Study Shows Advanced Degrees in Engineering and Physical Sciences on the Rise – Female Students Making Inroads into these Fields

The National Research Council (NRC) has recently published its long-awaited Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States.  The report, which was last published in 1995, ranks the nation’s leading research doctorate programs according to multiple characteristics as diverse as average GRE scores, percentage of minority and female students, median time to degree, student health insurance and others.  In all, there were 20 characteristics upon which institutions were evaluated. 

The 2010 report revealed a number of interesting trends in graduate education -- notably an increase in degrees granted in engineering and physical sciences accompanied by a decline in those granted in social sciences and humanities.  The number of women seeking advanced degrees is also on the rise.  All fields studied experienced growth in percentages of female students seeking doctorates, with the biggest increase in engineering. 

This concurs with trends at Ohio State University where from 1993 to 2006, the number of PhD degrees granted has increased in engineering 29 percent (30 degrees) and in biological sciences by 18 percent (6 degrees).  Concurrently, the number of PhD degrees granted to women in engineering at Ohio State increased more than five-fold (from 5 degrees to 28).

“The purpose of the NRC report is to provide a more in-depth, and therefore, more meaningful snapshot of degree programs, as opposed to the more simplistic ranking of first, second and third, such as those released annually by publications including US News   and others,” says Julie Carpenter-Hubin, Ohio State’s director of institutional research and planning.  Carpenter-Hubin was responsible for working with the NRC not just on reporting OSU’s data, but in actually helping the NRC’s data panel determine which data sets were relevant to the study. 

Each time the study has been published it has been based on a different set of criteria – criteria that are most relevant and meaningful to graduate education at the time of the study.

“The significance of this report is in the richness of its data,” says Patrick Osmer, PhD, dean of graduate school administration for OSU. 

Osmer says that when programs are considered in total against this many variables, it provides a more complete picture of one program as it compares to others.  “As opposed to a simplistic ranking where one would assume that a higher ranked program was better than those ranked lower, this study considers the program as a whole,” he says.

“Some people might find it surprising that when you consider a graduate program in total, as opposed to on just one or two criteria, there is actually very little statistical difference between the top 12 programs.”  
This data-driven assessment, while relatively more difficult for the lay person to grasp, allows different groups to use different data to evaluate a graduate program.  For instance, students might take into consideration such factors as student services, job placement, time to degree and other relevant criteria, while faculty might take into account research output, percent of faculty with grants and awards per faculty member.

“It allows each individual to assess the merits of a graduate program based on their own weighted criteria,” says Osmer. 

Although the report can be used by students and prospective faculty to evaluate the merits of various graduate programs, Carpenter-Hubin says the report is also important in terms of how department heads use the data to shape their own programs, especially within the context of how their programs performed compared to competitive programs.  “Departments can use this information to help plan and guide the strengthening of their programs.”   

The NRC report further indicated that doctoral education is dominated by public universities, which represent 72 percent of the programs ranked in the study. Of the 37 universities that produced the most Ph.D.s (2002-2006) 25 of them, including Ohio State, were public universities. 

“Public universities are responsible not only for producing the majority of PhD’s today, but also the bulk of the research being conducted in the US,” says Osmer.  “This report further substantiates the importance of public universities to the fundamental economic health, technological progress and strength of our nation.”  

For more information, see the release:  http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=09282010