A Critical Year for Equitable and Inclusive Graduate Admissions

The opinion essay, by Josephine Moreno for Inside Higher Ed, stresses the need for a transformation in the graduate admissions process. Both the COVID-19 pandemic’s exposure of social inequality and the social response to racial injustice in the U.S. have highlighted the necessity for equitable access to higher education.

Moreno details eight insights from the AMIGA project that faculty and administrators can support for equitable and inclusive graduate admissions that include to:

  1. make permanent COVID-19 holistic review innovations

  2. eliminate the requirement of standardized test scores

  3. champion pandemic innovations by early preparation

  4. update graduate program webpages with equitable and inclusive information

  5. require faculty admission committees to participate in holistic review workshops annually

  6. determine applicant criteria and review methods well before the admission process begins

  7. urge faculty to include diversity criteria in graduate admissions review

  8. and sponsor ongoing campus dialogues about race, social inequality and social justice.

With equitable access to the highest levels of education all Americans can achieve equal opportunity for themselves and their families.

AMIGAJosephine Moreno