Higher Education Trends in Science and Engineering
The National Science Board recently released Science and Engineering Indicators 2010. This week's FutureWork scan presents highlights from the chapter on higher education in science and engineering. The number of S&E bachelor's degrees has risen steadily over the past 15 years. The number of S&E bachelor's degrees awarded reached a new peak of 485,800 in 2007.
Most S&E fields (except computer sciences) experienced increases in the number of degrees awarded in 2007. In computer sciences, the number of bachelor's and master's degrees increased sharply from 1998 to 2004 but has decreased since then. S&E bachelor's degrees have consistently accounted for roughly one-third of all bachelor's degrees for the past 15 years. The share of bachelor's degrees awarded to women increased in many major S&E fields from 1993 to 2007.
Women have earned 58% of all bachelor's degrees since 2002; they have earned about half of all S&E bachelor's degrees since 2000, but major variations persist among fields. Women's share of bachelor's degrees in computer sciences, mathematics, and engineering has declined in recent years.
In 2007, men earned a majority of bachelor's degrees awarded in engineering, computer sciences, and physics (81%, 81%, and 79%, respectively). Women earned half or more of bachelor's degrees in psychology (77%), biological sciences (60%), social sciences (54%), agricultural sciences (50%), and chemistry (50%).
Among fields with notable increases in the proportion of bachelor's degrees awarded to women are earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences (from 30% to 41%); agricultural sciences (from 37% to 50%); and chemistry (from 41% to 50%).
The racial/ethnic composition of those earning S&E bachelor's degrees is changing, reflecting both population change and increasing college attendance by members of minority groups.
For all racial/ethnic groups except white, the total number of bachelor's degrees, the number of S&E bachelor's degrees and the number of bachelor's degrees in most S&E fields has generally increased since 1995.
Between 1995 and 2007, the proportion of S&E bachelor's degrees awarded to Asians/Pacific Islanders increased from 8% to 9%; to black students, from 7% to 8%; to Hispanic students, from 6% to 8%; and to American Indian/Alaska Native students, from 0.5% to 0.7%, although the shares to black and American Indian/Alaska Native students have remained fairly flat since 2000. The proportion of S&E degrees awarded to white students declined from 73% to 64%.
For white students, the total number of bachelor's degrees, the number of S&E bachelor's degrees, and the number of bachelor's degrees in most S&E fields remained fairly flat from 1995 through 2001 as their numbers in the college age population dropped but rose again through 2007.
Students in China earned about 21%, those in the European Union earned about 19%, and those in the United States earned about 11% of the more than 4 million first university degrees awarded in S&E in 2006.
The number of S&E first university degrees awarded in China, Poland, and Taiwan more than doubled between 1998 and 2006, and those in the United States and many other countries generally increased. Those awarded in Japan decreased in recent years.
In China, the number of first university degrees awarded in natural sciences and engineering has risen particularly sharply since 2002. In comparison, those awarded in Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States have remained relatively flat.
In the United States, S&E degrees are about one-third of bachelor's degrees and have been for a long time. More than half of first degrees were awarded in S&E fields in Japan (63%), China (53%), and Singapore (51%).
In the United States, about 5% of all bachelor's degrees are in engineering. In Asia about 20% are in engineering, and in China about one-third are in engineering (although the percentage has declined in recent years).
S&E graduate enrollment in the United States continued to rise, reaching a new peak of almost 600,000 in fall 2006.
Following a long period of growth, graduate enrollment in S&E declined in the latter half of the 1990s but has increased steadily since 1999. First-time full-time enrollment, an indicator of future trends in enrollment, has also increased since the late 1990s.
Graduate enrollment in computer sciences and engineering has decreased in recent years, although first-time full-time enrollment in these fields increased in 2005 and 2006.
Foreign S&E graduate students in U.S. institutions increased in fall 2006 after 2 years of decline.
S&E graduate students on temporary visas increased from 22% to 25% of all S&E graduate students from 1993 to 2006.
The number of first-time full-time S&E graduate students with temporary visas increased in fall 2005 and fall 2006 after declining 18% from 2001 to 2004. The increases (and previous declines) were mainly in computer sciences and engineering.
Master's degrees awarded in S&E fields increased from 86,400 in 1993 to 121,000 in 2006 but declined in 2007.
Increases occurred in most major science fields, although the number of master's degrees awarded in engineering and computer sciences has dropped since 2004.
The number and percentage of master's degrees awarded to women in most major S&E fields have increased since 1993.
The number of S&E doctorates awarded by U.S. academic institutions reached a new peak of almost 41,000 in 2007.
After rising from the mid-1980s through 1998, the number of S&E doctorates declined through 2002 but has increased in recent years. The largest increases were in engineering and biological/agricultural and medical/other life sciences.
Foreign students make up a much higher proportion of S&E master's and doctoral degree recipients than of bachelor's degree recipients.
Foreign students received 24% of S&E master's degrees, 33% of S&E doctoral degrees, and 4% of S&E bachelor's degrees in 2007.
Most foreign recipients of U.S. S&E doctorates plan to stay in the United States after graduation.
Among 2004-07 graduates, more than three-quarters of foreign S&E doctorate recipients with known plans reported they planned to stay in the United States and about half had accepted firm offers of employment. More than 90% of 2004-07 U.S. S&E doctorate recipients from China and 89% of those from India reported plans to stay in the United States, and 59% and 62%, respectively, reported accepting firm offers of employment or postdoctoral research in the United States.
Between 2000-03 and 2004-07, the percentage reporting definite plans to stay in the United States decreased among U.S. S&E doctorate recipients from all of the top five countries/economies of origin (China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, and Canada). However, for all but Taiwan, increases in the number of doctorate recipients more than offset declines in the percentage staying.
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