Abstract
“Graduate education in science and engineering (S&E) contributes to global competitiveness, producing the highly skilled workers of the future and the research needed for a knowledge-based economy,” asserts the 2014 Science and Engineering Indicators report, published by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) (National Science Foundation 2014, Chap. 3). In 2010, the most recent year for which cross-national data are available, more than 200,000 S&E doctoral degrees were earned worldwide. The United States awarded the largest number of S&E doctoral degrees of any country (about 33,000), followed by China (about 31,000), Russia (almost 16,000), Germany (about 12,000), and the United Kingdom (about 11,000). About 58,000 S&E doctoral degrees were earned in the European Union (National Science Foundation 2014, Chap. 4).
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- 1.
For further discussion of these trends, see the section on “International S&E Higher Education” in (National Science Foundation 2014, Chap. 2). http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/chapter-2/c2s4.htm
- 2.
The statistics cited here and in subsequent places in this chapter where this website is referenced could not be included because of space limitations. However, the data from the 2013, 2003, and 1993 SDR cycles used to calculate these statistics are available to the public from the NSF-National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) at http://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/datadownload/
- 3.
We have chosen the 25–75 age group because the US Census Bureau uses the adult population 25 and older as its standard in measuring educational attainment. See Table 2 in (US Census Bureau 2013).
- 4.
Derived by multiplying the median hourly wage for all workers by 2080 h. This compares to a national mean annual salary of $46,440, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2013).
- 5.
S&E occupations include: computer and mathematical scientists; biological, agricultural and other life scientists; physical and related scientists; social and related scientists including psychologists; engineers. These also include postsecondary teachers in all of these fields. S&E-related occupations include health-related occupations, S&E managers, S&E pre-college teachers, S&E technicians and technologists. Non-S&E occupations encompass all others, including college teachers of non-S&E fields, non S&E managers, editors, sales, social services and other fields unrelated to science and engineering.
- 6.
Comparisons with years prior to 2003 should not be made given the 2003 move of “Health-related occupations” from “S&E occupations” to “S&E-related occupations.”
- 7.
The Current Population Survey is a monthly household survey conducted by the US Census Bureau and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figures reported here were calculated from the online IPUMS-CPS tool available at the Minnesota Population Center at www.IPUMS.org.
- 8.
See the research on “stay-rates” of non-US born, US-trained doctorates in (NSF 2014, Chap. 3) at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/chapter-3/c3s6.htm.
- 9.
Higher education experts have acknowledged this challenge to the US’s leading role in doctoral education. See: Council of Graduate Schools and Educational Testing Service (2010).
References
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Proudfoot, S., Hoffer, T.B. (2016). Science and Engineering Labor Force in the US. In: Gokhberg, L., Shmatko, N., Auriol, L. (eds) The Science and Technology Labor Force. Science, Technology and Innovation Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27210-8_5
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