About 40 percent of University of California alumni with doctoral degrees who graduated in the late 2000s reported student loan debt when they graduated, according to a systemwide survey released Monday.
The survey, which the University conducted for the first time this year, looked at individuals who earned doctoral degrees from the University within the last 40 years. Out of about 26,000 alumni surveyed, 7,200 responded. The UC Office of the President worked with campus graduate divisions and alumni associations to collect the data, according to the press release announcing the results of the survey.
The University asked alumni questions about their jobs and student debt in the survey, along with questions about how much they were satisfied with their doctoral degrees.
The survey found that 99 percent of doctoral alumni who responded were employed when they answered the survey, and about a quarter of alumni work in the private sector. About 64 percent of alumni worked in academia after graduating, with 42 percent holding tenure-track positions.
The report shows that alumni who graduated in more recent years are more likely to have student debt than alumni who graduated in the 1970s.
About 40 percent of those who had taken out loans said they paid off all their debt within five years of graduating.
According to a National Science Foundation study in 2011, about 48 percent of doctoral graduates in the nation graduated doctoral school with some debt.
The individuals surveyed also reported high satisfaction with the doctoral programs they participated in, with 93 percent of respondents saying they would pursue a doctoral degree again.
More than 80 percent of respondents said they stayed within the same academic field after graduating, according to the survey.
Though UCLA and other UC campuses have conducted exit surveys for doctoral students before, this marks the first time that the University as a whole surveyed doctoral students years after they left their respective programs.