Important Notice
Due to medical reasons affecting the
Director of Engineering Trends, this will be the last scheduled Engineering
Trends Quarterly Newsletter. Current Engineering Trends Memberships that are due
to expire in 2010 will be renewed for an additional year at no charge. We are
also discontinuing individual report sales. Reports will only be available to
Engineering Trends Members. We look forward to resuming normal operation in
2010.
Newsletter Contents
Synopses of new reports in the Report Library on
the Engineering Trends Web Site
engtrends.com
- "Undergraduate and Graduate Engineering Degrees; Trends in
Individual Disciplines Compared to Engineering as a Whole."
- "Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees Awarded to Women in Engineering
Disciplines; Numbers of Degrees and Fractions of Degrees Are Compared."
Synopses of New Reports in the Report
Library on the Engineering
Trends Web Site
Undergraduate and Graduate Engineering Degrees; Trends
in Individual Disciplines Compared to Engineering as a Whole. (Report
0909A)
Almost four decades of data on degrees awarded by
US engineering colleges are represented in this report. A generally increasing
trend for each of the degrees during the period shown is evident. Bachelor's,
master's and doctoral degrees increased 101%, 139% and 136% respectively. It is
also meaningful to assess the degree growth on a per capita basis to recognize
the 46.9% growth in the US population since AY19970-71. Bachelor's, master's and
doctoral degrees increased at a more modest 36.9%, 62.7% and 60.6%,
respectively, by this measure.
Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees Awarded to Women in
Engineering Disciplines; Numbers of Degrees and Fractions of Degrees Are
Compared. (Report 0909B)
It is now clear that the fraction of women
awarded bachelor's degrees in engineering has been declining for almost a
decade. The onset of this decline can be traced to the decline in the fraction
of first-year enrollments of women beginning in the mid-1990s. The number of
undergraduate degrees awarded to women in each of the last two years is
essentially the same as in AY1999-00 and AY2000-01. The differences between
fraction and number trends are even more marked for master's and doctoral
degrees. Master's degrees awarded to women increased from 6,397 to 8,982 (40.4%)
from AY1999-00 through AY2007-08; the fraction awarded to women increased only
from 21.6% to 23.0%. Doctoral degrees awarded to women over this same period
increased from 939 to 1,913 (103.7%); the fraction of engineering doctorates
awarded to women increased from 15.9% to 21.1%.
The comparisons of the two sets of metrics show trend differences due to the
effect of the number of men awarded degrees on the fraction of women. Thus, it
is important that both metrics be considered in defining degree trends for women
awarded degrees in engineering.
