Creative Arts Graduate Programs

Creative Arts Graduate Programs

Comparison, Fall 2011 / Report Completed

August 2012

Introduction

This analysis is one of a number that compare and contrast graduate programs in each of the colleges that have completed the 6

Cycle of Review to date. In this case, this report covers the Creative Arts.

For the most part, the units being compared are graduate degrees, not departments. Therefore, degrees from the same department are analyzed separately and are not aggregated for a department-level view. The exception is for FTES and FTEF based data, which will be seen at a department level. From table to table, there are often different graduate degrees presented; this is a function of the data available from various data sources.

An important caveat to the analyses seen here is that they are all comparative across graduate programs but are all based upon a single snapshot in time. Conclusions drawn from this snapshot should be carefully considered as situations and trends could be different prior to this snapshot or after the study was concluded.

This analysis was conducted utilizing Fall 2011 data available online through the Graduate Division, through Academic Institutional Research, or on the SF State Intranet (SIMS). For those readers who wonder about accessing the data, all was readily available with no special permissions and is available through the Academic Institutional Research site (with the exception of the SIMS data).

The report begins with basic descriptive information about the degree programs: graduate enrollments, the proportion of the program’s students that are full-time versus part-time, the average number of units taken by their students, number of full-time equivalent students (FTES) and full-time equivalent faculty (FTEF) plus the graduate proportion of the departments’ total FTES and FTEF, student-faculty ratio (SFR), gender, the degree of ethnic homogeneity or diversity in the degree program. Following these analyses, a variety of measures that could be considered measures of graduate degree program quality are presented: the number of applications to the graduate degree, the admissions and yield rates and the number of graduate degrees granted during 2010-2011.

Descriptive Information on Graduate Programs

The enrollments and sizes of the graduate programs in the Creative Arts are relatively similar with all

showing enrollments below 40. The Cinema MFA is the largest program at 38 students in Fall 2011 then a large gap

until the Art MFA with 23 students. Art (MA) and Theater Design have the smallest enrollments, both with 9

students.

Figure 1: Fall 2011 Graduate Enrollment

Besides enrollment size, an important distinguishing characteristic of graduate degree programs are whether they enroll students full time or part-time, by design, culture or character. This characteristic determines many other features of the program, including whether their market area is typically local (because the program is designed to be part-time) and whether students are typically recruited right out of undergraduate school or whether students are older and possess more experience.

Programs within Creative Arts tend to be mostly full-time. The Cinema (MA) and Theater Design programs are all full-time while the Cinema MFA and Music (Master’s of Music) are both almost completely full- time. The remaining programs are at least fifty percent or more full-time.

For most of these programs, it is possible that this feature is rapidly changing, as the number of students

38

23

23

18

16

15

13

10

9

9

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Cinema (MFA)

Art (MFA)

Cinema Study (MA)

Industrial Arts

BECA

Drama

Music (MM)

Music (MA)

Art (MA)

Theatre Arts (Design)

Fall 2011 Graduate Programs Enrollments, Creative Arts

Figure 2: Fall 2011 Proportion of Part-Time Versus Full-Time Enrollment Status

This trend, tempered by the size of each program, will also be seen in Figure 3, which features the average number of units taken by students in each graduate program. The largest of the average number of units taken by students in Creative Arts in 10.6; the lowest is 7.3

0.0%

0.0%

17.4%

18.4%

20.8%

22.2%

30.8%

31.3%

50.0%

50.0%

100.0%

100.0%

82.6%

81.6%

79.2%

77.8%

69.2%

68.8%

50.0%

50.0%

Cinema Study (MA) Theatre Arts (Design) Cinema (MFA) Music (MM) Art (MFA) Music (MA) Industrial Arts Art (MA) Drama BECA

Fall 2011 Part-Time vs Full-Time Graduate Status, Creative Arts

Part Time Full Time

Figure 3: Fall 2011 Average Number of Units Taken by Graduate Students

Of course, the number of units taken by a degree program’s students is highly related to the subsequent number of Full-Time Equivalent Students (FTES) generated by the graduate degree program acting on its own (many departments also have undergraduate programs which generate FTES and so many faculty and administrators might be unaware of how many FTES is generated by their graduate degree programs).

Here, the data is only available at the department level, not at the degree level. The graduate degree programs in Cinema earn the most FTES, at 45.3 for Fall 2011. The graduate program in Industrial Arts earns the least, 4.75.

7.3 8.2

8.6 8.6 8.6

9.5 9.9

10.2 10.3

10.6

Music (MA) Drama Art (MA) BECA Industrial Arts Music (MM) Cinema Study (MA) Art (MFA) Cinema (MFA) Theatre Arts (Design)

Fall 2011 Average Number of Units, Creative

Arts Graduate Programs

Figure 4: Fall 2011 Graduate Full Time Equivalent Students (FTES)

Figure 5 provides a measure of the level of effort departments put into their graduate programs (graduate program FTES as a proportion of total departmental FTES). In Creative Arts, none of the departments receive many of their FTES from their graduate programs; the most any department receives is Cinema, which receives only 11.2 percent. The remainder receives less than ten percent and Industrial Arts receives only 2.4 percent of their FTES from graduate classes.

45.3

24.75

14.27

10.25

9.12

4.75

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Cinema

Art

Drama

Music

BECA

Industrial Arts

Fall 2011 Graduate FTES, Creative Arts

Figure 5: Fall 2011 Graduate Full Time Equivalent Students (FTES) as a Proportion of Total FTES

In general the patterns seen in Figure 6 should follow closely with those in Figure 5 as 6 provides a snapshot of the Full-Time Equivalent Faculty (FTEF) dedicated to the College’s graduate degree programs.

There is a great deal of variability among how many faculty resources are devoted to graduate programs in Creative Arts. Cinema devotes 5.4 full faculty positions to their graduate program, Art allocates 3.4 and BECA only 1.8 and DAIS 0.7.

11.2%

7.6%

3.4%

3.1%

1.8%

2.4%

0.0% 20.0% 40.0% 60.0% 80.0% 100.0%

Cinema

Art

Drama

Music & Dance

BECA

Industrial Arts

Fall 2011 Graduate Programs % Graduate FTES of Total FTES,

Creative Arts

Figure 6: Fall 2011 Graduate Full Time Equivalent Faculty (FTEF)

The data in Figure 7 also reaffirms that found in Figure 5, illustrating the proportion of Full-Time Equivalent Faculty (FTEF) that is attributed to graduate programs in each department. However, there are some interesting patterns in this Figure. Cinema is devoting 30.2 percent of their faculty resources to their graduate classes while only receiving 11.2 percent of its FTES from the graduate program. Art, also, has some divergence in that they devote 17.2 percent of their FTEF to their graduate programs but receive nearly ten percent less (7.6 percent) in FTES.

5.4

3.4

1.6

2.9

1.8

0.7

0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0

Cinema

Art

Drama

Music

BECA

Industrial Arts

Fall 2011 Graduate FTEF, Creative Arts

Figure 7: Fall 2011 Graduate Full Time Equivalent Faculty (FTEF) as a Proportion of Total FTEF

Figure 8 illustrates the Student Faculty Ratio (SFR), an indication of the size of classes. The SFR for many of the College’s programs are set by accreditation requirements.

Drama, Cinema, Industrial Arts and Art all have SFRs between 7 and 8. BECA has a SFR of only 5 and Music has the lowest, of 3.5

30.2%

17.2%

11.2%

13.1%

9.8%

5.5%

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% 90.0% 100.0%

Cinema

Art

Drama

Music

BECA

Industrial Arts

Fall 2011 Graduate FTEF As % of Total FTEF,

Creative Arts

Figure 8: Fall 2011 Student Faculty Ratio (SFR)

There is a great deal of variation in gender among the different graduate programs in Creative Arts, ranging from the 85.7 percent women in Industrial Arts to only 20.0 percent in MA in Music. The two Cinema degrees and the Master’s of Music all are roughly equal in their gender distribution.

8.8

8.4

7.27

7.2

5.0

3.5

0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0

Drama

Cinema

Industrial Arts

Art

BECA

Music

Fall 2011 Graduate Programs SFR (Student Faculty Ratio),

Creative Arts

Figure 9: Fall 2011 Enrollment by Gender

The ethnic and racial diversity of each degree program is measured through the use of the Index of Homogeneity. It is based upon a number of measures, like the Index of Diversity, which have been used to measure ecological diversity or the Gini-Simpson index, which also has applications in sociology and political science. A 1.0 Index represents a student population which is completely diverse while a 0 is completely homogeneous. To clarify, even a program which has a large or dominant number of students from a traditionally marginalized group would be more homogeneous because there were fewer students from other groups.

The graduate programs in Creative Arts are some of the least diverse graduate programs yet examined.

BECA (.18), Art (MA) with its .278 and the MA in Cinema (.29) are all quite homogeneous. The Drama program is the most heterogeneous in Creative Arts, with an index of .628.

85.7%

80.0%

69.6%

56.3%

55.6%

52.2%

46.2%

47.4%

38.5%

20.0%

14.3%

20.0%

30.4%

43.8%

44.4%

47.8%

53.8%

52.6%

61.5%

80.0%

Industrial Arts Art (MFA) Drama Cinema Study (MA) Music (MM) Cinema (MFA) Theatre Arts (Design) BECA Art (MA) Music (MA)

Fall 2011 Graduate Enrollment By % Gender, Creative Arts

% Women % Men

Figure 10: Fall 2011 Degree of Ethnic / Racial Diversity

Quality of Graduate Programs

Measures of graduate program quality can be difficult to find. Even the measure of the number of applications is a mixed measure, partly a measure of demand for the program and partly, one of quality perceived by potential applicants.

The MFAs in Cinema and Art receive the most applications in Creative Arts (88 and 80, respectively).

After those two, there is a big gap until the program with the next largest number of applications, which is Industrial Arts (46) and the Cinema Study MA, at 39 applications. The Theater Design program had the fewest number of applications in Fall 2012, only 8 applications.

0.628 0.600 0.597 0.560 0.494 0.406 0.314 0.290 0.278 0.180

0.0000 0.1000 0.2000 0.3000 0.4000 0.5000 0.6000 0.7000 0.8000 0.9000 1.0000

Drama Art (MFA) Industrial Arts Cinema (MFA) Theatre Arts (Design) Music (MA) Music (MM) Cinema Study (MA) Art (MA) BECA

Fall 2011 Degree of Diversity of Student Population College of HSS

(Index of Homogeneity where completely Homogeneous = 0 and completely Diverse = 1.0)

Figure 11: Fall 2011 Number of Admission Applications

Admission acceptance rates can be justifiably considered a measure of quality, as quality programs are those with high demand and the ability to choose the best candidates for admission; this in itself leads to a program of higher quality. A lower acceptance rate indicates more selectivity in admissions.

Therefore, just as above in Figure 11, the MFAs in Cinema and Art are the most selective graduate programs in Creative Arts (Art had a 10.0% and Cinema had a 20.5% rate with the MA in Art right above them at 21.4 percent. Drama was the highest at 50 percent, meaning they accepted one of every two students who applied;

the rest of the programs had acceptance rates in the 30s and 40s.

88

80 46

39 27

17 17 14 14 8

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Cinema (MFA) Art (MFA) Industrial Arts Cinema Study (MA) BECA Music (MM) Music (MA)

Drama Art (MA) Theatre Arts (Design)

Fall 2011 Total Number of Admission Applications, Creative Arts

Figure 12: Fall 2011 Admission Acceptance Rates

The admissions yield measure is one where the higher the measure, the better. Many argue that the yield measure is an important measure of quality—how many students who are accepted who actually enroll in classes.

However, this measure has a great deal of variability across time and recently, has been highly influenced by increasing tuition and uncertain economic realities faced by students. Further, it is more effective in measuring quality in full-time programs where students know they are moving elsewhere to attend graduate school than for part -time programs. In these, many other life and / or work events can influence the decision to actually attend a graduate program, from losing a job to having a new child to having too much consumer debt.

The Master’s of Music degree had the highest level of admissions yields, at 100 percent, followed by the Art MFA at 75 percent. Most other programs had yields in the 60s. Drama yielded 28.6 of the students it admitted, or one of every four students it accepted.

50.0%

41.2%

41.0%

40.7%

37.5%

35.3%

32.6%

21.4%

20.5%

10.0%

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% 90.0% 100.0%

Drama Music (MA) Cinema Study (MA) BECA Theatre Arts (Design) Music (MM) Industrial Arts Art (MA) Cinema (MFA) Art (MFA)

Fall 2011 Admission Acceptance Rates, Creative Arts

Finally, Figure 14 illustrates the number of degrees actually granted in 2010-2011. This is another important measure of quality as it is an important output of any graduate program.

The MA in Cinema had the most graduate degrees grants during 2010-2011 but they were closely followed by the Master’s in Music, the Cinema MFA and Industrial Arts at 11, 10 and 10. Theater Design had no graduates during that year and the MAs in Music and Art both had four.

Figure 14: 2010-2011 Number of Graduate Degrees

100.0 75.0

66.7 66.7 62.5 60.0 42.9

36.4 28.6 -

- 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0

Music (MM) Art (MFA) Cinema (MFA) Theatre Arts (Design) Cinema Study (MA) Industrial Arts Music (MA) BECA Drama Art (MA)

Fall 2011 Admissions Yields (% Enrolled/Admits), Creative Arts

12 11 10 10 8

7 5

4

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Cinema Study (MA) Music (MM) Cinema (MFA) Industrial Arts BECA Art (MFA) Drama Art (MA)

10-11 Graduate Degrees Granted, Creative Arts

In this figure the x axis represents the Admissions Rate and the y axis is the Yield Rate. This puts graduate programs with low admissions rates (i.e., highly selective in whom they admit) and high yield (i.e., high proportions of students whom they admit actually enroll) in the upper left hand quadrant (Low Admis- sions, High Yield).

Programs with high admissions rates (they admit a higher proportion of students) and high yields (a high proportion of students whom they admit enroll) are in the upper right quadrant (High Admissions, High Yield).

Programs which are highly selective in their admissions (they admit a low proportion of the students who apply) but have a low yield (a lower proportion of admitted students enroll) are in the lower left hand quadrant (Low Admissions, Low Yield). Programs in this quadrant can often be those which face competition from other programs.

Finally, those programs in the lower right quadrant are those with high admission rates and low yields (High Admissions, Low Yields). As can be seen from Figure 15, the University has fewer programs in this quadrant.

Each point on the graph has a size determined by the enrollment size of their degree program in Fall 2011. Thus, the MBA program (a blue circle from the College of Business) is the largest point on the graph and there are many small dots with very small enrollments. In fact, many labels for these smaller programs do not show up on this graph.

Each point on the graph has a color and a shape determined by their home college. As a result of the reorganization, the Creative Arts programs are part of the College of Liberal and Creative Arts and so are rep- resented by the color brown and the diamond shape.

From this is it clear that Creative Arts programs are mostly within the top two quadrants (High Yield,

Low and High Admission Rates) but a sizeable number are also right on the line between the top two and bot-

tom two quadrants.

Enrollment Size and College

Degree Pro-

gram Admits Applied % Admits/

Applied Enrolled

% En- rolled/

Admits

College Enrollment

Art MFA 8 80 10.00% 6 75.00% LCA 23

Art MA 3 14 21.40% 0 0.00% LCA 9

BECA 11 27 40.70% 4 36.40% LCA 16

Cinema MFA 18 88 20.50% 12 66.70% LCA 38

Cinema MA 16 39 41.00% 10 62.50% LCA 23

Creat Writ 80 221 36.20% 40 50.00% LCA 137

Drama 7 14 50.00% 2 28.60% LCA 14

Indus Arts 15 46 32.60% 9 60.00% LCA 18

Mus Stud 27 78 34.60% 26 96.30% LCA 46

Music MA 7 17 41.20% 3 42.90% LCA 10

Music MM 6 17 35.30% 6 100.00% LCA 13

Theat Design 3 8 37.50% 2 66.70% LCA 9

Admission Rates by Yield Rates, Enrollment Size and College