

Graduate enrollment in the business school fell for seven consecutive years between 2012 and 2019, leading to a greater focus on graduate programs under Dean Anuj Mehrotra, who arrived at GW in July 2018. Mehtotra worked during his first year to stabilize enrollment by “reimagining” graduate education in the school, which included increasing flexibility to earn some certificates online and stack two certificates with 12 core classes in the Master of Business Administration program to earn a full MBA.

The business school’s graduate enrollment grew by 3.3 percent the next year, according to institutional data. Graduate enrollment declined this academic year but remains slightly above 2019 levels.

GW’s overall enrollment dropped by about 2 percent this academic year. Rau said there’s uncertainty in higher education and the job market because of the pandemic, which creates an incentive for the University to advertise the programs online and increase revenue from higher student enrollment.

“If the enrollments are going down, then the question is, how much revenue can we get out of this system?” Rau said. “After all, business schools also run like businesses. So if we don’t get enough students, we’re not pulling our weight.”

GW’s graduate certificate programs cost nearly $2,000 per credit hour with a 12-credit graduate certificate. The University does not provide financial aid for graduate certificates.

Experts in higher education said the programs serve as a “pivot” for professionals who want to diversify their professional skills. But they also recommend “buyer beware” before picking up a graduate certificate because of their high tuition and unassured career value.

Donovan Livingston, the assistant dean of the Office of University Collaborations at Wake Forest University, said graduate certificates can help students who are considering changing their careers and want to diversify their skills without committing to a full-time graduate degree.

“The professionals who might be interested in transitioning or shoring up some of their skill sets in their current role can look to the certificate programs as a means of doing that,” Livingston said. “There’s also this idea that if they get a certificate, maybe we can inspire them to come back to pursue a master’s or other credentials.”

Erich Dietrich, a professor of higher education and international education at New York University, said the programs are a gamble for low-income students, so students should be an “informed consumer” when evaluating the worth of the graduate certificates. He said the certificates are seen as a solution to job insecurity in the American economy, but they don’t guarantee their recipient a job after graduation.

“Whenever people do these programs, they hope that it will help them fit into a future job, but it’s always a risk,” Dietrich said. “You hope that it’ll align with what employers want, but because you don’t always know who your employer will be, that’s always just a guessing game.”

Nathan Harris, an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Rochester, said faculty and department leadership determine which certificate programs to offer instead of administrators. He said faculty experts in the field of study understand the necessities of the field so they can make certificates more accommodating to students and tailored to a more specific concentration, like computer science.

“It’s not necessarily a decision, which is made in the provost’s office or the president’s office,” he said. “Even if those stakeholders within the institution often ultimately approve it, the impulse to find the rationale to create these programs are very much at a local level.”

Harris said a university’s reputation carries a large influence over how likely large, expensive graduate certificate programs are to succeed at private institutions.

“Prestigious universities have a strong brand, and there’s an appreciation that any certificate from a highly ranked institution from the perspective of both students and employers will be more meaningful than a credential from an institution which is less prestigious,” Harris said.