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NSF Survey Documents Drop in S&E Doctoral Degrees
Since reaching a high point of almost 27,300 in 1998, the number of science and engineering (S&E) doctorates has dropped by 7 percent to just over 25,500 in 2001, reports a 2001 nationwide survey conducted for the National Science Foundation (NSF). The decline since 1998 has led to a rollback of total Ph.D.s to pre-1994 levels, the report states.
The data from NSF's Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 2001 are a compilation of detailed statistical tables derived from the nationwide Survey of Earned Doctorates, a report of data collected on doctorates conferred in all academic fields at 416 universities. NSF, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Education are the primary funding agencies for the survey, with support from NASA, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Department of Agriculture.
The 2001 survey of doctorates reveals the number of total Ph.D.s awarded by U.S. universities dropped to below 41,000 for the first time in nine years. Since 1995, the numbers of non-S&E Ph.D.s awarded have remained nearly constant, staying at just over 15,200 per year on average over the last six years.
Among survey highlights, women have showed slow, steady increases in obtaining doctorates in most fields. In 2001, women were awarded about 44 percent of the doctorates for all fields combined. They accounted for 32.8 percent of the total number of S&E doctorates awarded in 1997, and by 2001, they had received 9,300 Ph.D.s (36.5 percent) of the S&E total for the year.
More than 92 percent of the 40,744 receiving research doctoral degrees in 2001 returned the survey, and according to NSF, only 10 institutions accounted for 29 percent of those not responding to the survey.
NSF's Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 2001 is available at: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf03300/start.htm
In November 2002, SSTI published an abbreviated table providing a state-by-state ranking for S&E doctorates awarded by major field. The table includes the values and state rankings for the total S&E doctorates awarded per 100,000 residents within each state, using the 2001 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
SSTI's table is available at: http://www.ssti.org/Digest/Tables/110802t.htm