The Research Catalogue
New Findings and Insights on Institutional Practices and Academic Success

Act as Though Learning Matters, Because It Does, Project Kaleidoscope Volume IV: What Works, What Matters, What Lasts, Aug. 25, 2005 http://www.pkal.org/template2.cfm?c_id=1589

Three new reflections on "’goals for student learning’ as the driver for informing decisions about institutional policies and budgets, program and pedagogies, and faculty and facilities.” Of particular interest is the essay, “Pathway for an Institution-wide Assessment Program: Are We There Yet?”

The checklist of indicators—especially on commitment, resources, and structure—in Figure 1 should be kept handy and consulted often.

Global Debt Patterns: An International Comparison of Student Loan Burdens and Repayment Conditions, Educational Policy Institute, September 2005 http://www.educationalpolicy.org/pdf/Global_Debt_Patterns.pdf

“Simply measuring student debt is an inadequate way of examining the real consequences of student debt,” said report author and EPI Vice-President Alex Usher. “The report focuses on how debt actually impacts graduates, and it shows that some countries have implemented strategies that help lower-income graduates to better deal with this debt.” Commenting further in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Mr. Usher observes, “In Europe, what they tend to do is say there is a single interest rate for the life of the loan, which subsidizes it for a longer time. In our system, in North America , we tend to punish students because we basically charge them market interest rates.”

This is tantamount to a surcharge on educational opportunity, which reduces the return on investment through the talents and skills of a country’s workforce.

Igniting Potential: Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, Southern Education Foundation, Summer 2005, http://www.southerneducation.org/pdf/Igniting-Potential.pdf

“In almost every STEM field, HBCUs [Historically Black Colleges and Universities] are ahead of the nation’s larger, wealthier, and traditionally White colleges in producing graduates” to diversify and enlarge the nation’s science professionals. Almost 40 percent of all African Americans earning baccalaureates in the natural sciences in 2000 graduated from HBCUs. Yet these 105 institutions collectively received “less than 2 percent of the $2.58 billion in federal grants awarded to higher education institutions.” SEF concludes that “additional categorical, institutional capacity building, financial aid, research, and community of practice support is needed to strengthen HBCUs’ contribution.”

It has long been known that African Americans who earn a STEM baccalaureate at an HBCU are more likely to go to graduate school and complete the PhD than African Americans from other institutions. This study of six HBCUs—Clark Atlanta, Spelman, Morehouse, Xavier, Tennessee State, and Morgan State—finds a striking disparity between their contribution to the STEM workforce and their modest public and private support (including the paltry amounts received for R&D and facilities). The nation, and especially the federal sector, is not investing in those institutions whose capacity to increase minority participation in STEM could expand and become even more productive.

Data Highlight*: Graduate Enrollment in S&E

Graduate enrollment in science and engineering (S&E) increased in fall 2003 for the fifth consecutive year, reaching a new peak of 474,203, according to the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Graduate Stu­dents and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering, 2003. Total graduate enrollment increased 4.2% in 2003, up from the previous all-time high of 454,892 in 2002. The fall 2003 enrollment figure represents an 8.8% increase in S&E graduate students since fall 1993. Other highlights from the survey:

• Full-time S&E enrollment numbered 339,208 in fall 2003 a 4.2% increase from 325,498 in fall 2002. First-time, full-time enrollment increased 2.9% from 86,822 to 89,344, a new record high.
• Enrollment of non-U.S. citizens on temporary visas increased by just 0.9% in 2003 following a 7.9% increase the previous year. In 2003, the 146,871 students with temporary visas accounted for 31.0% of all S&E graduate students.
• The number of U.S. citizens and permanent residents enrolled in S&E graduate programs in fall 2003 totaled 327,332, a 5.8% increase from 309,280 in 2002, and the largest numerical increase in the last 20 years.
• Enrollment of U.S. minorities in graduate S&E programs increased in 2003. The number of Asian/Pacific Islanders increased by 10.6%, accounting for 9.9% of all U.S. citizen and permanent resident S&E graduate students in 2003, up from 9.5% in 2002. Hispanics increased their representation among U.S. S&E graduate students to 6.5% in 2003, and African Americans increased their proportion to 7.4%, while Native American repre­sen­tation re­mained constant at 0.6%.
• Women accounted for 41.8% of all S&E graduate students in 2003, up from 41.5% in 2002.
• Graduate enrollment increased in all major S&E fields and subfields in 2003, except for the computer sciences, which dropped 2.9%. The greatest gains were in mathematics (up 7.2%), engineering (up 6.4%), and the physical sciences (up 6.1%).
• The number of S&E postdoctoral appointees in U.S. academic institutions totaled 33,685 in 2003, a 5.6% increase from 31,904 in 2002. The percentage increase was far greater for temporary visa holders than for U.S. citizens and permanent residents—9.3% vs. 0.5%.

Additional information is available in an August 2005 InfoBrief (NSF 05-317), at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf05317/.

*This is an occasional feature of The Research Catalogue, courtesy of the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (www.cpst.org), adapted from Comments, September 2005, pp. 23-25.