Nov. 21

More Doctors of Philosophy (and Science)

The number of doctoral degrees awarded by American universities climbed by 5.1 percent in 2006, to a record high of 45,596, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Science Foundation.

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But 1,521 more doctorates were granted in 2006 than in 2005 to scholars who are not U.S. citizens, more than two-thirds of all of the new Ph.D.’s and other terminal degrees awarded. In total, foreign born researchers accounted for nearly 35 percent of all doctorates granted in 2006 (15,947 of 45,596), and for 43 percent of the Ph.D.’s awarded in scientific and engineering fields (12,775 of 29,854). Non-citizens accounted for more than 70 percent of doctorate recipients in electrical, civil and industrial/mechanical engineering, and more than half of Ph.D. recipients in all other engineering fields, computer sciences, math and physics.

The data, which provide the first look at the production of doctorates in the 2005-6 academic year, come from the Survey of Earned Doctorates, an annual study sponsored by six federal agencies: the U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Institutes of Health, and the NSF.

The NSF data focus on Ph.D. production in the sciences, and provide significantly less detail about non-science fields — detailed information about the breakdowns in humanities and social science disciplines are available in the full report of the Survey of Earned Doctorates, which the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Council, which conducts the survey, posted on its Web site Wednesday.

As seen in the table below, the increase in doctorate production in the sciences was driven largely by growth in the biological sciences, chemistry, computer sciences, and electrical engineering, all of which experienced growth of at least 200 doctorates (mathematics and mechanical engineering also fared well). Psychology and agricultural sciences suffered small declines.

Outside the sciences, universities awarded about 3.5 percent more Ph.D.’s and other doctorates in the humanities in 2006 than in 2005, about 6.8 percent more in health fields, and about 6.4 percent more in professional or other fields. The number of doctorates awarded in education declined, to 6,124 from 6,226, but more doctorates were awarded in education than in any field other than the biological sciences.

Doctorates Awarded by American Universities, 2000-2006

Field	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
All fields	41,365	40,737	40,025	40,757	42,123	43,385	45,596
Science and engineering	25,971	25,532	24,609	25,282	26,275	27,989	29,854
—Science	20,648	20,021	19,530	20,002	20,498	21,564	22,663
——Agricultural sciences	1,042	978	1,010	1,061	1,045	1,038	1,033
——Biological sciences	5,853	5,697	5,694	5,695	5,940	6,368	6,631
——Computer sciences	860	830	810	866	948	1,130	1,452
——Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences	694	660	689	683	686	714	757
——Mathematics	1,050	1,011	920	993	1,076	1,205	1,327
——Physical sciences	3,378	3,364	3,186	3,289	3,338	3,645	3,925
———Astronomy	185	186	141	167	165	186	197
———Chemistry	1,989	1,981	1,922	2,041	1,987	2,126	2,363
———Physics	1,204	1,197	1,123	1,081	1,186	1,333	1,365
——Psychology	3,617	3,399	3,207	3,276	3,327	3,323	3,263
——Social sciences	4,154	4,082	4,014	4,139	4,138	4,141	4,275

—Engineering	5,323	5,511	5,079	5,280	5,777	6,425	7,191
——Aeronautical/ astronautical engineering	214	203	209	200	201	219	238
——Chemical engineering	726	730	705	649	726	875	893
——Civil engineering	556	595	627	673	673	758	803
——Electrical engineering	1,543	1,579	1,394	1,465	1,651	1,851	2,133
——Industrial/manufacturing engineering	176	206	230	214	217	221	235
——Materials/metallurgical engineering	451	497	396	474	511	540	624
——Mechanical engineering	864	953	827	814	852	978	1,148
——Other engineering	793	748	691	791	946	983	1,117

—Non-science and engineering	15,394	15,205	15,416	15,475	15,848	15,396	15,742
——Education	6,438	6,348	6,503	6,643	6,635	6,226	6,124
——Health	1,590	1,541	1,654	1,633	1,720	1,785	1,906
——Humanities	5,212	5,177	5,051	5,020	5,013	4,949	5,121
——Professional/other/unknown	2,154	2,139	2,208	2,179	2,480	2,436	2,591

Men and women shared almost equally in the increases in doctoral degrees awarded in science and engineering fields, as seen in the table below. And Hispanic Americans saw a slightly bigger proportional increase in their share of the new doctorates awarded than did any other racial group.

Ph.D. Recipients in Science and Engineering Fields 2002-6, by Gender and Race

Characteristic	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
All recipients	24,609	25,282	26,275	27,989	29,854
Male	15,388	15,763	16,418	17,407	18,341
Female	9,172	9,519	9,856	10,539	11,469

U.S. citizen	14,363	14,641	14,743	14,911	15,459
—American Indian/Alaska Native	66	72	59	66	47
—Asian	1,038	1,008	1,066	1,114	1,164
—Black	637	615	689	640	664
—Hispanic	652	659	645	725	786
—White	11,504	11,618	11,632	11,844	12,227
—Other	321	436	475	395	412
Non-U.S. citizen	8,867	9,484	10,158	11,519	12,775

Of the 15,947 doctorates awarded to non-U.S. citizens, 1,829 went to permanent residents of the United States and 14,118 to those in the country on temporary visas. The table below shows the representation of foreign-born scholars among the Ph.D. recipients in various fields in 2006:

Field	Percent
All fields	37.2
Science and engineering	45.2
—Science	38.2
——Agricultural sciences	43.9
——Biological sciences	34.0
——Computer sciences	64.8
——Earth, atmospheric, ocean sciences	37.6
——Mathematics	57.2
——Physical sciences	50.6
——Psychology	10.5
——Social sciences	37.8
——Engineering	67.7

Non-science and engineering	21.7
—Education	12.9
—Health	27.7
—Humanities	20.8
—Professional/other/unknown	39.9

— Doug Lederman

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Comments

Diversity of scientists

Diversity is the basis for evolution in whole universe, without diversity we could not get to this point that we are now on the planet, yes I am talking about biodiversity that it is realy the basis of evolution on our planet, in my science which is insect/ environmental toxicology diversity has a great meaning which means that every living creature including 6.5 billion humans respond differently to environmental toxins, stressors, etc., up to this point I am out of your view of diversity that still it is very important and is about diversity of people getting PhD in USA. As I mentioned above diversity is the basis of evolution so we should expact that diverse nations get to the point of a higher social evolution in the future and of course it will be more important for science and scientific community in this nations. Let me open this a little more: I as a Canadian educated scientist/ professor and as a previous professor (a rethinker) in the university of Tehran (Iran) when I got to the point of desperation and before comming back to Canada more than four years ago I was communicating with many US universities to get there but I was getting a same response from American professors that has a great meaning for the role of diversity in the evolution of science in this great land (I mean the whole North America as the birthplace for many sciences/ scientific thinking and evolution), that response was: dear Ahmad, as the diversity of scientists has always been the basis of this great scientific evolution in our country (USA) we realy like to keep it this way and give opportunity to scientists (to keep the diversity....) from other countries but our government put pressure on us to keep it American..... Then what about Canada, please let me to open this later.Only to add here that I strongly believe there will be a big decline for the percent of non-US citizens getting PhD from American universities few years later.

Ahmad Mahdavi, Sustainable agriculture and environment, at 11:50 am EST on November 21, 2007

PhDs

The fact that about 35% of our PhDs are awarded to non-US citizens should alert us to a problem — not a problem for colleges and universities, but rather a problem that makers of public policy had better begin to address. We have abandoned the development of US brainpower long enough.

Robert B. Glenn, at 11:55 am EST on November 21, 2007

Wow! What a commitment. With the stock market in decline and the mortgage mess, nobody will be able to finance or find the new endeavors of these greats. As an American,I will say, these latest figures just blow me up.

Ava Tunney, Staff Dept. of Psychiatry at U.C.L.A., at 11:55 am EST on November 21, 2007

To continue leading the world in science and technology, US need to encourage the non-citizen students with PhD to stay in US by providing permanent immigration visa to them.

Isa Mbaraka, Overhaul Immigration Visa, at 7:30 am EST on November 23, 2007

Before one gets unduly alarmed at the proportion of PhDs that are awarded to non-US citizens, consider this: several would remain in the US after their studies, becoming permanent residents, and would later join the ranks of bona fide US citizens. Are there any figures on how many on the faculty of our engineering programs are naturalized Americans versus ‘born’ Americans?

Joe, at 6:10 am EST on November 24, 2007

Inside Higher Ed needs to read their sources!

I realize that 91% of the research doctorates handed out are Ph.D.s. However, this article’s states include all research doctorates (i.e. Ed.D., D.Sc., etc.) Show some love for the other doctorates and don’t generically use Ph.D. when that isn’t what the report did!

John Summerlot, at 10:00 pm EST on November 27, 2007

US citizens and engineering doctoral degrees

Perhaps some attention should be given to the rationality of a US citizen putting aside 3 or more years to earn a PhD. Faculty jobs pay badly. Industry jobs reward an MS somewhat and a PhD very little indeed. This is not a complaint; I pursued a PhD many years ago because I wanted to have one. It is, rather, the assertion of a fact that seems to be suppressed rather more often than not.

Robert Barry PhD, Adjunct professor at U of Pittsburgh, at 10:15 am EST on November 28, 2007

Engineering Education — US Citizens Need Not Apply

With over 2/3 of engineering doctorates going to international students — primarily from India and China — perhaps it’s time we took a closer look on what is going on in the engineering departments themselves. That’s what Thomas Matrka did at Ohio University:

http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/printer_6231.shtml

Is this a unique situation? Not at all. It’s the norm — it’s just not politically correct nor economically palatable to say that there has been and continues to be a widespread problem with international students and intellectual dishonesty. Statements that this dishonest behavior is condoned and not punished by most engineering departments, at the expense of legitimate students and their studies, are also unwelcome.

Along with these developments there has been an quantitative increase in what amounts to race- and national origin -based hierarchy. This is not meritocratic and is furthermore fundamentally antithetical to American ideals. The growth of racially-defined mafias in both academia and industry is unlikely to lead to best practices in either.

Scrawed, at 4:45 pm EST on December 5, 2007