Students’ Experiences of Unfairness in Graduate Engineering Education

Title: Students' Experiences of Unfairness in Graduate Engineering Education Keywords: Graduate; Race/Ethnicity; Gender; LGBTQIA+; Engineering A pilot survey to develop a measure of bias and discrimination experienced by engineering doctoral students asked if they have been treated unfairly by their primary advisor, secondary advisor, and other faculty. Analyses of pilot data reveal Women, Students of Color, and sexual minorities perceived experiences of unfair treatment in intricate patterns. Post hoc analyses show Women experience more unfair treatment than men. Race/ethnicity identity groups report different levels of unfair treatment while Students of Color generally report more than white students. Being a sexual minority contributes to reporting unfair treatment. Unfair treatment from faculty significantly predicts students changing and considering changing research labs when controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, and sexuality. Similarly, unfair treatment from faculty significantly impacts engineering identity when controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, sexuality, lab changers, and change considerers. Analyses of pilot data demonstrate the negative impact of unfair treatment on students and their development as engineers. These analyses inform a survey with a national sample of engineering graduate students. The resulting survey will assist in identifying changes needed to promote gender and race/ethnicity equity and justice in engineering as a field. Further, these findings may inform similar research and intervention in other STEM fields.