Graduate Degree ROI: Is a Master's Worth the Investment?

Measuring the value of higher education purely through entry-level salary statistics is a shortsighted strategy that compromises long-term workforce capability. As regional economies face severe structural shortages in critical sectors like healthcare and education, institutions must rapidly optimize how they train mid-level managers and expert personnel to drive real-world economic expansion. We sit down with Dr. Steven Beaupre, Dean of the Graduate School at Arkansas State University, to discuss the high-stakes responsibility of running the largest graduate infrastructure in the state and aligning advanced degrees with systemic regional demands.

We get into the tactical architecture required to manage advanced programs serving thousands of students across 60 distinct areas of study. Our conversation maps out the logistics of feeding critical healthcare pipelines in rural environments, expanding department staff to handle post-pandemic enrollment surges, and the strategic milestones necessary to elevate the campus from R2 to R1 research status. Dr. Beaupre shares his unique perspective on viewing academic leadership not as a bureaucratic constraint, but as a genuine impact multiplier that takes specialized field data and uses it to transform foundational institutional frameworks.

The harsh reality of expanding a competitive graduate framework involves entering a brutal national market where regional institutions must actively fight to attract elite talent. Leadership must confront glaring structural deficits in graduate assistantships, specifically regarding tuition breaks, health insurance accessibility, and competitive baseline stipends. Viewers will walk away with a functional understanding of how to audit internal budgets, reject vanity academic metrics, and successfully reallocate surplus funds directly back into student-level talent assets.

If you care about regional workforce development, institutional scaling, and the real-world economics of higher education, you’ll get a lot from this. Please subscribe to the channel and share this episode with an industry or education leader looking to scale their impact. What is the most critical benefit or structural adjustment needed to retain top-tier talent in your local workforce? Let us know in the comments below.

@Arkansasstatemedianetwork.com.

0:00 - Academic Background & Reptile Energetics

3:23 - Leading Arkansas's Largest Graduate School

6:47 - Evaluating the True ROI of Graduate Degrees

12:17 - Addressing Rural Arkansas Workforce Shortages

17:47 - The R1 Roadmap: GAs, Stipends, and Tuition Benefits

22:44 - Future Vision for Institutional Potential

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Hello and welcome to Partners in Progress with Arkansas State Media Network. My name is Jayja Greedy, and today I'm here with Dr. Stephen Bufre, the Dean of Graduate School. Welcome to the show, Dr. Bupre.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

So Arkansas State is home to the largest graduate school in the state, a program serving thousands of students across 60 areas of study. Dr. Bufre, to get us started, would you like to please introduce yourself to the audience and tell us a little bit about your background?

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Sure. I'm an academic. I went to uh my bachelor's degree and my master's degree at the University of Wisconsin and Madison. I did my uh PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. I did a couple years of postdoc work at Arizona State University. And uh then I got a job at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Uh that was back in 1995. I worked for 30 years at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and my primary area of study is um animal energetics, reptile energetics in particular. I look at uh how energy use is affected by the the environment and how that translates into uh population dynamics and and uh other aspects of ecology.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Oh, very cool. So, Dr. Boupre, you have been most of all across the US. How did you end up being in Jonesboro? What's your story? How did you come to Jonesboro?

SPEAKER_00 1:44

That's interesting uh that you asked that because it was an it's a kind of a wild story. But I I was actually kind of thinking about retiring over at over in Fayetteville. And uh um at the same time, I was sort of ramping things down. I started feeling like I'm not really done. You know, like I think I have more capacity and more things that I could do that would be positive, but sort of unfortunately my opportunities at Fayetteville were kind of dwindling. So um then this opportunity came up. Yeah. And I thought about it and I talked to my wife about it, and we said, well, we're gonna move out of Fayetteville anyway in retirement. So, you know, why not give it a try? Yeah. So I threw my hat in the ring and and uh started the judged got hired and started the job in uh March of 2025. Right.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Yeah, because I was I was about to say, so I started um here in 2024. I graduated with my MBA in 2024 from Arkansas State University, and then I was hired full-time here. Um and for some time we had associate dean, Dr. Brad Rollins, and we were really thrilled when we got to find out that we got a new dean, and I was just praying and praying that we get a new boss. It better be really fun. And Dr. Boufre is just exactly that. He's fun, he's motivated, and it's just been a pleasure working with him for over a year now. So, yeah, it's been uh I'm just so thankful he chose A-State and new.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Thanks. I appreciate that. And I'm thrilled to be here, and I've got a wonderful staff, and and uh we're working hard to try to make things better for Arkansas State University graduate students.

SPEAKER_02 3:23

So, a couple of years ago when A-State was building, and especially after COVID, the grad school kind of was not as big and widespread as in terms of staff. So when COVID finished, we had our old grad dean, and then Dr. Boufre came in, we have new staff. So, in the initial time, we only had two people working in the grad school, and now we are a team of six. And to say that Arkansas State has the largest graduate school in the whole Arkansas. So, how does it feel to lead such a big region? How does it uh feel to lead such a big area, such a great school?

SPEAKER_00 4:02

It's really exciting for me because um I, you know, a lot of academics kind of fear being in administration. But I have always thought about administration as an impact multiplier. So all of the things that I learned as an academic, this the many students that I trained in both PhD students and master's students, uh, you know, you kind of move when you become an administrator, you move from thinking about what's going on in your individual laboratory or offices to how do I transport that to the entire institution? And how big is my impact? How big could it be? Uh, and how can I help make that impact large? So it's a huge um opportunity. Uh, the the graduate school is is like you said, um, the largest one in Arkansas. We have uh many on-campus programs, and those on-campus programs serve not only domestic students and a lot of students from Arkansas, but also a large um international component, such as yourself. You came through that way. And in addition, we have uh a huge number of online programs that literally serve the the United States, every state, and the globe. So we have we have online students from all over the place. So this is actually a potentially huge impact. And when I when I say impact, I'm not thinking just in terms of you know the the university, but I'm thinking in terms of what all those people will do when they get their degrees and go out either back to their homes or to new places, take on jobs and apply what they've learned and have a huge impact uh in society. Uh to me, that's the biggest payoff is to be able to put people in position, to be lifelong learners, to have good careers and careers in an area that they're driven to uh uh be part of, that they're it's super interested in and they want to uh excel in. Those folks get jobs, and when they get jobs, they transform workplaces.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Yes, you said it really perfectly and beautifully, because not it not only that A-state is contributing to US or just Arkansas, but a lot of students who come here like myself, I came here on F1 visa. They go back to their countries and they contribute to their countries. The reason we want to come here and get our graduate degrees is just because it it has so much value if we get it from US. And that's why it's it's very important to have a grad school and just work towards building and progressing our grad schools. So there is a conversation happening right now about whether graduate degrees are worth the investment. What's your answer and what does graduate school bring to the argument?

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Well, that's a great question because we're feeling pressure from the federal government, I think, with a lot of the plans that are going through consideration in Congress to uh justify to some extent our our uh degree programs based on whether or not a graduate student can get a lucrative job when they come out of it. Now, that's one way to look at graduate education. I don't think it's complete by any stretch of the imagination that uh I think that you know it's good to be able to tell somebody that when you finish this degree, you'll be eligible for an entry-level position in this area, which currently pays something like this. Uh, but we can't always do that because people gain training in their graduate programs that maybe they use in a different area. Yeah. And but that training, they're still using it every day. You know, everything that they learned in their graduate programs is transportable into different things, especially the mindset of critical thinking and the ability to manage uh people, to work with people in groups, and to uh to actually be good mid-level manners for managers or CEOs, for example, because they think very broadly, um more broadly than um than people that have uh fewer degrees, let's say. So uh, you know, to some extent, we need to think about what the real impacts of a graduate degree are, not only for the person in a personal sense, uh, but also for the the institutions that they work for later on. So I have a tendency to also think, you know, you you you don't necessarily choose what you're really interested in. Yeah, you it's almost like uh, you know, if I if I say, you know, what flavor of ice cream do you like the best? And what's your flavor favorite flavor of ice cream?

SPEAKER_02 8:49

I would say strawberry right now.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Okay, strawberry. So why strawberry?

SPEAKER_02 8:53

Just because I like the fruit.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Right. So it but the do you just like strawberry? There's no real reason you can tell me why I should like strawberry.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Well, okay, so you choose strawberry because that's what you're drawn to. People choose careers because that's what they're drawn to.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

And if there's an I mean, I can understand the argument if there's not enough enrollment to maintain a program, but if there's high enrollments and people uh embark on a career that's fulfilling to them, then maybe exactly how much they make uh relative to other degrees is uh less important because money's not not everything. I mean, in fact, arguably there's people with too much money and where you know they're having trouble finding uh happiness. I think you find happiness by by uh pursuing the things that you're interested in. I did. I mean, here's the crazy thing. My father said, you really ought to be a banker or go into finance, and I said, but I'm really interested in snakes. Yeah. And you see, he thought I was he thought I was out of my mind. And sure enough, you know, he there was a day where he came around and said, I'm glad you did what you did, because I never thought it was gonna work, but it worked for me. So, you know, pursue what you love, take graduate school because you can be trained formally in the things that you love. You will be better for it, and you will be better at what you're doing for it. Yeah. And use that. Use that to pursue your own view of what your impact in the world should be. And I think that's all we really need to know. We don't we uh we don't we don't need to spend a lot of time worrying about the finances after the fact. We need to think about, you know, what is it that you need to pursue for on a personal basis? We want to be able to supply that.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Yeah. And I would say just to give an example to what all you said, is that graduate school is not gonna put a limit to what you want, it's just even gonna glorify what you already know. Because I wanted to work in administration, I wanted to work in higher education because I know the value that people like me, if I was still in India, I might be already married and just have kids because I don't know. That's just the norm, that's just the culture. And before the year 2022, I never actually realized that I would actually be able to go to the US. It was my brother, so I have a twin brother, and he was the one who showed so much confidence in me. Like, you will be able to get the visa, you should go. And my family is grateful I'm here. The living conditions are so much better than any third world country. So this is not only just a path, but also people who graduated from here, they got a job in Amazon, they got a job in Microsoft. I I know a friend who went to Mexico and got a job in Google. So it's not limiting you to what you want to do, you know, it's just only gonna show you the better pathway of what you want to do, you know.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

So by everything you've done here, it opens doors for you.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

So this is a door-opening operation, and and uh I think I I get 100% behind it because I love opening doors. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

You're you are great at it too. Um two of your largest graduate programs are healthcare and education. Happen to be the two most urgent workforce needs in rural Arkansas. Yeah. How is the graduate school addressing that directly?

SPEAKER_00 12:31

Well, uh, graduate degrees at health professions and education directly feed students into the Arkansas healthcare and education industry. So uh it's it's hard to even wrap my brain about it, but our College of Nursing and Health Professions is producing nursing uh graduates, uh, doctors of physical therapy, doctors of occupational therapy, doctors of nursing practice. They are producing all I mean, emergency uh man preparedness and management degrees. I mean, how exciting is that? I mean, to think about. Uh so we actually work very closely with the community in in uh both nursing and education. Uh students have uh internships in the community. Uh and they leverage the degree with their with their, in many cases, their place of employment, especially in education, uh, to take advantage of those uh those educational opportunities that are right there in front of them, yet still get the college degree, the the uh graduate degree. So we're feeding, we're producing the people that are gonna be caring for you and teaching your children and and and all that right here in uh in A State. And the one thing that I think is really great about that is that we draw students from Eastern Arkansas and we finish them and send them back to eastern Arkansas. And so I find that really exciting. I I we we have a very the largest proportion of our of our enrollments are in-state students.

SPEAKER_02 14:15

And internationally too. So um I had two friends, one from Nigeria and one from uh I think Bangladesh. One friend moved to Boston, didn't like the people in Jo uh Boston, came back to Jonesboro, working here, living great. And one person, the nurse, she got out of the college, she got a job in Kansas, coming back to Arkansas this fall. So, not only to say that people who got and graduated from here, they love how well their people were, how well the community was. So they are actually coming back and giving back.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

So, and it's plenty more stories like that.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Well, I just want to say that, you know, I I've been in Arkansas for 32 years, something like that. And uh there's a reason I've stayed. Yeah. And it's because it's a wonderful community.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

There are wonderful people here, they're kind and open. Absolutely. And uh and the underrated natural areas and and uh, you know, the the natural habitats in Arkansas are fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

So um it's a place that uh that I think it's a it's a well-guarded secret.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

And we shouldn't tell too many people.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

It is like I think US was gatekeeping Arkansas because when I came to US and when I decided, I never heard the state, Arkansas. I used to call it Arkansas with like SAS. I used to pronounce that. And I was not even aware. So there was this uncle, my dad's friend, he worked in Little Rock for about 13 years and then moved back to India for some family reasons. And he was like, Jay, the person you are, I think you would love A-State. So he knew about A State, and he was the one who recommended me A State. Because I was looking at the universities, because some friends and folks, they were in California, Fresno, Oklahoma. So I was looking at Texas University, California universities, because those were the states that I knew. But then someone that my family knew, they told me about A State, and that's how I ended up being here. And I am so glad that that was probably the best decision I've ever made for myself. You know, because I met so many great people, so many families. Like I have my adopted grandparents, brother, sister, like any person you name it. I have my whole family here. So yes, Arkansas is truly a privilege to be in.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

I always think of it as we're we're a high functioning university in a small town. Absolutely. And it and it feels really good to be here. I've I've, you know, I took degrees in uh in Phoenix and in in in uh uh Philadelphia. And I I did never I never the big cities never grew on me.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

So this is kind of a perfect kind of place for me.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

Yeah, so I've been to New York and Boston this year, and obviously those are bigger cities. And when I came back to Arkansas, I was like, why are people in New York so mean? Because they were those typical people that you see in the movies that they don't want to talk to you and they are just not fun. And I was like, Arkansas, when I touched the airport and when I landed, I was like, oh, I'm back home. People are not mean, they're not like you can't really walk around and be like, hi, good morning, how's your day going? Because everyone is just like walking the straight face. And I was like, okay, like what did I do? You know, so Arkansas is just a perfect place for that.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

It is.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

So if we are having this conversation again in three or four years, what does graduate school filling on all five cylinders look like for A State?

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Great question. Um, so I can't really answer that question without telling you, you know, what my what my goals and focus have been since I've been here. Pretty pretty rapidly when I um came here, interviewed, and began talking to the administrators that were here about and faculty and even some students about what was working and what wasn't. I I came up with three uh three priorities that I view as being really critical for making our graduate programs competitive with um other programs in the state and regionally. Um you think about a graduate assistant who works for the university or any employee of the university, they gain certain benefits from the university. You and I are university employees, and we get uh a salary, we get health insurance, and if we want to take classes, we have a benefit for that, right? So um that idea has evolved for graduate students in most other places in the country that that train graduate students is that there is a tuition break for people that work for us. So we have graduate assistants that are hired assistants, they help us with research and they help us with teaching and some other duties. But their primary job is to work for the university for 20 hours a week and help us do the job that we need to do to deliver our product. So as people that work for the university, you know, it's arguably correct that they should have a tuition benefit, health insurance benefit, and a stipend, right? And it turns out that those three things tuition benefit, health insurance, and a stipend, we are not competitive in any of those categories. So if if a student is searching for a university just based on financial benefit, they this might be one of the last places they would come. Yeah. Now there are a lot of good reasons to come to A State, and and that's why we have great students here because they want to work with a particular faculty member, or they, or there's a program that they're really interested in that they can't get somewhere else. Um so it doesn't, you know, we're we're doing fine. Uh, but I think that when we want to talk about what what the future of the university is, uh, that we want to eventually position the university to move from R2 research categorization to an R1, uh, we have to have a very high-functioning graduate school that's competitive and can attract the best graduate students regionally and even nationally and internationally. So, in order to do that, we have to make sure that our uh financial benefits for being a graduate student on a graduate assistantship are equivalent or competitive, at least, with uh our regional and national competitors. So, my um my goals are to address those three issues. Uh, it's a very big lift because uh it's gonna take a lot of money. And so we're not just holding our hand out and going, we need money, we're trying to figure out how we can generate funds, how we can re-budget, reunderstand our own budgets, and uh make room for the for those costs. So if I were gonna hope in five years, looking at where we would be, that we would be at least reasonably competitive in those three areas in five years. And I think if I can accomplish that, it will be a game changer for the campus. Yeah. So there are a lot of other things we can talk about. There's a lot of other tuning, a lot of other, you know, knocking rough edges off of places. Yeah. Uh, but uh those are my three big priorities. And if I could look back in five years and see that uh we accomplished those, I would be thrilled.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

Yeah, and I think you have been doing obviously a tremendous job at that. And uh recently in spring semester, graduate school was able to give out scholarships, like $2,500 scholarships, $1,500 scholarships, and we almost gave it out to almost 70 students.

SPEAKER_00 22:13

I think it was $50. $52.

SPEAKER_02 22:15

$52. So and being like an ex-graduate student, I think that's a great value because we don't have a lot of scholarships that are available just for like out-of-project, out of research scholarships. So even that is a great beginning step that even just in your one year, you are giving it giving out financial benefit to the students. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

Well, if we have money left over in our budgets, we'll put it back into the students.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Yes, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Yes, yep.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

All right, thank you so much for being on the show, Dr. Bouprey. It's been a privilege not just to work with you, but when I got the show, I was like, I know who am I who am I bringing first? So thanks so much for being here.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

Thank you for having me. And I just want to close with one thought, and that's that uh graduate school at Arkansas State University, what we want to do is we want to serve each of our students to their fullest potential. And by doing that and doing it well, uh, we'll develop that high-functioning graduate school that we need to compete nationally for graduate students across the board. That's gonna help us get to our goals of R1 and high research uh function. Yeah. So I really appreciate the chance to tell you about that.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

Well, Partners in Progress is produced by Arkansas State Media Network in partnership with podcastvideos.com. To learn more about Arkansas State University, visit astate.edu. Thank you and have a great day.