Those students who complete the program in a satisfactory manner are awarded master's of arts in development economics at the College's June commencement. From this process has come a rather remarkable group of alumni. At the World Bank, alumni have served as vice president and in numerous other monetary institutions at virtually all professional levels. The first woman to complete the program was in the class of 1973. Since then there have been several women in each class and in a couple of years women have outnumbered men.
Women too are in key positions in their governments.
Many women report that their year at the Center has helped overcome the gender bias that continues to exist in some of their countries. It is however essential to appreciate that alumni who slog away in the trenches without eye-catching titles play the typical role of the CDE graduate. These people supply memoranda, data, analyses, arguments, and policy suggestions to their supervisors. The work of an informed, trained, non-political economic officer who can do these sorts of things is most important in bringing about sustained, fair growth in developing countries. In countries where there are significant numbers of alumni in one office or ministry, CDE alumni can play particularly strategic roles.