Recipient Name:

Newsletter Contents

Synopses of New Reports in Inside Engineering Education on the Engineering Trends Web Site  http://engtrends.com

1. "Research Expenditures in Engineering Colleges and Individual Engineering Disciplines, Including Expenditures per Faculty Member and per Graduate Degree - Only Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Undergoing Significant Growth"
2. "Problems With Engineering Graduate Student Enrollments - Master's Enrollments Are Declining and Doctoral Enrollment Growth has Ended"
3. "Engineering Degrees Awarded to Foreign Nationals - Trends Vary Among Individual Engineering Disciplines"
4. "A Strange, New Era Emerges - Growth in the Number of Engineering Faculty Continues as Bachelor's and Master's Enrollments Decline and Doctoral Enrollment Growth Ends"

Engineering Degree Graphical Information in Degrees Since 1945 on the Engineering Trends Web Site Expanded from Eleven to Twenty-One Individual Engineering Disciplines

New Studies Underway at Engineering Trends

1. "Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral Degrees per Faculty Member in Individual Engineering Disciplines"
2. "Bachelor's Degrees Awarded by Engineering Colleges in Each of the Fifty States in the US"

Synopses of New Reports in Inside Engineering Education on the Engineering Trends Web Site

Research Expenditures in Engineering Colleges and Individual Engineering Disciplines, Including Expenditures per Faculty Member and per Graduate Degree - Only Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Undergoing Significant Growth (Report No. 1006A)

Research expenditures in engineering colleges reached $5 billion in AY 2004-05. The growth since AY1980-81 has been an impressive 510%, but, in deflated currency, 170%. Expenditures per faculty member during this period increased 410%. In deflated currency, the increase per faculty member was 124% or an average annual increase of only 3.4%.

Expenditures per master's degree have remained essentially constant since AY1990-91 at about $30,000 (inflated currency). Doctoral degree expenditures have generally increased since AY1990-91, but declined to about $535,000 in AY2004-05.

Research expenditures (totals and per faculty member) for thirteen engineering disciplines were also studied. Only biomedical engineering and bioengineering increased significantly in research expenditures in AY2004-05. Expenditures for master's and doctoral degrees were determined for civil, chemical, "computer", electrical and mechanical engineering. All five had larger expenditures for master's degrees and lower expenditures per doctoral degree than engineering overall since the mid-1990s.

Problems With Engineering Graduate Student Enrollments - Master's Enrollments Are Declining and Doctoral Enrollment Growth Has Ended (Report No. 1006B)

Engineering master's degree full-time enrollments have declined 13% from fall 2003 through fall 2005. Doctoral enrollment growth has slowed and appears to have reached a maximum in fall 2005. The decline in master's enrollments was due primarily to the decreased number of foreign national students.

Analysis of graduate enrollments in individual engineering disciplines was carried out. Currently, only aerospace engineering is increasing in master's enrollment. "Computer", electrical, industrial and mechanical engineering have continued their recent enrollment declines.

Substantial annual increases have continued in doctoral enrollments in "computer" and "biological" engineering. Other disciplines showed either minor enrollment increases in fall 2005 or declined slightly.

Engineering Degrees Awarded to Foreign Nationals - Trends Vary Among Individual Engineering Disciplines (Report No. 1006C)

Trends in the fractions of bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in engineering that are awarded to foreign nationals currently differ. Bachelor's degrees have remained in the range of 7% to 9% for the last three decades. Master's degree fractions increased from 25% to 46% from AY 1985-86 through AY2002-03 and declined to 43% in the last two years. Enrollment data indicate that the period of decline will continue. Doctoral fractions, following a minimum of 45% in AY1998-99, increased continuously to 61% in AY2004-05.

Foreign national degree fractions were studied for nine engineering disciplines. Bachelor's degree fractions in AY2004-05 range from 4% (civil engineering) to 11% (industrial engineering); engineering as a whole was 7%. Significant increasing or decreasing trends were not observed for any of the disciplines.

Master's degree fractions ranged from 30% (aerospace engineering) to 57% (industrial engineering). "Biological" engineering is currently the only discipline with an increasing trend (22% in AY2001-02 to 38% in AY2004-05). Aerospace, "computer" and materials engineering have undergone significant declines since AY2001-02.

Doctoral degree fractions ranged from 39% ("biological" engineering) to 67% (electrical engineering). "Biological" and chemical engineering (currently, these have the lowest doctoral degree fractions) increased from 24% to 39% and 46% to 55%, respectively, during the AY2001-02 to AY2004-05 period.

A Strange, New Era Emerges - Growth in the Number of Engineering Faculty Continues as Bachelor's and Master's Enrollments Decline and Doctoral Enrollment Growth Ends (Report No. 1006D)

Bachelor's and master's full-time engineering enrollments continue to decline and doctoral enrollment growth has essentially ended. In spite of this, increases in the number of engineering faculty (an average annual increase of about 770 (3.9%)) since fall 2001 have continued unabated. This contrary relationship between number of faculty and enrollments cannot be readily discerned from the most recent degree data. There is presently no indication of slowing in the growth of the number of engineering faculty.

Engineering Degree Graphical Information in Degrees Since 1945 on the Engineering Trends Web Site Expanded from Eleven to Twenty-One Individual Engineering Disciplines

Requests to Engineering Trends for increased numbers of engineering disciplines covered on the Degrees Since 1945 page of our Web site have encouraged us to expand the number of disciplines from eleven to twenty-one. In addition, bioengineering and biomedical engineering are being reported separately (rather than combined as "biological") and computer engineering, computer science (in universities with engineering colleges) and computer science and engineering are being reported separately (rather than combined as "computer"). Engineering Trends believes that the separate reporting of these five disciplines is unique.

In addition, all data on engineering as a whole are now available to all Web site visitors. As in the past, all individual discipline degree data on the Web site are accessible to Engineering Trends members. Non-members of Engineering Trends may purchase from the Web site graphs of degree datasets for individual engineering disciplines.

New Studies Underway at Engineering Trends

Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral Degrees per Faculty Member in Individual Engineering Disciplines

Engineering degrees at all academic levels have increased significantly in recent years. The number of faculty has increased during this period as well. This study will analyze the effects of these trends on the degree/faculty ratios in individual engineering disciplines and engineering as a whole.

Bachelor's Degrees Awarded by Engineering Colleges in Each of the Fifty States in the US

Undergraduate engineering degrees have increased in recent years and the trends for various disciplines have varied. The last analysis by Engineering Trends for the distribution of undergraduate degrees awarded by individual states was carried out almost three years ago. This new effort will update the prior study and identify changes that have taken place in the interim.

Can We Be of Assistance?

Engineering Trends specializes in client-defined studies comparing engineering colleges and departments at individual universities. We would be pleased to assist you in your activities in this regard. Engineering Trends has the capability to provide rapid responses and accurate studies at low cost to our clients. All studies are based upon a no-cost quotation specifying the scope of the study and the delivery time, as well as the cost.

We welcome your suggestions of reports to be added to the Inside Engineering Education section of our Web site and reviewed in forthcoming newsletters. You may contact us via our Web site http://engtrends.com, by e-mail at news@engtrends.com and/or by phone (906) 482-1523. We look forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Richard W. Heckel
Founder & Technical Director

(Others in your organization can be added to our mailing list if you would send us their names and e-mail addresses. If you wish to be removed from the Engineering Trends mailing list, please reply with UNSUBSCRIBE as the subject.)