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Glossary
Bologna Process: An effort initiated by the 1999 Bologna Declaration to harmonize higher education within participating European countries by the year 2010 so that degrees are comparable; credits are transferable; and students, teachers, and researchers can move freely from institution to institution across national borders.
Distance education: Situations where students are not located with their teachers/learning institutions and therefore require specialized instructional techniques, technologies, and means of communication to promote learning.
Early college high school: Small school situated on the campus of a community college with a curriculum that leads to simultaneous award of both a high school diploma and an associate of arts degree.
Federally funded research and development center: R&D-performing organizations exclusively or substantially financed by the federal government either to meet particular R&D objectives or, in some instances, to provide major facilities at universities for research and associated training purposes; each FFRDC is administered either by an industrial firm, a university, or a nonprofit institution.
First university degree: completion of a terminal undergraduate degree program; these degrees are classified as level 5A in the International Standard Classification of Education, although individual countries use different names for the first terminal degree.
Industrial learning centers: Corporate "universities," independent nonprofit institutions, and for-profit and nonprofit subsidiaries of institutions; most offer noncredit, nondegree courses narrowly targeted at retraining the workforce and addressing other company needs.
Institutional control: Whether an academic institution is public or private.
Stay rate: The proportion of students on temporary visas who have plans to stay in the United States immediately after degree conferral.
Time to degree: the time it takes to earn an S&E doctorate; can be measured either as total time to degree—the median number of years between baccalaureate receipt and doctorate receipt—or registered time to degree—the median number of years registered in graduate school between graduate entry and doctorate receipt.
Underrepresented minority: blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaska Natives are considered to be underrepresented in S&E.
