Graduate Discipline Choices – Preferences by Gender,  Minority Groups and Foreign Nationals

The engineering discipline choices made by engineering graduate students are important to industry, universities, government and professional organizations as well as to the students themselves. This study was aimed at providing a definition of the master’s and doctoral degree discipline preferences of women, underrepresented minorities (African, Hispanic, Native and Asian Americans) and foreign nationals. The study was a follow-on to that of undergraduate preferences presented in the Inside Engineering Education section of the Engineering Trends Web site in June 2003.

The present study was directed toward comparison of the relative numbers of degrees awarded to each of the six groups in a particular discipline to the total relative number of degrees awarded to that group. That is, the study sought to define the discipline preferences (and magnitudes thereof) for each group. The lack of interest in specific disciplines was also to be defined. Another facet of the study was the determination of the variations of preferences among the six groups.

The undergraduate preferences found in the prior study will be compared to the graduate preferences in the summary statements of this article.

Study Parameters

Master’s and doctoral degrees awarded to women, underrepresented minorities and foreign nationals for the period AY1975-76 through AY2001-02 (the last year for which data are available) were analyzed. Data for twenty disciplines plus two discipline groups were studied. A listing of the disciplines along with the abbreviations to be used is shown below.

• “Mat” includes Metallurgy and Metallurgical Engineering.
• The subgroups within Bio and Cmp were determined by Engineering Trends from
  program names provided by universities reporting the data.
• IE, Mgt and Mfg data began in 1990-91; Bim, Bie, CpE, CpS and CSE data in 1997-98.

Data analysis was carried out for each of the six groups by using the relative number of master’s and doctoral degrees in the disciplines listed above. Comparison of the individual discipline data curves to that of “All”, the overall relative number of engineering degrees awarded, defined the discipline preferences of that group. Disciplines exhibiting data greater than the “All” data would be preferred by that group. The extent of the departure defined the magnitude of the preference.

Graduate Discipline Preferences of Women

The graphs above indicate that, in recent years, both master’s and doctoral programs in Bio, ChE, CpS, Env and Mat were preferred by women. The preference for Cmp at the master’s degree level does not carry over to Cmp doctoral programs. Women had a preference for Sys at the masater’s level and IE and Mgt at the doctoral level. Master’s and doctoral programs in Aer, EE, ME, Nuc and Pet have been undersubscribed by women. At the doctoral level only, women have demonstrated a lack on interest in Mar and Mfg.

Graduate Discipline Preferences of African Americans

The graphs below indicate that African American students have a relatively small number of preferences in graduate programs. In addition, the preferences for master’s degree programs differ substantially from those of doctoral programs.

In recent years, IE, Mfg, Mgt and Sys were preferred at the master’s level and Bio, IE, ME and Sys at the doctoral level. Aer and Cmp are not preferred at either graduate level It may also be noted that ChE, preferred at the undergraduate level, was “neutral” at the master’s level and “not preferred” at the doctoral level. Mgn, Nuc and Pet were not preferred at the master’s degree level and CE, ChE and Mat were undersubscribed at the doctoral level.

Graduate Discipline Preferences of Hispanic Americans

The two graphs below indicate that ChE and IE programs were preferred in recent years by Hispanic Americans for both master’s and doctoral degrees. In addition, CE, Env, Mfg, Mgt and Nuc were preferred at the master’s level and Aer, EE and Sys were preferred at the doctoral level (even though Sys was “not preferred” at the master’s level).

Almost total lack of agreement was exhibited in the “least preferred” programs. For master’s degrees, Cmp, EE, Mat, Mgn and Sys and, for doctoral programs, Bio, Cmp and ME were undersubscribed.

Graduate Preferences of Native Americans

The analysis of Native American preferences was complicated by the small number of master’s and doctoral degree graduates. The data scatter for master’s degrees limited the number of engineering programs suitable for study and precluded any analysis of doctoral programs.

In recent years, the master’s degree preferences of Native Americans have included Aer, Bio, CE Env, Mgn and Mgt, as shown in the graph below. The programs least preferred were Cmp, EE and IE. The extreme scatter of the data in several engineering programs (e.g., Mgn) provides some uncertainty in drawing conclusions regarding preferences. However, the “likes” and “dislikes” indicated above are in many instances in agreement with undergraduate program preferences reported earlier.

Graduate Preferences of Asian Americans

The graphs below indicate that Asian American graduate students had few, but well defined, engineering discipline preferences in recent years. This was also the case in our previous study of undergraduate preferences. Also, the number of “not preferred” disciplines was very large and the extent of “dislike” was substantial at both the master’s and doctoral levels.

Bio, Cmp and EE were strong favorites for both master’s and doctoral programs. Sys was also preferred at the master’s degree level. Cmp and EE have been preferred for decades; Bio became preferred in the mid-1990s. At the master’s degree level, Sys also became a preferred discipline in the mid-1990s.

Aer, CE, Env, IE, Mat and Nuc have not been preferred (some strongly so) at both the master’s and doctoral levels. Mar, Mfg, Mgn, Mgt and Pet had an “unfavorable” rating at the master’s degree level as did ME at the doctoral level.

Graduate Preferences of Foreign Nationals

In AY 2001-02, foreign nationals were awarded 43% of the engineering master’s degrees and 55% of the doctoral degrees. These fractions will continue to increase, at least in the near future, since 52% of the full-time master’s degree enrollments and 60% of the full-time doctoral enrollments were due to foreign nationals in Fall 2002. Thus, the engineering program preferences of foreign nationals have a major impact on the engineering discipline composition of advanced degree graduates.

The engineering discipline preferences of foreign nationals have fluctuated over the past few decades as shown in the two graphs below. In recent years, IE and Pet were favorites of both master’s and doctoral degree students. In addition, Cmp and EE were preferred for master’s degrees and CE, ME and Mgt were preferred by doctoral students.

Aer, Bio, Env and Sys were, in recent years, undersubscribed at both the master’s and doctoral degree levels. Also, ME, Mgn and Mgt were not favored by foreign nationals for master’s degrees and ChE and Nuc were not favored at the doctoral level.

Summary

The table below provides a summary of the preferences of women, underrepresented minority groups and foreign nationals in engineering programs at the master’s and doctoral degree levels. The preferences listed refer to recent years. In quite a few instances, the determination of preferences was complicated by year-to-year data scatter. Thus, some of the programs are listed with a question mark.

The preferences found in the earlier study on undergraduates are included in the table.

Many instances of undergraduate-graduate preference agreement can be seen in the table. Such agreement was anticipated. At all three degree levels, women preferred Bio, ChE, Env and Mat and did not favor EE, ME, Nuc and Pet. IE and Sys were preferred by African Americans at all three degree levels; Cmp was not favored. Hispanic Americans preferred only one program, IE, at all three degree levels; only Cmp was not favored. Native Americans preferred Aer and CE for both bachelor’s and master’s degrees; IE was nor favored at these two levels. Asian Americans preferred Bio, Cmp and EE at all three degree levels; CE, Env, IE, Mat and Nuc were not favored. Foreign nationals preferred only IE for bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees; Bio and Env were not favored.

Acknowledgment

The data for this study came from the annual surveys of the Engineering Workforce Commission of the American Association of Engineering Societies. Engineering Trends acknowledges their efforts in providing credible data and expresses its gratitude for their services to the engineering profession.

Footnote

Engineering Trends data are compiled from information submitted by universities to the annual surveys of EWC and ASEE. On the very rare occasions where errors in data appear, Engineering Trends corrects the error, if possible, or deletes the data if the error is large enough to alter significantly the trend of the university or the US total.