The U.S. Higher Education System
Institutions Providing S&E Education- U.S. Higher Education Faculty
- Trends in Undergraduate Education
- Financing Higher Education
Higher education in S&E has been receiving increasing attention as an important component contributing to the nation’s maintenance of a strong economic position in the world (NSB 2003). A number of recent reports (AACU 2007; BEST 2004; COSEPUP 2006; NAE 2005; NSB 2004a; Project Kaleidoscope 2006) called for increasing the quantity, quality, and diversity of the students studying and graduating in S&E fields.
Institutions Providing S&E Education
The U.S. higher education system consists of a large number of academic institutions and a wide variety of institution types that provide broad access, advance the frontiers of knowledge, and strive to meet students’ changing needs through new forms of teaching and learning (U.S. Department of Education 2006). Among the approximately 4,300 postsecondary degree-granting institutions in the United States in the 2005–06 academic year, 71% offered bachelor’s or higher degrees and 29% offered associate’s degrees as the highest degree awarded (NCES 2007). In 2005, these institutions awarded more than 2 million bachelor’s or higher degrees (about 614,000 in S&E) plus about 641,000 associate’s degrees (46,000 in S&E).
Research Institutions
Research institutions, although few in number, are the leading producers of S&E bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. In 2005, research institutions (i.e., doctorate-granting institutions with very high research activity) awarded 69% of S&E doctoral degrees, 42% of master’s degrees, and 36% of bachelor’s degrees in S&E fields. (See sidebar "Carnegie Classification of Academic Institutions.") Master’s colleges and universities awarded another 28% of S&E bachelor’s degrees and 24% of S&E master’s degrees in 2005. Baccalaureate colleges were the source of relatively few S&E bachelor’s degrees (13%) 
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Community Colleges
Community colleges figure broadly in answering the nation’s need for well-prepared technicians, and as the initial (and sometimes only) college experience for many students who are the first in their family to seek education beyond high school (Adelman 2005) or who have limited funds or ability to leave a given geographic area for a college education. Community colleges (also known as associate’s colleges and 2-year institutions) are the largest segment of the higher education enterprise in the United States. In 2004, they enrolled 6.3 million students, about 60% of whom were enrolled part time.
Although community colleges are not major sources of S&E degrees, they provide S&E coursework that is affordable, remedial, and potentially transferable, and they play a role in developing public scientific literacy. They also serve as a bridge for students who go on to major in S&E fields at 4-year institutions. Almost 29% of students who began at a community college in the 1995–96 academic year had transferred to 4-year institutions as of 2001 (Berkner, He, and Cataldi 2003).
Several efforts are underway to improve community college students’ transition to 4-year institutions. Four-year institutions and private foundations are directing a portion of their entering student scholarship funds and recruitment efforts to community college student transfers. The impetus for these efforts is a desire to meet students’ need for financial assistance coupled with the perception that community college transfers generally do well on transferring (Fischer 2007a; Suggs 2005; Blanton 2007). A recent study of Latino(a)s’ pathway to graduate school reinforces that view (de los Santos and de los Santos 2005). (See sidebar "Community Colleges and Latinos.") Another factor in the ability of transfer students to obtain a bachelor’s degree within 4–6 years of transfer is the number of transfer credits accepted by the 4-year colleges to which they transfer (Doyle 2006). Many states have adopted articulation policies (i.e., policies among institutions to accept the transfer credits) to encourage transfer of students from 2-year to 4-year colleges (NCES 2005a).
Community college courses play a large role in mathematics preparation of undergraduates. In fall 2005, 1.7 million students were enrolled in mathematics and statistics courses at public 2-year colleges (an increase of 26% from fall 2000); this includes 42,000 high school students who took dual-enrollment math courses on a high school campus and received course credit at both the high school and the community college. Two-year colleges taught about 47% of all undergraduates enrolled in courses in the nation’s mathematics departments and programs. Although enrollment in elementary statistics courses in 4-year colleges and universities grew by 9% from fall 2000 to fall 2005, community college enrollment in those courses grew by 58% (Kirkman et al. 2007).
In addition to their traditional roles, community colleges are beginning to offer a limited number of 4-year degrees (AASCU 2004), to examine closely their role in teacher preparation, and to develop some dual-credit programs with neighboring high schools. With the exception of those related to teacher preparation, the 4-year degrees offered at community colleges generally are in high-demand fields and are issued as bachelor of applied science degrees. (See, for example, the approximately 30 such programs offered in Florida’s community college system [Fischer 2007b].)
Community colleges provide the science and mathematics coursework for many elementary and secondary science and mathematics teachers. They increasingly offer coursework for K–8 teachers and provide programs in which preservice education students can complete their entire mathematics courses or licensure requirements. Thirty percent of community colleges reported that they offer mathematics programs for preservice elementary school teachers and 19% reported preservice middle school licensure-oriented programs. In fall 2000, teacher certification programs were almost entirely limited to 4-year colleges and universities; however, by fall 2005, several community colleges offered courses and programs that would lead directly to certification of primarily K–8 teachers (Kirkman et al. 2007).
Community colleges also offer dual enrollment (high school and community college) courses in mathematics, including college algebra, precalculus, calculus, and statistics. Fifty percent of community colleges report having such courses. Most of them are taught on the high school campus by high school teachers, and usually the college and high school mathematics departments come to mutual agreement about factors such as syllabuses and textbooks (Kirkman et al. 2007).
U.S. Higher Education Faculty
S&E faculty constituted about half of the approximately 1.1 million instructional faculty in U.S. institutions in fall 2003. Most S&E faculty have doctoral or first professional degrees, and the number and percentage of S&E faculty with doctoral or first professional degrees is increasing. About 305,000 doctoral S&E faculty (about 60% of all S&E faculty) taught in U.S. universities in 2003, up from 249,000 in 1992 ).
About 40% of S&E faculty have a master’s or bachelor’s degree as their highest degree. The number of S&E faculty with master’s or bachelor’s degrees who taught in U.S. colleges or universities rose from 174,000 in 1992 to 202,000 in 2003. Almost half are physical, mathematical, computer sciences, and engineering faculty (mainly computer sciences and mathematics faculty). In contrast to S&E faculty, about 60% of the approximately 586,000 non-S&E faculty in 2003 had master’s or bachelor’s degrees ).
Part-time faculty are an increasing portion of all instructional faculty in the United States. The overall increase in part-time faculty from 1992 to 2003 was almost entirely accounted for by an increase in the percentage of nondoctoral faculty (from 60% in 1992 to 64% in 2003) 
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The types of institutions in which doctoral and nondoctoral S&E faculty teach differ. Close to half (47%) of full-time doctoral S&E faculty (and more than half of full-time doctoral life sciences faculty) teach in research institutions ).
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Most (62%) full-time S&E faculty taught only undergraduates in 2003, while 25% taught only graduate students, and the remainder taught both undergraduate and graduate students ).
Undergraduate S&E faculty increasingly rely on teaching assistants (TAs) to help with their courses. More than one-third of full-time undergraduate S&E faculty used TAs in 2003, up from 26% in 1992 ).
Trends in Undergraduate Education
The recent Spellings Commission report called for higher education in the United States to improve access for all students, reform the financial aid system, provide better assessments of learning outcomes, improve the quality of instruction, meet changing employer needs, and improve accountability (U.S. Department of Education 2006). Several other recent reports (BEST 2004; COSEPUP 2006; NAE 2005; Project Kaleidoscope 2006) called for reforms to undergraduate S&E education, including increasing opportunities for students to engage in original research, developing a more global perspective, broadening the diversity of S&E majors, and encouraging interdisciplinary approaches. These reports also called for improvement in teaching through incorporation of new technologies and findings from education research and assessment, and broadening education to include non-science-based skills. In recent years, new approaches to undergraduate education have been developed in a wide variety of disciplines and types of institutions. (See sidebar "Interdisciplinary Degree Programs" for ways in which some of these changes are being manifested in new programs. See sidebar "Nontechnical Skills Employers Expect of New Entrants to the Workforce" for information about what employers expect undergraduate education to provide.)
A number of recent developments, including research (both general and discipline specific) on S&E undergraduate education, published outcomes from initiatives begun earlier to improve the delivery of S&E education (AAAS 2004; Boylan 2006; Clewell et al. 2006; Lattuca, Terenzini, and Volkwein 2006; Lopatto 2004; NAE 2005), a growing body of literature of efforts to change undergraduate education, the emergence of the National Science Digital Library (http://nsdl.org/), increasing availability of assessment and evaluation tools, and new technologies available to undergraduate students, help to inform undergraduate education reform efforts.
Several efforts to improve engineering education have been introduced by professional societies, the National Academy of Engineering, and ABET (the accrediting body for postsecondary degree-granting programs in engineering) (Lattuca, Terenzini, and Volkwein 2006; NAE 2005). In 1996, ABET adopted a new set of standards for engineering programs called Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC2000). These new standards focused on assessing learning outcomes and broadening the set of skills required to include communication, working in teams, and ethics. Another project, Engineer of 2020, is an effort by the National Academy of Engineering to look at the future of engineering, including skills that may be needed in coming years. The project envisions that graduates in 2020 will need such traits as strong analytical skills, creativity, ingenuity, professionalism, and leadership (NAE 2005).
In mathematics, special interest groups focusing on educational issues at the undergraduate level have been formed at the Mathematical Association of America. In biology, several new or upgraded education journals have been introduced in recent years, for example, CBE Life Sciences Education, Microbiology Education, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, and Education Forum section in Science. Across fields, science departments are beginning to build science education positions into their departmental structure, hiring people with a strong research degree within the discipline and interest and expertise in educational research (Bush et al. 2006; NAS 2006). These types of positions have a relatively long history in mathematics and physics but are only beginning to be widely introduced in disciplines such as biology, chemistry, or earth sciences.
In the federal government, the Academic Competitiveness Council recently focused attention on the effectiveness of federal agency programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education (U.S. Department of Education 2007). Nine federal agencies administer 43 programs aimed at improving STEM undergraduate education, including increasing numbers and retention in STEM fields, increasing diversity, and improving content and pedagogy. The council advocated more rigorous evaluation of these programs, particularly of long-term student outcomes.
Financing Higher Education
Rising costs of higher education and increases in student debt over the past two decades raised questions about affordability and access in U.S. higher education institutions (NSB 2003). Public institutions account for about 40% of all degree-granting higher education institutions in the United States and enroll almost 80% of all undergraduates. In the past, these institutions were funded primarily through state expenditures. In recent years, the percentage of funding coming from state expenditures has declined, state per-student spending has declined, and tuition has increased. This section examines trends in tuition levels (including net price to students by family income), need-based and merit-based financial aid, financial support for undergraduate and graduate education, and student debt.
Tuition
Tuition and fee increases at colleges and universities in the United States have grown rapidly for the past two decades, rising well above increases in disposable income. However, student aid increased even faster than tuition ).).
As state spending rose from FY 2005 to FY 2007, the rate of increase of tuition and fees at public 4-year colleges slowed. Fluctuations in state spending, however, do not completely explain variations in tuition and fees. Other contributors to tuition and fee increases include rising prices of goods and services purchased by colleges and universities as measured by the Higher Education Price Index, which have risen faster in recent years than the Consumer Price Index (CPI). From academic years 2000–01 to 2005–06, the prices paid by colleges and universities for utilities, salaries, fringe benefits, and supplies and materials rose faster than the CPI (College Board 2006a).
Students typically do not pay the full tuition and fee charges, which averaged $5,836 for in-state students at public 4-year colleges, $22,218 for students at private 4-year colleges, and $2,272 for students at public 2-year colleges during the 2006–07 academic year ).
In 2006–07, the net price was about $2,700 at public 4-year institutions, $13,200 at private 4-year institutions, and under $100 at public 2-year colleges (College Board 2006a).[4] The net price at public 4-year institutions (in inflation-adjusted dollars) fell between 1997–98 and 2002–03 but rose through 2006–07, while the net price at private 4-year institutions rose between 1997–98 and 2006–07. The net price of college for low-income students did not increase over the past decade. For middle-income students, the net price of college also remained stable after accounting for grants and loans (with the bulk of aid in the form of loans). Thus, middle-income students subsequently had higher levels of debt from educational loans. From 1993 to 2004, the percentage of degree recipients who borrowed and their median amount of debt both increased (American Council on Education 2005).
Graduate tuition varies more than undergraduate tuition. Graduate tuition is typically per credit, which varies by academic institution and often varies within an institution depending on the school, department, or degree program, and sometimes the stage of the program (e.g., first-year, dissertation). Furthermore, the number of credits required for graduation and thus the total tuition varies by the length of the program (e.g., 1-year master’s, 2-year master’s, doctoral). On average, the cost of attendance was $24,000 for full-time graduate students in public institutions and $35,800 for those in private institutions for the 2003–04 academic year (Redd 2006).
The number of students who pay tuition also varies by enrollment status, institution, discipline, and type of funding. In some disciplines, most full-time students receive financial assistance in the form of fellowships, teaching assistantships, or research assistantships, and many may receive tuition waivers. However, school-to-school differences exist even within disciplines, and master’s level students are generally treated differently from doctoral candidates. In other disciplines, students are largely self-supported and do not receive tuition waivers. (See sidebar, "Cost of Higher Education Internationally.")
Undergraduate and Graduate Student Financial Support Patterns
Financial Support for Undergraduate Education. As tuition increased in the 1990s, students increasingly relied on financial aid (especially loans) to finance their education. Financial aid for undergraduate students is mainly in the form of grants, student loans (federal or private), and work study. A financial aid package may contain one or more of these kinds of support. In the 2003–04 academic year, about one-third of all undergraduate students received no financial aid, about half received grants, and about one-third took out loans (NCES 2005a). A higher percentage of undergraduates in private, nonprofit 4-year institutions (83%) than of those in public 4-year (69%) or public 2-year institutions (47%) received some type of financial aid, either grants (73% compared with 52% and 40%, respectively) or loans (56% compared with 45% and 12%, respectively). The percentage of full-time undergraduates who had federal loans increased from 31% in 1992–93 to 48% in 2003–04 (NCES 2006), and the average amount of loans increased. In recent years, students have increasingly relied on private loans, which typically have much higher interest rates. At the same time, the percentage of students who are supported by grants alone or in combination with other mechanisms decreased (College Board 2006b) ).
Financial aid packages are often awarded on the basis of either need or academic merit, although some forms of aid combine both criteria. Need-based financial aid, which was the norm through the 1980s, aims to increase access for students who otherwise could not afford to attend college. In recent years, an increasing number of financial aid programs and increasing dollar amounts focused on academic merit in an effort to attract top students. Merit-based aid (i.e., aid for which recipients are selected on the basis of test scores, performance, class rank, grade point average, or other achievement) makes up an increasing percentage of state grants, rising from 9% in 1984–85 to 27% in 2004–05. The number of federal Pell Grant (which are based on financial need) recipients increased over time, but the average amount of aid per recipient decreased in recent years in both current and inflation-adjusted dollars (College Board 2006b).
Financial Support for S&E Graduate Education. About one-third of S&E graduate students are self-supporting; that is, they rely primarily on loans, their own funds, or family funds for financial support. The other two-thirds receive primary financial support from a wide variety of sources: the federal government, university sources, employers, nonprofit organizations, and foreign governments.
Support mechanisms include research assistantships (RAs), teaching assistantships (TAs), fellowships, and traineeships. Sources of funding include federal agency support, nonfederal support, and self-support. Nonfederal support includes state funds, particularly in the large public university systems; these funds are affected by the condition of overall state budgets. Most graduate students, especially those who pursue doctoral degrees, are supported by more than one source or mechanism during their time in graduate school and some receive support from several different sources and mechanisms in any given academic year.
Other than self-support, RAs are the most prevalent primary mechanism of financial support for S&E graduate students. The percentage of full-time S&E graduate students supported primarily by RAs increased in the late 1980s, rising from 24% in 1985 to roughly 27%–29% from 1988 through 2005. Although the number of full-time S&E graduate students relying primarily on fellowships and TAs rose over the past two decades, an increase in overall graduate enrollment meant that the percentage of students supported by these mechanisms stayed flat or declined. In 2005, 18% of full-time S&E graduate students were primarily supported through TAs and 13% were primarily supported through either traineeships or fellowships ).
Primary mechanisms of support differ widely by S&E field of study ).).
The federal government served as the primary source of financial support for about 21% of full-time S&E graduate students in 2005 ).).
Most federal financial support for graduate education is in the form of research assistantships funded through grants to universities for academic research. Research assistantships are the primary mechanism of support for 69% of federally supported full-time S&E graduate students, up from 62% two decades earlier. Fellowships and traineeships are the means of funding 22% of the federally funded full-time S&E graduate students, and federally funded fellowships and traineeships fund 4% of all full-time S&E graduate students. The share of federally supported S&E graduate students receiving traineeships declined from 18% in 1985 to 12% in 2005. For students supported through nonfederal sources in 2005, TAs were the most prominent mechanism (40%), followed by RAs (31%) ).
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) support most of the full-time S&E graduate students whose primary support comes from the federal government. In 2005, they supported about 26,800 and 20,400 students, respectively. Trends in federal agency support of graduate students show considerable increases from 1985 to 2005 in the proportion of students funded (NIH, from 23% to 32%; NSF, from 21% to 24%). Support from the U.S. Department of Defense declined during the 1990s (from 15% to 11% of federally supported graduate students), offsetting to some extent the increasing percentage that received NSF support ).
For doctoral degree students, notable differences exist in primary support mechanisms by sex, race/ethnicity, and citizenship ).).
U.S. citizen white and Asian/Pacific Islander men, as well as foreign doctoral degree students, are more likely than U.S. citizen white and Asian/Pacific Islander women and underrepresented minority doctoral degree students of both sexes to receive doctorates in engineering and physical sciences, fields largely supported by RAs. Women and underrepresented minorities are more likely than other groups to receive doctorates in social sciences and psychology, fields in which self-support is prevalent. Differences in type of support by sex, race/ethnicity, or citizenship remain, however, even accounting for doctorate field (NSF/SRS 2000). These differences in type of support have potential consequences for levels of debt and long-term career success (Nettles and Millett 2006).
Undergraduate and Graduate Debt
Undergraduate debt. Undergraduate major has relatively little effect on undergraduate debt (NSF/SRS 2006a); however, levels of debt vary by type of institution and state. Levels of undergraduate debt for students from public colleges and universities are almost as high as those for students from private colleges and universities. The median level of debt for 2003–04 bachelor’s degree recipients who took out loans was $19,300 overall; $19,500 for those who graduated from private nonprofit institutions and $15,500 for those who graduated from public colleges and universities (College Board 2006b).
Levels of debt vary widely by state. Average debt for 2005 graduates of public 4-year colleges and universities ranged from $23,198 in Iowa to $11,067 in Utah (Burd 2006; Project on Student Debt 2006). Average debt for graduates of private nonprofit colleges and universities ranges from $32,504 in Arizona to $13,309 in Utah. Levels of debt are not necessarily higher in states where the cost of living is high, and are not necessarily higher in schools in which tuition is high. Some low-tuition schools with large numbers of low-income students report high levels of average student debt. See "Higher Education" in chapter 8 (State Indicators) for additional state indicators dealing with higher education.
Debt Levels of S&E Doctorate Recipients. At the time of doctoral degree conferral, about half of S&E doctorate recipients have debt related to either their undergraduate or graduate education. About a fourth have some undergraduate debt and about a third owe money directly related to graduate education. In 2005, 27% of S&E doctorate recipients reported having undergraduate debt and 33% reported having graduate debt. For some, debt levels were high, especially for graduate debt: 1% reported more than $50,000 of undergraduate debt and 10% reported more than $50,000 of graduate debt ).
Levels of debt vary widely by doctorate fields. High levels of graduate debt were most common among doctorate recipients in psychology, social sciences, and medical/other health sciences. Psychology doctorate recipients were most likely to report having graduate debt and also high levels of debt.[5] In 2005, 26% of psychology doctoral degree recipients compared with 10% of all S&E doctoral degree recipients reported graduate debt of more than $50,000. Doctorate recipients in engineering; biological sciences; computer sciences; earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences; mathematics; and physical sciences were least likely to report graduate debt. Although men and women differed little in level of debt, blacks and Hispanics had higher levels of graduate debt than whites, even accounting for differences in field of doctorate (NORC 2006).
Debt levels in non-S&E graduate/professional fields. Average student loan debt was higher for students graduating with law degrees, medical degrees, and other health degrees than it was for those with doctoral degrees in 2003–04. Law graduates from public institutions averaged $51,200, medical doctors averaged $78,400, and other health graduates averaged $66,000 in cumulative student loan debt, compared with $39,000 for doctoral degree recipients. Debt for those with degrees from private institutions was even higher (Redd 2006).
Debt burden. Graduates with relatively high post-college earnings may find it easier to pay off education-related debt than those with lower earnings, given similar amounts of debt and similar interest rates. Because starting salaries in the humanities and social sciences are relatively low and debt is relatively high, debt burden (loan payments as a percent of salary) of master’s and doctoral graduates in the humanities and social sciences is higher than in other fields (although debt burden of law students is also high). Debt burden is lower in the natural sciences, life sciences, and engineering (Redd 2006).
Notes
[2] Physical sciences include earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences.
[3] Research institutions are classified according to the 1994 Carnegie classification. See Science and Engineering Indicators 2006 (NSB 2006) for definitions of the various classification categories.
[4] Financial aid is calculated for all full-time students, both in state and out of state, so net price may be underestimated.
[5] For information on debt levels of clinical versus nonclinical psychology doctorates in 1993–96, see "Psychology Doctorate Recipients: How Much Financial Debt at Graduation?" (NSF 00-321) at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/issuebrf/sib00321.htm.
