Graduate and Professional Student Government senators heard a presentation on graduate enrollment from Suzanne Barbour, dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education and discussed the impact of the ongoing government shutdown on food insecurity in Durham.
Presentation on graduate enrollment
Barbour provided an overview of graduate and professional student demographics and enrollment numbers across Duke’s various schools from fall 2025.
She pointed out that The Graduate School enrolls the largest number of students. Though students in the humanities make up a mere 11.2% of the University’s graduate student population, engineering and the physical sciences compose almost half. She said the declining enrollment of humanities graduate students reflects a growing national trend.
She said the percentage of international students has been similar to previous year. However, Barbour acknowledged that this figure could shift, emphasizing that it is still “really early” in the admissions cycle and that changes tend to occur after the application deadline…