Removing Barriers to Graduate Student Success, Part IV: Graduate Students Who Are Also Parents

Graduation By: Dr. Deborah Tollefsen, Vice Provost & Dean of the UofM Graduate School

During the fourth year of my doctoral program, my husband and I welcomed our first child. I was at the dissertation stage but was still teaching courses and attending seminars. Like many graduate students at the time, I had no parental leave. My husband had none either.

Looking back, I realize how fortunate we were.

My department worked with me to move from a teaching assistantship to a research assistantship for a semester so that I would not have to stand in front of a classroom during those first exhausting months of new parenthood. Later, I taught an evening course that better accommodated our schedule. Professors allowed me to bring my infant son to seminars as long as he remained quiet—which, thankfully, he usually did. When he was nine months old, we were able to enroll him in the university child care center, where a sliding tuition scale made care affordable on a graduate student budget.

We were also fortunate that I was covered under my husband's health insurance, although the deductibles still represented a significant financial burden.

Even with all of that support, it was extremely difficult. There were sleepless nights, sick-child emergencies, unexpected expenses, and the constant feeling familiar to many parents that they were somehow shortchanging either their family or their career. Every day felt like an exercise in balancing competing responsibilities that both mattered deeply.

Graduate school and parenthood intersected a second time for me as well. Two years and seven months after our son was born, our daughter arrived just two weeks before my dissertation defense. I still remember making dissertation revisions from a hospital bed. By then, the flexibility and accommodations I had experienced earlier were less readily available. There were understandable concerns about whether I would finish, and I often felt pressure to prove that becoming a parent had not diminished my commitment to my work. Looking back, that experience reinforced an important lesson: support for graduate student parents should not depend on individual circumstances, personalities, or assumptions. It should be built into the structures and policies of our institutions.

My own experience as a graduate student parent has shaped how I think about institutional support today. When I began serving as Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School, university leadership tasked me with researching, coordinating, and implementing a student health insurance plan for full-time graduate assistants. With the collaboration of colleagues across campus and the support of our President, Provost, and Chief Financial Officer, the University of Memphis now provides 100 percent coverage of health insurance premiums for full-time graduate assistants. This investment benefits all of our full-time graduate assistants, but it is especially important for students who are parents or who hope to become parents while pursuing their degrees. Access to affordable health care, including reproductive, prenatal, maternal, and pediatric health services, can make the difference between a student persisting in graduate education and deciding that the financial risks are simply too great.

Experiences like these have reinforced for me that student success is often shaped less by academic ability than by whether institutions recognize and respond to the realities of students' lives. Graduate student parents do not need special treatment; they need policies and systems that acknowledge the responsibilities they already carry.

And there are a lot more graduate student parents than many people realize.

According to data compiled by the Student-Parent Action through Research Knowledge (SPARK) Collaborative, 28 percent of graduate students in the United States are parents of dependent children—roughly one million students. Forty-one percent have one child, 59 percent have two or more children, and 42 percent have at least one child under the age of six. The profile of graduate student parents differs significantly from the stereotypical image of a graduate student. Graduate student parents are more likely to be older, enrolled part-time, married, first-generation students, and working while pursuing their degrees. Seventy-five percent work full time while enrolled. Many face significant financial pressures, with notable rates of food insecurity and financial instability despite pursuing advanced degrees.

Parenting responsibilities intersect with nearly every aspect of graduate education. Child care schedules often conflict with class schedules. Family obligations can limit participation in research travel, conferences, and networking opportunities. Unexpected illnesses can derail carefully planned academic timelines. The financial costs of raising children compound the already significant economic challenges many graduate students face. Health insurance and parental leave policies are often designed around employees rather than students. Academic cultures sometimes assume complete flexibility and unlimited availability—assumptions that are difficult for parents to meet.

When institutions fail to recognize these realities, graduate student parents frequently pay the price through delayed progress, increased stress, or attrition. The good news is that universities can make meaningful improvements without creating entirely new systems.

What Universities Can Do

Create formal parental leave policies for graduate assistants and graduate students. No student's academic progress should depend entirely on the goodwill of individual faculty members or departments.
Expand access to affordable child care. Campus child care centers, child care subsidies, emergency child care grants, and partnerships with local providers can significantly reduce barriers.
Provide family-friendly health insurance options. Affordable coverage for dependents and reduced out-of-pocket costs can make an enormous difference for graduate student families.
Build community among student parents. Parent networks, mentoring programs, and family-focused events help reduce isolation and create peer support systems.
Include student parents in institutional planning. Universities often collect data on enrollment and retention but rarely ask how policies affect students with caregiving responsibilities.

Organizations like SPARK Collaborative have developed extensive research, policy guidance, institutional assessments, and practical resources to help colleges and universities better support student parents. Their work reminds us that student parents are not a niche population. They are a substantial and important part of higher education. Graduate student parents are not less committed to their education. If anything, many are extraordinarily motivated. They are pursuing advanced degrees while simultaneously caring for children, supporting families, and managing responsibilities that extend far beyond the classroom and laboratory.

When universities design systems that recognize those realities, they do more than support parents. They remove barriers that allow talented students to persist, complete their degrees, and contribute their expertise to their professions and communities.

Today, that infant who occasionally attended graduate seminars with me is an adult. Looking back, I remain grateful for the faculty, staff, and institutional supports at The Ohio State University that helped make it possible for me to continue my education. Every graduate student parent deserves the same opportunity—not because graduate school should be easy, but because no student should have to choose between pursuing an advanced degree and building a family.

If we are serious about graduate student success, we must be serious about graduate student parents.

Note: I use artificial intelligence tools when I create content for these articles to help generate ideas, improve organization, and identify grammatical or stylistic issues. However, all final content is reviewed, revised, and personalized by me to ensure that it accurately reflects my experiences, perspectives, and individual voice.