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Higher Education in Science and Engineering |
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Structure of U.S. Higher
Education 
- The U.S. higher education system provides broad access
to varied institutions, which differ in size, type of administrative
control (public or private), selectivity, and focus.
The system gives students flexibility in moving between institutions,
transferring credits, entering and leaving schools, and switching
between full- and part-time status. (More...)
- Research and doctorate-granting universities produce
most of the undergraduate engineering degrees (78 percent in 2000)
and about half of the degrees in natural, agricultural, and social
sciences. However, master's and liberal arts institutions
produce most of the undergraduate degrees in mathematics and computer
sciences. (More...)
- A higher percentage of baccalaureate recipients study
science and engineering at research universities and selective
liberal arts colleges than at other kinds of institutions.
Over the past 30 years, these S&E-focused institutions accounted
for a declining percentage of higher education enrollments. (More...)
- Historically black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving
institutions are important sources of S&E bachelor's degrees
earned by minority students. These institutions granted
about one-third of all S&E baccalaureates awarded to blacks
and Hispanics. (More...)
- The fastest-growing major segment of higher education
is community colleges. These institutions are a bridge
for students who want to attend 4-year colleges. Some S&E
graduates earned credits at community colleges toward their degrees.
(More...)
- Universities and colleges are increasingly using
advanced information technology and distance education; however,
distance education remains limited in S&E fields.
Fewer than 10 percent of students in S&E fields took courses
through distance education. (More...)
Enrollment in Higher
Education
- In the late 1990s, the U.S. college-age population
reversed its 2-decade-long decline and began an upward trend.
After decreasing from 21.5 million in 1981 to 17.4 million
in 1997, the college-age population reached 18.5 million by the
2000 census and is expected to increase to 21.7 million by 2015.
(More...)
- Increased enrollment will come from minority groups, principally
Hispanics, a group traditionally underrepresented in S&E.
Between 1992 and 1998, overall enrollment increased by 1 percent,
that of underrepresented minorities by 16 percent, and that of
Asian/Pacific Islanders by 36 percent. (More...)
- Interest in S&E study is high among freshmen, and their
coursework preparation to study S&E appears as good as in
the past. However, 20 percent of those intending an S&E
major reported needing remediation in mathematics, and 10 percent
needed remediation in science. (More...)
- A number of studies find that women and underrepresented
minorities leave S&E programs at higher rates than men and
white students, resulting in lower degree completion rates for
women and underrepresented minorities. (More...)
- Enrollment in U.S. S&E graduate education
peaked at 435,700 in 1993, declined through 1998, and rose to
near its record level by 2001. Graduate enrollment in engineering
and computer sciences drove the recent growth, mostly because
of foreign students. Enrollment in most other science fields remained
level or declined. (More...)
- Fluctuation in graduate S&E enrollment from 1994 to
2001 reflects a decline of 10 percent in enrollment by U.S.
citizens and permanent residents, balanced by an increase of nearly
35 percent in foreign graduate S&E enrollment. A 26 percent
drop among white men and 9 percent drop among white women drove
the U.S. decline. U.S. minority enrollment increased by 22–35
percent. Foreign enrollment declined from 1992 to 1996, returned
to its former level by 1999, and reached an all-time high in 2001.
(More...)
- One in five S&E graduate students received primary support
from the Federal Government in 2001. The support was mostly
in the form of research assistantships (RAs)—67 percent,
up from 55 percent 2 decades earlier—and was offset by declining
traineeships. For students supported through non-Federal sources,
teaching assistantships were the most prominent mechanism (40
percent), followed by RAs (32 percent). (More...)
- For doctoral students, notable differences exist in primary
support mechanisms by sex, race/ethnicity, and citizenship. Men
are most likely to be supported by RAs (38 percent), whereas women
are most likely to support themselves from personal sources of
funds (34 percent). Whites and Asian/Pacific Islanders are most
likely to derive primary support from RAs (26 and 31 percent,
respectively), whereas underrepresented minorities depend more
on fellowships (36 percent). The primary source of support for
foreign doctoral students is an RA (43 percent). (More...)
Higher Education Degrees
- The ratio of bachelor's degrees in natural, agricultural,
and computer sciences; mathematics; and engineering (NS&E)
to the population cohort stood between 4 and 5 per 100 for several
decades but increased to 5.7 in the late 1990s, largely on
the strength of increases in the number of computer science baccalaureates.
(More...)
- The annual output of S&E bachelor's degrees rose steadily
from 303,800 in the mid-1970s to 398,600 in 2000. They represented
approximately one-third of all baccalaureates for the period.
These consistent trends mask considerable variations among fields.
(More...)
- Over the past quarter-century, women and members of minority
groups earned greater proportions of S&E bachelor's degrees,
as the percentage of degrees earned by white students declined
from 87 to 68 percent. By 2000, women earned half the degrees,
up from one-third. Degrees awarded to underrepresented minorities
rose from 9 to 16 percent, and those awarded to Asian/Pacific
Islanders increased from 2 to 9 percent. (More...)
- Despite the considerable progress of underrepresented minorities
in earning bachelor's degrees between 1990 and 2000, the gap in
educational attainment between these groups and whites remains
wide, especially in S&E fields. In 2000, underrepresented
minority groups earned 17.9 percent of any type of college degree
per 100 24-year-olds, about half the ratio earned by whites. The
gap between these minorities and whites is even larger for NS&E
degrees. (More...)
- Increasing numbers of S&E doctoral degree recipients
are women, minorities, or foreign; the share of U.S.
whites decreased from 71 percent in 1977 to 50 percent in 2001.
The share of doctorates awarded to U.S. citizens declined
from 77 to 59 percent. (More...)
- Noncitizens accounted for most of the growth in U.S.
S&E doctorates from the late 1980s through 2001. Their
annual growth rate for earning degrees during this period was
3 percent, approximately three times that for U.S. citizens. (More...)
Foreign Doctoral Degree
Recipients
- From 1985 to 2001, students from China, Taiwan,
India, and South Korea earned more
than half of the 148,000 U.S. S&E doctoral degrees
awarded to foreign students, which is four times the number awarded
to students from Europe. (More...)
- Nearly 30 percent of the actively employed S&E doctorate
holders in the United States are foreign born, as
are many postdocs. Most foreign-born doctorate holders working
in the United States obtained their degrees in the United States.
(More...)
- Foreign students earning U.S. S&E doctorates
are increasingly planning to stay in the United States
after degree receipt. In the period 1998–2001, 76 percent
of foreign doctoral degree recipients in S&E fields planned
to stay in the United States, and 54 percent had firm offers to
do so. (More...)
- Stay rates vary by place of origin, with many Chinese and
Indian students staying and most South Korean and Taiwanese doctoral
degree recipients leaving after degree receipt. Stay rates
of graduates from France, Italy, and Germany have increased well
above their long-term average; stay rates of Eastern European
doctoral degree recipients are exceeded only by those of Indian
doctoral degree recipients. (More...)
International S&E
Higher Education
- In the 1980s and 1990s, the college-age cohort decreased
in all major industrialized countries, although at different times,
with different durations, and to varying degrees. To produce
enough S&E graduates for increasingly knowledge-intensive
societies, industrialized countries have encouraged a higher proportion
of their citizens to obtain a higher education, have trained a
higher proportion in S&E, and have recruited S&E students
from other countries, especially from the developing world. (More...)
- Although the United States has historically been a world
leader in providing broad access to higher education, many other
countries now provide comparable access. The U.S. ratio of
bachelor's degrees earned to the college-age population remains
high (33.8 per 100 in 2000). However, nine other countries now
provide a college education to approximately one-third or more
of their college-age population, and others are expanding access.
(More...)
- The proportion of the college-age population earning NS&E
degrees is substantially higher in more than 16 locations in Asia
and Europe than in the United States.
In the United States, the ratio has gradually increased from
between 4 and 5 to 5.7 per 100 over 3 decades. South Korea and
Taiwan increased their ratios from 2 per 100 in 1975 to 11 per
100 in 2000–01, and several European countries have doubled
and tripled their ratios, reaching figures between 8 and 11 per
100. (More...)
- The 1990s witnessed a worldwide increase in the number of
students going abroad for higher education study to the well-established
universities in the United States, United
Kingdom, and France, with the largest increases
at the graduate level in S&E fields. However, universities
in other countries, including Japan, Canada, and Germany, also
expanded their enrollment of foreign S&E graduate students.
(More...)
- The proportion of doctoral S&E degrees earned by foreign
students, particularly in engineering, mathematics, and computer
sciences, is increasing in the major host countries. In 2001,
noncitizens earned 56 percent of the doctoral engineering degrees
awarded in the United States, 51 percent in the United Kingdom,
and 22 percent in France. They earned 49 percent of the mathematics
and computer science doctorates awarded in the United States,
44 percent in the United Kingdom, and 29 percent in France. (More...)
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