1. GENDER AND DIVERSITY TRENDS OF BS ENGINEERING GRADUATES.
- Author
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WHALIN, ROBERT W. and QING PANG
- Subjects
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ENGINEERS , *ENGINEERING students , *ENGINEERING education , *MULTICULTURALISM , *HISTORICALLY Black colleges & universities , *UNIVERSITIES & colleges - Abstract
An analysis was performed of engineering graduates (for the past 9 years) from ABET accredited BS engineering programs at Colleges of Engineering in the USA. The sources of data were contained in the Annual Profiles of Engineering and Engineering Technology Colleges published by the American Society for Engineering Education for the nine year period of 2003 through 2011. [1] Trends in the gender and ethnicity of engineering graduates were explored. The data were analyzed for all US universities, Historic Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Hispanic (and Latino) Serving Institutions (HSI) and Other Minority Institutions (OMI). [2] Several interesting trends were observed. During this period, all US universities, HSIs, and OMIs awarded an increasing number of BS engineering degrees. The total number of BS engineering degrees awarded by HBCUs was relatively constant. It appears that the percent of female engineering graduates is declining in all four of the university groups analyzed, some more dramatically than others. The number of female engineering graduates was relatively constant. In other words, the increase of BS engineering degrees during this period was due to an increase of male graduates. The most apparent trend revealed was that HBCU BS engineering graduates became more diverse over the nine year period as the percent of African American BS graduates decreased nominally from 74% to 64%, while the percent of BS awarded to other race/ethnicity groups increased. For example, BS awarded to Caucasians increased from 15% to 21% in HBCUs. Another trend was that the number and percent of Hispanic engineering graduates increased steadily during this period. In all US universities, Hispanic engineering graduates increased from around 4500 in 2003 (6% of engineering BS awarded) to over 6000 in 2010 (8% of engineering BS awarded), showing a 33% increase in number. A similar trend was observed in HSIs and OMIs for Hispanic engineering graduates. The percent of Asian American engineering graduates declined in all US universities during this period from 13% to 11%, coupled with a slight decrease in numbers. A similar trend was observed in HSIs, but more dramatically. In OMIs and HBCUs, the number and percent of Asian American graduates were relatively constant. The number and percent of Foreign engineering graduates decreased slightly in all US universities during this period, while the same trend was not observed for the other (HBCU, HSI and OMI) university groups analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012