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Forces Shaping the U.S. Academic Engineering Research Enterprise
The Academic Engineering Research Enterprise: Status and Trends
Charles H. Dickens
The purpose of this paper is to describe the status of U.S. academic engineering research universities and several major trends affecting them. The paper provides summary descriptive text and an appendix with tabulations selected from a variety of data sources.
"Engineering research universities" are those institutions that reported research and development (R&D) expenditures for engineering or computer science in the 1991 National Science Foundation survey of R&D expenditures of universities and colleges. There are 219 such institutions.1 For the purposes of this paper, the term "engineering" includes computer science.
The paper is divided into four major sections and a data appendix. The first section describes the recent history and current status of the U.S. academic engineering research structure. Some major characteristics of the 219 engineering research universities are presented, including activities of organized engineering research centers and laboratories and federal programs that support engineering research centers. Characteristics of faculty and other engineers employed by academic institutions are described. Postdoctoral fellows are discussed in terms of their distribution by field, gender, and sources of support. Information on student enrollments is presented for undergraduate and graduate students by field, gender, and minority status. Trends in bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees awarded are presented by field and gender.
The second major section presents funding of academic engineering research. Government sources of support for academic research by field and category of research are described. Trends in research and development
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Forces Shaping the U.S. Academic Engineering Research Enterprise
The Academic Engineering Research Enterprise: Status and Trends
Charles H. Dickens
The purpose of this paper is to describe the status of U.S. academic engineering research universities and several major trends affecting them. The paper provides summary descriptive text and an appendix with tabulations selected from a variety of data sources.
"Engineering research universities" are those institutions that reported research and development (R&D) expenditures for engineering or computer science in the 1991 National Science Foundation survey of R&D expenditures of universities and colleges. There are 219 such institutions.1 For the purposes of this paper, the term "engineering" includes computer science.
The paper is divided into four major sections and a data appendix. The first section describes the recent history and current status of the U.S. academic engineering research structure. Some major characteristics of the 219 engineering research universities are presented, including activities of organized engineering research centers and laboratories and federal programs that support engineering research centers. Characteristics of faculty and other engineers employed by academic institutions are described. Postdoctoral fellows are discussed in terms of their distribution by field, gender, and sources of support. Information on student enrollments is presented for undergraduate and graduate students by field, gender, and minority status. Trends in bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees awarded are presented by field and gender.
The second major section presents funding of academic engineering research. Government sources of support for academic research by field and category of research are described. Trends in research and development
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expenditures at engineering research universities are presented by field and source of funds. Support sources for graduate students as research assistants and for postdoctoral appointees are described. Information is presented on the mission basis for government research support. Support for academic engineering research from industry, universities' own funds, and from foreign sources is described.
The third section addresses the nature and scope of relationships between engineering research and education. Topics covered include participation in research by undergraduate students, graduate engineering students, and engineering faculty, postdoctorates, and other academic engineers.
The fourth section includes definitions, limitations, and principal data sources used in this paper. Significant gaps in currently available data are discussed.
RECENT HISTORY AND CURRENT STATUS OF THE U.S. ACADEMIC RESEARCH STRUCTURE
This section describes U.S. engineering research universities, organized engineering research units, and major human resources for engineering, including faculty and other engineering employees, postdoctoral appointments, student enrollments, and degrees awarded.
Engineering Research Universities
In 1991 there were 219 universities and colleges that reported research and development expenditures for engineering and computer science. (See Table 1, Dickens Appendix.) Of these institutions, 168 reported R&D expenditures for both engineering and computer science, 37 reported expenditures for engineering only, and 18 reported expenditures for computer science only. The majority of the 219 institutions were public (158), and 61 were private.
Since these 219 institutions were selected on the basis of their R&D expenditures for engineering and computer science, they include a variety of universities and colleges when viewed in terms of other classification systems. For example, the 1994 Carnegie Classification for these 219 institutions is as follows: Research Universities I-83; Research Universities II - 36; Doctoral Universities I-30; Doctoral Universities II - 32; Master's Universities and Colleges I - 29; Baccalaureate Colleges I - 3; and Professional Schools and Specialized Institutions - 6. The Research I Universities accounted for 70 percent of the R&D expenditures for engineering and computer science in 1991.
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The 1991 National Science Foundation survey of graduate enrollments reported 1,464 graduate engineering departments, of which 1,260, or 86 percent, were at doctorate-granting institutions. There were 274 computer science departments with graduate enrollments, with 187, or 68 percent, of these departments at doctorate-granting universities.
Engineering Research Centers and Laboratories
There is great variety in the internal organization of engineering research universities. In addition to departments, there are a large number of engineering research centers and laboratories, which may or may not be within departments or even within engineering colleges.
In an NSF-funded study currently under way, Robert P. Morgan and his colleagues identified 1,030 organized, university-based engineering research units at 154 universities within the study population; there may be others. These research units were defined "very broadly to include units that either are totally within engineering schools or that may not be within engineering schools but involve engineering faculty and staff."2 Morgan and colleagues found that these organized research units were relatively recent organizations, with one-half being founded since 1983. Many of these units were created "to provide a focal point for certain research activities and to attract funding and facilities."3
The research activities of the units surveyed by Morgan and colleagues included a broad range of engineering disciplines. The overall distribution of research effort as described by the responding unit directors was about equally divided among basic research, applied research, and development. In addition, Morgan and coauthors reported that, when asked into which of six broad critical technology areas the work of the units fell, the directors indicated the following divisions:
Materials
45%
Energy and environment
42%
Manufacturing
29%
Information and communications
27%
Aeronautics and surface transportation
17%
Biotechnology and life sciences
13%4
Federally Sponsored University Center Programs. Six federal departments and independent agencies sponsor university research centers, many of which have an engineering focus. A 1993 report of the National Research Council's Transportation Research Board reported 281 centers being funded through nine federal programs:5
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No. of Centers
U.S. Department of Transportation
University Transportation Centers Program
13
National Science Foundation
Engineering Research Centers Program
18
Science and Technology Centers Program
25
Materials Research Laboratories
10
Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers Program
50
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Manufacturing Technology Centers Program
7
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
University Space Engineering Research Centers
8
Department of Defense
University Research Initiative
113
Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines
Mineral Institute Program
37
NSF-Funded Engineering Research Centers. In 1985 the National Science Foundation established the Engineering Research Centers (ERC) Program in accordance with a model envisioned by the National Academy of Engineering. The program was motivated by three major concerns: To restore U.S. industrial prowess in turning research discoveries into high-quality, competitive products; to give greater emphasis to the design of manufacturing processes and products; and to better prepare engineering graduates to meet the needs of U.S. industry. Each ERC is established as a three-way partnership involving academia, industry, and the National Science Foundation. Annual funding for an ERC ranges from $2.5 million to $8.0 million, with the NSF contribution ranging from $1.8 million to $3.3 million a year. The fiscal year 1995 budget requests $51.5 million for the ERC program. The distribution of the 18 current NSF ERCs by major technological area of focus is as follows:6
Design and manufacturing
5
Materials processing for manufacturing
3
Optoelectronics/microelectronics/telecommunications
4
Biotechnology/bioengineering
3
Energy and resource recovery
2
Infrastructure
1
Faculty and Other Engineers Employed by Academic Institutions
The engineering R&D activities of research universities rely heavily on faculty, nonfaculty research staff, postdoctoral appointees, and graduate research assistants.
Doctorate-holders employed by academic institutions. Over the period 1979 to 1989, the overall employment of doctoral engineers and computer
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specialists increased by 72 percent. (See Table 2, Dickens Appendix, for data on academic employment of doctorates.) All fields experienced growth, ranging from 23 percent for materials engineering to 178 percent for computer science. The large percentage increase for computer specialists reflects the small number in the base year. The proportion of doctoral engineers and computer specialists who were active in research and development increased from 76 percent in 1979 to 79 percent in 1989. There were variations by field in the staff active in research and development. Increases were noted except for aerospace and civil engineers and computer specialists. The proportion of chemical engineers active in research and development had the largest gain, increasing from 73 percent in 1979 to 92 percent in 1989.
Faculty and nonfaculty research staff. Compared with other aspects of the academic engineering research enterprise, there is sparse information on faculty in universities and colleges.7 In academic year 1992–93, there were more than 21,000 engineering faculty at U.S. universities and colleges.8
The U.S. Department of Education, with the cosponsorship of the National Science Foundation, is conducting the ''1993 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty." When completed, this study should provide substantially more information than has been available on the characteristics and activities of faculty in engineering, computer science, and other fields. The coverage of separate engineering fields, however, is limited to the following: general engineering; civil engineering; electrical, electronics, and communications engineering; mechanical engineering; chemical engineering; other engineering; and engineering-related technologies.
According to a similar, but less-detailed, U.S. Department of Education survey for academic year 1987–88, the full-time regular instructional engineering faculty (including engineering-related technologies) in postsecondary education were predominately male (98 percent) and predominately white, non-Hispanic (87 percent). The majority (64 percent) of the engineering faculty held doctorates. The distributions of engineering faculty by age and academic rank were somewhat like those for the natural sciences, except that a higher proportion of engineers were in the oldest category and there was a higher proportion of assistant professors in engineering.9
Age
Academic rank
Less than 40
60 and older
Prof.
Assoc. prof.
Asst. prof.
Engineering
23%
14%
41%
24%
23%
Natural sciences
23%
9%
38%
23%
18%
The numbers of engineering faculty have increased over the years since a 1980 NSF-sponsored survey found that there were 16,200 permanent, full-
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time engineering faculty positions.10 According to a 1986 National Science Foundation survey of doctorate-level departments in six engineering fields—aeronautical, chemical, civil, electrical, industrial, and mechanical—there were approximately 9,800 full-time faculty in these departments. About 70 percent of these faculty were tenured. These departments also reported 615 nonfaculty doctoral personnel who were employed full-time as professional researchers.11
The engineering departments surveyed in 1986 by the National Science Foundation reported that the full-time faculty had submitted more than 14,200 research proposals during the previous year (defined as July 1, 1984, to June 30, 1985). In contrast, members of the nonfaculty doctoral research staff were much less likely than faculty members to submit research proposals on which they would be the principal investigator; for this group the number of proposals submitted was about 240.12
Postdoctorates. Postdoctoral fellows and associates form a substantial part of the research staff at doctorate-granting academic institutions. (See Table 3, Dickens Appendix, for data on postdoctorates by field, citizenship, and gender.) In 1991 there were 2,406 postdoctoral appointees in engineering and computer science departments, almost all of whom (2,394 or 99.5 percent) were at doctorate-granting universities. Over two-thirds (68 percent) of the postdoctorates were in four fields:
Chemical engineering
25%
Materials engineering
17%
Mechanical engineering
14%
Electrical engineering
13%
Non-U.S. citizens held the majority of postdoctoral appointments in all fields of engineering. The overall proportion of non-U.S. citizens in 1991 was 70 percent; by field, this proportion ranged from 30 percent for computer science to 80 percent for materials engineering.
The number of postdoctoral appointees in engineering and computer science departments grew dramatically between 1980 and 1991, increasing 136 percent. By field, the increases ranged from 52 percent in civil engineering to 285 percent in aerospace engineering. Chemical engineering, which had the largest number of postdoctoral appointees in 1991, had an increase of 215 percent over this period.
Women increased their overall representation among postdoctoral appointees in engineering and computer science from 7 percent in 1980 to 11 percent in 1991. Chemical engineering had the largest share of the female postdoctorates in 1991, 35 percent. (Chemical engineering had 23 percent of the male postdoctorates in 1991. See Table 4, Dickens Appendix, for data on postdoctoral appointees by field and source of support.) The num-
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ber of female postdoctorates in computer science departments grew from 2 in 1980 to 27 in 1991, but the large variations in their numbers over this period made it difficult to give a precise sense of their share of the total. In 1990, for example, 13 percent of the computer science postdoctorates were women, compared with 18 percent in 1989 and 17 percent in 1991.
Overall, federal sources provided the support for two-thirds (67 percent) of the postdoctoral appointees in engineering and computer science departments at doctorate-granting universities in 1991. The principal mechanism of federal support was through research grants, which accounted for 94 percent of the federally supported postdoctorates. Except for industrial engineering, the majority of postdoctoral appointees were supported by federal sources. In industrial engineering departments, 17 of the 27 postdoctoral appointees (63 percent) were supported by nonfederal sources.
Other nonfaculty research staff with doctorates. Engineering and computer science departments reported 731 nonfaculty research staff with doctorates in 1991, all but one of whom were at doctorate-granting institutions. Women represented 10 percent of these nonfaculty doctoral research staff. In general, there was less than one such staff member per engineering department at doctorate-granting institutions, the exception being departments of materials engineering. (See Table 5, Dickens Appendix, for the 1991 distribution of nonfaculty doctoral research staff.)
Student Enrollments in Engineering
Undergraduate students. One indicator of student awareness of career opportunities is changes in the preferences for majors and careers shown by first-year college students. According to data from an annual survey of incoming college students conducted since 1966, interest in engineering as a career has fluctuated, falling from 8.9 percent in 1966 to a low of 4.7 percent, then rising to a peak of 12.0 percent in 1982, followed by another decline to 8.1 percent in 1990. Women's interest in engineering careers rose from 0.2 percent in 1966 to a peak of 3.6 percent in 1982 then declined to 2.4 percent by 1990.13 The proportion of underrepresented minority students—African Americans, Native Americans, and Hispanics—intending to major in engineering increased strongly over the past 20 years, rising from 7.3 percent in 1972 to 17.7 percent in 1992.14 (See Table 6, Dickens Appendix, for data on career preferences of first-year college students.)
According to the Engineering Workforce Commission, full-time undergraduate engineering enrollment in the fall of 1992 was 344,126, an increase of 1.4 percent over the fall of 1991. (See Table 7, Dickens Appendix, for data on undergraduate engineering enrollment.) The enrollment of part-time undergraduates decreased by more than 5.4 percent to 38,399.
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Total undergraduate engineering enrollment in 1992 was 382,525, an increase of more than 2,500 over 1991. Although the fall 1992 undergraduate enrollment in engineering was substantially below the fall 1983 level of 441,451, the mix of students was different. In 1983 there were 406,144 full-time students and 35,061 part-time students. For full-time students, the 1983 figure was the largest on record. For part-time students, however, the peak enrollment figure was the 41,445 recorded in the fall of 1990.15
The enrollment of women and underrepresented minorities continued to increase. In the fall of 1992, women represented over 19 percent of first-year students and over 17 percent of all full-time undergraduates. Underrepresented minorities (African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans) increased their representation among first-year students to 17 percent and among all full-time undergraduates to over 13 percent. The representation of women and these minorities in 1992 were historically high levels.16
Graduate students. There are three sources of information on graduate engineering enrollments—the American Society for Engineering Education, the Engineering Workforce Commission, and the National Science Foundation. The NSF data are used for this section because they also provide information on graduate enrollment in computer science departments. It should be noted, however, that the NSF data include all computer science departments, not just those within engineering colleges.
In the fall of 1991, the NSF survey of graduate departments reported 149,135 graduate students in engineering and computer science, a record high level. (See Table 8, Dickens Appendix, for information on total graduate enrollment.) Between 1972 and 1991, total graduate enrollment in engineering departments increased by 171 percent. Departments in all fields experienced growth in graduate enrollment over this period, ranging from 65 percent for chemical engineering to 685 percent for computer science.
In the 1970s, the growth of part-time graduate enrollment was 89 percent, compared with 31 percent for full-time enrollment. All fields except aerospace engineering experienced growth. The increases ranged from 25 percent for materials engineering to 164 percent for computer science. Enrollment in aerospace engineering decreased by 26 percent overall, with declines in both full-time and part-time graduate students. (NSF did not collect data on graduate enrollment by gender during most of the 1970s.)
The graduate enrollment picture was different during the period 1980 to 1991. All fields experienced growth in enrollment, with increases of full-time students accounting for the larger part of the gain. Part-time graduate enrollment decreased, however, in chemical engineering departments over this period.
Between 1980 and 1991, overall engineering graduate enrollment increased by a much greater percentage for women than for men, but in 1991
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men still accounted for a substantial majority (84 percent) of engineering graduate students in all fields.
The computer science departments had a somewhat different pattern of graduate enrollment growth over the 1980–1991 period. The overall increase in enrollment was 156 percent, with the growth in part-time enrollment exceeding that for full-time students. There was relatively little difference in the increase in full-time enrollments for women and men, but the increase in part-time enrollment for women was substantially greater than that for men. Over the 1980–1991 period, the proportion of graduate computer science enrollment represented by women increased slightly from 23 percent to 24 percent. (See Table 9, Dickens Appendix, for information on full-time and part-time graduate students.)
Degrees Awarded in Engineering and Computer Science
Bachelor's degrees. From 1966, when computer science degree data were first reported by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the numbers of baccalaureates awarded in engineering and computer science increased each year until 1986, growing from 35,904 to 119,015 (an increase of 231 percent). Much of this growth resulted from the rapid rise in degrees in computer science and from the strong increases in the numbers of engineering degrees awarded to women. After 1986, however, the numbers of baccalaureates awarded each year in both engineering and computer science declined, with computer science having the sharper decrease.
When viewed by gender and field, the patterns were somewhat different. For women, engineering bachelor's degrees grew very rapidly until 1985, leveled off, and then began to decline. (Table 10, Dickens Appendix, presents data on bachelor's degrees by field and gender.) The peak year for engineering baccalaureates awarded to women was 1987 at 11,404, which was more than 78 times greater that the 146 degrees women earned in 1966. By 1990 baccalaureates awarded to women had decreased to 9,973, a decline of 13 percent from 1987. For men, there was a smaller overall rise, followed by a larger decline in the numbers of engineering bachelor's degrees. The growth in degrees awarded to men ended in 1985, two years earlier than for women. The 66,326 engineering baccalaureates awarded to men in 1985 was 86 percent above the figure for 1966. By 1990 the number of these degrees awarded to men had declined from the 1985 peak to 54,732, a decrease of 17 percent.
For computer science, the numbers of bachelor's degrees awarded to both men and women increased rapidly from 1966. For men, baccalaureates in computer science rose from 76 in 1966 to a peak of 27,069 in 1986 and then declined to 19,321 in 1990, a drop of 29 percent. The growth in women's baccalaureates in computer science was also very large, rising
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from 13 in 1966 to a peak of 15,126 in 1986. By 1990 the number of computer science bachelor's degrees awarded to women had dropped to 8,374, a decline of 45 percent from the 1986 figure. (Table 11, Dickens Appendix, presents data on master's degrees awarded by field and gender.)
The 219 engineering research universities awarded almost two-thirds (65 percent) of the engineering baccalaureates in 1990. There was considerable difference in this proportion by field of engineering, ranging from 49 percent for aeronautical engineering to 74 for materials engineering. In contrast, the engineering research universities awarded only about one-third (32.0 percent) of the bachelor's degrees in computer science. (See Table 1.)
Master's degrees. The number of master's degrees awarded in engineering and computer science fields grew dramatically over the 1966–1990 period, increasing from 13,916 to 33,638, a gain of 142 percent. The contribution of women to this increase is seen in their share of master's degrees, which rose from 0.7 percent in 1966 to 18 percent in 1990. Women earned 93 master's degrees in these fields in 1966 and 5,944 in 1990. For both men and women, the number of master's degrees awarded in these fields in 1990 was the largest over this period.
During the 1970s, the number of master's degrees awarded in many engineering fields declined. There followed a period of growth in the 1980s. Civil and chemical engineering reached their maximum numbers in 1984 and 1985, respectively. From their mid-decade peaks, the number of master's degrees in these fields declined by 10 percent for civil engineering and 34 percent for chemical engineering. Mechanical and materials engineering had their largest number of master's degrees in 1989 and had small decreases in 1990. In contrast, the number of master's degrees awarded in computer science increased throughout the 1966–1990 period.
Doctor's degrees. The 1966–1991 period may be divided into three distinct phases in terms of the number of doctorates awarded in engineering and computer science: (1) From 1966 to 1972 there was a large increase in these degrees, rising from 2,301 to 3,509; (2) between 1972 and 1978 a decline to 2,546 in the number of these doctorates erased most of the Phase One increase; and (3) from 1978 to 1991 there was a new period of growth, slow at first and then rapid after 1985. The total of 6,009 doctorates awarded in 1991 represents a new high record. The decline during the 1970s was accounted for by the drop in doctorates awarded to U.S. citizen and permanent resident males. Although their numbers continued to decline until 1982, the effect was offset by the strong growth in the number of doctorates awarded to foreign citizen males who were temporary residents of the United States. After 1982 doctorates awarded to U.S. citizen and permanent resident males began to increase again, helping fuel the growth in engineering and computer science degrees at this level. All fields of engineering shared
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in the growth. (See Table 12, Dickens Appendix, for data on doctorates awarded in engineering and computer science by citizenship and gender.)
Much of the growth in the number of engineering doctorates was accounted for by foreign students with temporary resident status; and, in 1991, for the first time, the number of doctorates awarded to temporary residents exceeded the number awarded to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. By field, the greatest increases in the number of doctorates awarded to temporary residents were in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. In computer science, as well, foreign citizen temporary residents received an increasing share of doctor's degrees. In 1991 they received 42 percent of computer science doctorates, up from 20 percent in 1980.
The increasing number of foreign citizens among recipients of engineering and computer science doctorates from U.S. universities is also reflected in the nationality of the baccalaureate-origin institutions. In a special analysis, the National Science Foundation compared U.S. with foreign baccalaureate-origin institutions for doctorate recipients during the period from 1985 to 1990. The data are presented in Table 2.
Women were major contributors to the growth in doctorates in engineering and computer science between 1980 and 1991. The number of women receiving doctorates in engineering increased 402 percent from 1980 to 1991, with temporary residents gaining 813 percent, compared with 309 percent for U.S. citizens and permanent residents. As a result of this growth, the share of all engineering doctorates awarded to women increased from 4 percent in 1980 to 9 percent in 1991. By field, the largest number of doctorates awarded in 1991 to female temporary residents were in electrical engineering (30 or 22 percent); the leading fields for U.S. citizen and permanent resident females were other engineering (72 or 24 percent) and chemical engineering (60 or 20 percent). The number of computer science doctorates awarded to women grew by 452 percent between 1980 and 1991, compared with 242 percent for men. Women's share of computer science doctorates rose from 10 percent in 1980 to 15 percent in 1991.
FUNDING OF ACADEMIC ENGINEERING RESEARCH
Government Sources of Support for Academic Research by Field and Category of Research
All fields. In 1991, U.S. academic institutions reported overall R&D expenditures of approximately $17.2 billion for all fields, including engineering and computer science. (See Table 1 for a listing of these 219 institutions in rank order by R&D expenditures for 1991.) The activity distribution for these expenditures was basic research, 65.5 percent, applied
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