National Academies Press: OpenBook
« Previous: THE RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT
Suggested Citation:"RESEARCH PERSONNEL." Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, and National Academy of Engineering. 1989. Science and Technology in the Academic Enterprise: Status, Trends, and Issues. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1468.
×
Page 19

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

EMERGING TRENDS 19 strongly trained in disciplines, enter a reward system that favors a single-discipline setting to establish professional credentials. Moreover, the traditional collegial culture of universities, including the faculty tenure system, provides an atmosphere essential to fostering the creative process and maintaining academic proficiency. For the external sponsors of academic research, the topics and capital requirements of new research opportunities pose challenges to their decision-making and budgetary structures. Inter-disciplinary research opportunities generate pressure for federal funding mechanisms that cut across divisions within a given agency, and often across agencies. Collaborative ventures among government funding agencies are often limited by competing Congressional committee jurisdictions and federal agency bureaucracies, and conflicting procedures and legal restrictions. The active participation of state governments in funding research provokes demands for federal-state consultation and cooperation in funding decisions. Among industries, collaborative ventures for supporting academic research are often constrained by anti-trust laws, competitive pressures, and trade secret and patent rights concerns. RESEARCH PERSONNEL During the next decade, faculty retirements will increase demand for academic research personnel. Steady-state student enrollments during the past two decades have reduced the number of new faculty job openings. As a result, between 1973 and 1987, the percentage of academic scientists and engineers under 35-years of age fell from 27 to 12 percent.14 This aging of the faculty indicates an increased number of faculty are slated for retirement in the foreseeable future. In some instances, however, the impact of these retirements may be eased temporarily by the end of mandatory-retirement policies and movement of non-tenure-track personnel into faculty positions. The risks of such solutions, however, are that they may dissuade students from choosing academic careers by reducing placement opportunities for new graduates. Fewer numbers of U.S. students are now interested in or qualified for academic science and engineering careers. The number of baccalaureate degrees in science and engineering awarded to U.S. citizens has stabilized or declined in most fields. This situation results from the current decline in the college-age population and the steady rate at which 22-year olds attain such degrees. In the early 21st century, enrollments may slowly return to 1983 levels, riding an upswing in the number of 18- to 22-year olds. During the next several decades, however, assuming current enrollment rates, U.S. higher education enrollments will most likely not exceed current levels.15 Nor is it likely that increased participation of women, minorities, and foreign students in undergraduate science and engineering programs will offset these general demographic declines. 16 Since the mid 1960s, the rate at which students with natural science and engineering baccalaureate degrees from U.S. institutions went on to earn Ph.D.s has declined by half. This reduction has been especially apparent among U.S. males, a group that has historically been the mainstay for doctoral degrees. The recent growth in Ph.D. awards in several fields is due in part to greater participation by foreign students. In engineering, almost 60 percent of all doctorates are now awarded to foreign students, as are over a third of

Next: FINANCIAL RESOURCES. »
Science and Technology in the Academic Enterprise: Status, Trends, and Issues Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $45.00
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

The U.S. academic research enterprise is entering a new era characterized by remarkable opportunities and increased strain. This two-part volume integrates the experiential knowledge of group members with quantitative data analyses in order to examine the status of scientific and technological research in academic settings. Part One reviews the status of the current research enterprise, emerging trends affecting it, and issues central to its future. Part Two is an overview of the enterprise and describes long-term trends in financial and human resources. This new book will be useful in stimulating policy discussions—especially among individuals and organizations that fund or perform academic research.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!