The Doctoral Student Cohort Program offers institutions a unique opportunity to partner with AERA to offer doctoral students access to AERA membership at a substantially reduced dues rate. Institutions that participate in the program collaborate with AERA to off set the cost of membership for doctoral students who join AERA for the first time.

The program gives students at participating institutions access to AERA membership at a 1-year introductory rate of $25, just a third of the regular graduate student dues rate of $75.

This program aims to encourage and support graduate student membership. Their early and active participation in AERA can help them expand their knowledge of the field, engage with the education research community, and make connections that support their professional development and advancement.

Benefits for AERA Doctoral Student Cohort Program members:

• Select free membership in an AERA Division and additional Division memberships for just $5 each.
• Join Special Interest Groups (SIGs) by paying their annual dues; the $7 SIG administrative fee for joining one or more SIGs is waived.
• Networking, professional development, and volunteer opportunities through Divisions, SIGs and the AERA Graduate Student Council (GSC). The GSC provides an active listserv and rich newsletter, along with dedicated programming throughout the year and at each AERA Annual Meeting
• All members receive complimentary digital access to all six  AERA journals, in addition to the publicly available, AERA Open.
• Purchase mailed AERA journals at the Graduate Student member rate of $10 per journal.
• Discounted registration for the 2025 AERA Annual Meeting in Denver. 
• Receive timely notice of announcements of AERA’s numerous calls for fellowships, awards, abstracts, grants, nominations, and much more.

How does the AERA Doctoral Student Cohort Program work?
This is an institutional program.  The program is a partnership between AERA and graduate schools of education or other university schools/departments with an interest in providing their doctoral students an introductory discounted year of AERA membership.  Once the school/department fills out a short online form indicating its interest in the AERA Doctoral Student Cohort Program, the university/college/department designated Program Coordinator receives an announcement to distribute to qualified students providing directions on how to sign up.  

Schools/departments are given notice to join in September.  Once the school/department completes the short survey form, an announcement is sent to the designated Program Coordinator to distribute to students.  The deadline for signing up is March 2025. 

Membership is for 2025 but the sooner a student signs up in 2024, the sooner the student can receive announcements from AERA, Divisions, and any SIGs that they join.

What students qualify for this program?
We find that the most common participant is a university or college with a school of education but other schools and departments do participate. Once an institution signs up, it offers this program to doctoral students, who have not been prior AERA members.

In order to ensure a vibrant doctoral student program, AERA asks that the school/department actively promote the program and recruit the entire first year doctoral student cohort to join, thus the name “cohort.”  The program has been expanded to allow full time students working full time and all part time students.  All students must be new AERA members and have not been in the doctoral program beyond 8 years to participate. 

Cost for Students
Any doctoral student pays $25 down from Graduate Student dues of $75. 

Cost for Institutions
The schools/departments are billed $25 per participating student in May 2025.

What is required of the institution?
AERA asks that a program coordinator be appointed who will be responsible for notifying students repeatedly of the program and encourage faculty to explain to students how AERA membership can enhance their scholarship, help them build a network, and hear of more opportunities.

To make this as easy as possible for the school/department, AERA provides an announcement that the program coordinator sends out throughout the year ending March 2025 and post the announcement in the department. The announcement will provide the website and passcode for students to join and pay their portion of the dues with a credit card. Program coordinators or a designated billing contact will receive an invoice for the participating students in May 2025. 

What is the first step?
If a School/Department is interested in the AERA Doctoral Student Cohort Program, please contact Sean Twombly at stwombly@aera.net or call 202-744-5780.