Artificial Intelligence in Graduate STEM Education

A professor addresses a lecture hall of students. He's holding a laptop that is open to a screen titled "Deep Learning."

Problem

The extent to which artificial intelligence (AI) has been integrated into graduate STEM education and its impact are unclear.

As graduate schools focus on implementing AI in administrative and academic processes and student experiences, it is increasingly important to understand the AI landscape for graduate education to ensure that emerging AI-based tools are used effectively to promote student success.

With support provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (Grant Number: G-2024-22540), NORC worked with U.S. graduate schools to study how AI innovations enhance graduate education and the graduate education experience, including efforts to broaden excellence in science technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, and ultimately, participation in STEM careers.

Solution

NORC surveyed STEM graduate school deans to produce a comprehensive portrait of AI policies, practices, and motivations.

NORC surveyed deans who work at the top 300 STEM PhD-awarding universities to answer the following questions:

What policies and processes are currently in place or being considered at the institutional level regarding the integration of AI into the management and practice of graduate education?
What drives these policies and processes, and how do they expand excellence?
What community-grounded guidelines can universities use to assess the impact of AI applications to increase success in STEM fields?

To deepen insights from the survey, NORC hosted the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Graduate Education Convening on November 5 and 6, 2025. The convening brought together leaders from across the higher education landscape to:

Explore how AI is being integrated into admissions, curriculum design, student advising, instructional support, and administrative processes
Assess how AI innovations align with or challenge goals related to access, equity, and excellence
Identify key principles and practices for responsibly evaluating and implementing AI applications
Engage institutional leaders in dialogue about their experiences, challenges, and emerging opportunities
Begin developing a community-informed roadmap for responsible, ethical, and equitable AI use across graduate STEM programs

Result

Our study promotes understanding of AI applications in graduate STEM programs and raises awareness of ways to ensure impartiality in AI implementation.

With Alfred P. Sloan Foundation's support, this study produced a comprehensive landscape analysis of the current practices and motivations driving AI applications in graduate STEM education. In addition, NORC researchers worked with the graduate community toward creating a community-based roadmap for evaluating applications of AI as they evolve.

In November 2025, NORC hosted more than 115 virtual participants and 35 in-person attendees to the Artificial Intelligence in Graduate Education Convening (view related presentation). A final paper summarizing the study’s findings as well as a community-informed roadmap for responsible AI use in graduate education is expected in early 2026.