Educational Outcomes from MARC Undergraduate Student Research

Chapter 1

Educational Outcomes from MARC Undergraduate Student Research Training Downloaded by 80.82.77.83 on December 30, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): October 26, 2017 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2017-1256.ch001

Alison K. Hall* National Institute of General Medical Sciences, 45 Center Drive MSC 6200, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, United States *E-mail: [email protected]

The Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) program is one of several initiatives from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) designed to support undergraduate students from underrepresented groups to improve their preparation for doctoral research degrees and the biomedical workforce. Trainees must be honors students majoring in the natural sciences planning to pursue a research doctorate in the biomedical sciences. Each institution designs its own two-year program of academic, research and professional development and all programs must provide trainees with a summer research experience at a research-intensive institution outside the home institution. A recent analysis of multisite outcomes indicates that MARC alumni achieve their educational goals. There was substantial variability in outcomes at different institutions, but overall, among recent alumni, 29.2% earned a Ph.D., 11.7% earned an M.D., and another 25.8% completed or are enrolled in other advanced degrees.

MARC U-STAR Program The Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research (U-STAR) program (1) is part of a larger effort at NIGMS to promote, support and sustain the development of a highly © 2017 American Chemical Society Nelson and Cheng; Diversity in the Scientific Community Volume 2: Perspectives and Exemplary Programs ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

Downloaded by 80.82.77.83 on December 30, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date (Web): October 26, 2017 | doi: 10.1021/bk-2017-1256.ch001

skilled, creative and diverse biomedical workforce. This program is designed to assist undergraduate institutions to provide academic, research and professional development activities to eligible trainees. The goal of the program is to increase the number of undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds who earn a science baccalaureate and matriculate into and complete a biomedical science Ph.D. program. MARC U-STAR grantee institutions are expected to design 2-year programs for the junior and senior (or final two) years of college that involve trainees in academic enhancement, research training and professional skills development. Institutions incorporate programmatic interventions widely recognized for promoting persistence in the science baccalaureate, including early research experiences, active learning in introductory courses, membership in learning communities, participation in a research culture on campus and other experiences that contribute to scientist identity and belief in one’s capabilities (2–5). In addition to these on-campus enhancements, MARC U-STAR institutions are also expected to provide each trainee with a summer research experience at a research-intensive institution. Trainees receive a stipend and tuition remission during program participation, and the awards provide support for program leaders and programmatic activities. Participant eligibility is determined by awardee institutions and conforms to NIH’s Interest in Diversity (6) although specific eligibility requirements have changed over the history of these awards. Current eligibility focuses on individuals from groups nationally underrepresented in biomedical sciences (7) and generally includes individuals from certain racial and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities and individuals with specific educational or financial disadvantage. The MARC U-STAR program encourages appointment of honors students who have high grade point averages or other achievements as designated by their institutions. The MARC U-STAR program has evolved from its inception almost 40 years ago, and continues to evolve. The MARC Honors Undergraduate Research Training (HURT) program was established in 1977 to develop strong undergraduate curricula in bioscience and to stimulate undergraduate interest in the biomedical sciences. In 1996, the program was recast as the MARC Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research with the focus on junior and senior level honors students and an emphasis on continuous improvement of program goals and specific measurable objectives. In 2013, the expectation that over half the MARC U-STAR alumni nationally will enter biomedical Ph.D. programs was made explicit in the Funding Opportunity Announcement. For more information on the current program, see the MARC U-STAR Funding Opportunity Announcement PAR-16-113 (8). The geographical distribution of the participating institutions is shown in Figure 1. For example, in fiscal year (FY) 2014, NIGMS supported 59 MARC U-STAR programs with 597 MARC trainees and a program budget of almost $17 million.

4 Nelson and Cheng; Diversity in the Scientific Community Volume 2: Perspectives and Exemplary Programs ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


Figure 1. MARC participating institutions (July 2016). Reproduced from MARC website (1).

Approach Award information for MARC institutions funded between 1986 and 2013 was collected from the NIH IMPAC-II database, reconciled, and a frozen file of approximately 9,000 unique appointees to a MARC U-STAR program was used as a basis for subsequent outcomes. This file was compared with the NSF Doctorate Record File that included Ph.D. degrees granted through June 30, 2012 with assistance from the NIH Office of Extramural Research. This initial comparison suggested that for MARC alumni in each five year cohort from 1986-1999, just over 20% earned a Ph.D. (9). In a second approach, a subset of MARC U-STAR alumni appointed between 2001 and 2005 (n=1,810) was tracked by grantee reports and individual look-ups in public sources, performed between June and December 2015. In some cases, no subsequent educational or career information was available, and these unknowns are indicated. Undergraduate and graduate institution names were compared with the Carnegie Research Classification Basic 2010 as well as lists of institutions that enroll many students from underrepresented groups.



Figure 2. The number of institutions with a MARC U-STAR program is shown over time by A. Carnegie Research Classification, and B. Institutional Enrollment. Abbreviations: Research includes research institutions; Master’s includes all sizes of master’s institutions, Doctoral includes Research Doctoral institutions; Bacc indicates any baccalaureate institutions. B. The number of Institutions with substantial enrollment of students from underrepresented groups, including Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI), American Indian Alaska Native-Serving Institutions (AIANSI), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI), Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBI) are indicated. Reproduced from ref. (9).



Educational Outcomes NIGMS recently performed a retrospective analysis (9) to better understand the educational outcomes achieved by MARC U-STAR alumni and how the program meets the goals described in the funding announcement. This report describes the educational outcomes from over 9,000 MARC U-STAR alumni appointed between 1986 and 2013 at 114 institutions. This analysis joins several earlier studies of the MARC program, and contemporary analyses of the NIGMS postbaccalaureate research education program (PREP (10)) and NIGMS diversity supplements to research grants (11). Others have provided institutional outcomes from programs that included MARC U-STAR or PREP support (12–15). The key findings have been summarized by Hall (16) and are shown below: 1. Institutions with MARC U-STAR programs differ in their characteristics (Figure 2). In terms of research strength, MARC programs were split almost equally into research universities, master’s universities and baccalaureate institutions. Many contemporary MARC U-STAR programs are at institutions that enroll substantial numbers of individuals from underrepresented groups. At any particular institution, MARC U-STAR programs are often complemented by another student development program from NIGMS or elsewhere. 2. Student participation in MARC. Students who participated in MARC programs reported that they were from well-represented groups, from one of several underrepresented groups or chose not to report. From the mid-1990s to the present, about 85 percent of MARC participants reported they were from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups (Figure 3). Among the recent MARC U-STAR alumni (2001-2005) for whom we reported educational outcomes, 42 percent were African-American, 29 percent were Hispanic, 8 percent were AANAPI or AIAN and 9 percent were unknown or withheld.

Figure 3. MARC Alumni Demographics. The percentage of MARC alumni are reported for the 1977-1984 cohort in the IOM-85-08 report and for the 2001-2005 cohort described in this report. (reproduced from ref. (9)). 7 Nelson and Cheng; Diversity in the Scientific Community Volume 2: Perspectives and Exemplary Programs ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

Table 1. Educational Outcomes from Recent MARC USTAR Alumni. Alumni initially appointed between 2001-2005 (n=1,812) were tracked for their highest educational outcomes. Research doctorate, health professional, clinical doctorate, master’s degree, and other outcomes are indicated, as well as the small number of alumni reported as terminated from the program (Term), deceased (Dec), or who had MARC appointments less than six months (Short). Among those who had earned a baccalaureate, many were currently enrolled in a graduate program (grad student), were employed (workforce), or were not traceable (unknown). Reproduced from ref. (9).


Educational Outcomes of Recent MARC U-STAR Alumni Degree

Number

Percent

Ph.D.

504

M.D.- Ph.D.

25

Doctorate (Other)

17

D.D.S/D.M.D./D.V.M.

35

Pharm.D.

42

M.D./D.O.

212

11.7%

J.D.

11

0.6%

M.A./M.S.

202

Masters (Other)

59

Baccalaureate

632

34.9%

71

3.9%

1810

99.9%

Grad Student

101

Workforce

244

Unknown

287

Term/Dec/Short Total

29.2%

5.2%

14.4%

3. Among MARC U-STAR alumni appointed between 2001 and 2005, 70 percent are enrolled in or have completed a graduate degree (Table 1). Twenty-nine percent earned a Ph.D. or M.D.-Ph.D., 12 percent earned an M.D. or D.O., 5 percent earned a doctorate in another professional/clinical field, 14 percent earned a master’s degree, and some were still enrolled in a graduate program. The percentage of students obtaining a Ph.D. is about twice that for undergraduates supported by the NIGMS Diversity Supplement Program (11). 4. Ph.D. matriculation by MARC alumni proved challenging to quantify since the degree of detail and completeness of the grantee reports varied considerably. Grantee-reported Ph.D. matriculation rates for MARC alumni appointed in 20012005 represented about 59% overall (ref. (9)). This value is likely to include matriculation into any non-medical, higher degree programs, and may also include 8 Nelson and Cheng; Diversity in the Scientific Community Volume 2: Perspectives and Exemplary Programs ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.


those who start out on a Ph.D. path, but end up with a Masters. Similarly, if one assumes all masters students originally matriculated into a Ph.D. program, Ph.D. matriculation imputed from Table 1 is also over 50% (including all non health doctorates, masters, and currently enrolled). It will be important to obtain more detailed trainee information to improve our understanding of the program. Using the grantee-reported average of 59 percent for overall Ph.D. matriculation, and 29 percent for earned Ph.D.s collected from public sources, we can estimate that two-thirds of MARC U-STAR trainees completed the Ph.D. degree they began. Reports from the Council of Graduate Schools indicate that the 10-year cumulative Ph.D. completion rates in the life sciences have been between 50 and 58 percent for students from underrepresented groups and in the range of 59 to 69 percent for all students (17). MARC U-STAR trainees who earned doctoral degrees attended research-intensive universities and medical schools at comparable frequencies as all Ph.D. students nationwide.

Conclusions The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Maximizing Access to Research Careers Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research (MARC U-STAR) program is designed to enhance the diversity of the biomedical research workforce by assisting undergraduate institutions to provide academic, research and professional development activities to eligible trainees. Overall educational outcomes of MARC U-STAR alumni appointed between 1986 and 2013 at 114 institutions, and detailed outcomes from an alumni cohort appointed 2001-2005 were used to better understand the impact of this program. This report provides support that the MARC U-STAR program meets the overall educational outcome goals outlined in the FOA, but there are several limitations. Available data suggest that over half the MARC U-STAR alumni nationally enter Ph.D. programs as specified in the funding announcement, but educational outcomes differed among participating schools. This retrospective study does not include relevant control groups of students with similar capabilities at the same institutions, and cannot describe what program factors were important for success. Future studies may explore any additional benefits from the MARC U-STAR program to students or faculty. Readers interested in getting more information on this program and other NIGMS diversity-related programs may wish to visit the webpage (https://www.nigms.nih.gov/Training/Pages/default.aspx).

Acknowledgments Much of the data in this manuscript were reported in non-peer reviewed blogs and reports cited in the text. This project involved analytic work performed by the author, Hall, A.K.; Miklos, A.; Oh, A.; Gaillard, S.D. and Sheih C-Y. 9 Nelson and Cheng; Diversity in the Scientific Community Volume 2: Perspectives and Exemplary Programs ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017.

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Educational Outcomes from MARC Undergraduate Student Research

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