News about U.S. doctorate degrees

A new NSF InfoBrief, "U.S. Doctoral Awards in Science and Engineering Continue Upward Trend in 2006," has been published. The NSF reports:

U.S. institutions awarded 29,854 science and engineering (S&E) doctorates in 2006, a record high. The 2006 rise in S&E doctoral awards, 6.7% over 2005, is the fourth consecutive increase. S&E fields reaching all-time high counts in 2006 were biological sciences, computer sciences, mathematics, chemistry, social sciences, and engineering.

A total of 15,742 doctorates in non-S&E fields were awarded in 2006, an increase over the 2005 count but a slight decline from the record number of 15,848 in 2004.

The NSF also reports:

In 2006, 15,947 doctorates were awarded to non-U.S. citizens, including 1,829 to individuals who were permanent residents and 14,118 who were in the United States on a temporary visa (table 3). Awards to non-U.S. citizens constituted 37.2% of awards to all doctorate recipients in 2006 who reported citizenship status and 45.2% of awards to those in S&E fields who reported citizenship status.

Non-U.S. citizens accounted for more than half of all doctorate recipients in each of the engineering fields and in computer sciences (64.8%), mathematics (57.2%), and physics (58.0%). The proportion of awards to non-U.S citizens was largest in engineering (67.7%), particularly in electrical engineering (77.3%), civil engineering (73.5%), and industrial/manufacturing engineering (72.4%). Citizens of China constituted 26.6% of all engineering doctorate recipients with known citizenship status; citizens of India and Korea represented 10.4% and 7.4%, respectively.

Comment: Providing doctoral education in science and technology to people in other countries seems to me to be useful both in terms of supporting a strong graduate education program in the United States and in building long-term relationships in science and technology. Of course, a significant portion of the graduates have extended post-doctoral stays in the United States, contributing to our national scientific and technological capacity.

On the other hand, it seems to me that more Americans should be going for doctorates in these fields. There were only 4,572 doctorates awarded in engineering fields, and almost 70% of them were awarded to non-U.S. citizens. While Ph.D. engineers are primarily involved in research and teaching, with the actual field engineering done by people with who do not have doctorates, this number still seems low. A knowledge economy needs a strong flow of engineering research, a strong capacity to train engineers, and increasing numbers of Ph.D. engineers leading in policy and technology development. JAD