I I I
Robert H. Linnell and Douglas 5. Chapin
National Science Foundation Washington, D. C. 20550
Trends in Doctoral Chemical Education
I n recent years all levels of education have experienced enrollment increases greater than the population growth. Undergraduate college enrollments doubled between the fall of 1955 and the fall of 1965; a further increase of 60% is projectedfrom the fall of 1965 to the fall of 1975. Graduate enrollments increased 140% from the fall of 1955 to the fall of 1965; an increase of 90% is projected from the fall of 1965 to the fall of 1975. Graduate enrollments have increased more rapidly than undergraduate enrollments and projections indicate that this relationship will continue although percentage increases of both enrollments appear to be declining. Eventually, of course, enrollment growth at the undergraduate and the graduate levels must come into some kind of balance. However, there are wide differences among the fields of learning. In this paper we consider the field of chemistry, presenting a statistical picture and an analysis of the possible future implications for doctoral education in this field. The rapid growth of doctoral education in chemistry is indicated by the increase in the number of doctoralgranting departments from 93 in 1955 to 172 in 1967 (Table 1). Although the 1964 report, "Doctoral Education in Chemistry," prepared by the ACS Committee on Professional Training (I),suggested caution to those planning new chemistry doctorate programs, growth has continued. I n the time span 195547, the average number of faculty per department have increased moderately (-20'3'0), doctorates awarded per year per department has remained essentially constant (-10) and doctorates awarded per year per full-time graduate student have also been approximately constant (-0.125). Only incomplete data is available on postdoctorals but rapid growth up to 1967 is indicated. Table 1.
Trends in graduate enrollments in doctorate chemistry departments (Fig. 1 and Table 2) indicate the following: (1) part-time students have been consistently declining in numbers, (2) full-t,ime first year students reached a peak in 1966 and declined in 1967, (3) beyond-first-year students have shown a consistent increase which off-sets the levelling and decline in firstyear students, and (4) total full-time graduate students have consistently increased in number. Foreigu graduate students, as a percentage of the total, have remained essentially constant over the past five years, at 13.9-14.670 (Table 2). Full-Time Total
First-Year 0
First-Year
e W
Part-Time
0 Fall '63
'64
'65 Year
'66
'67
Figure 1. Groduate student enrollment in the 1 7 2 doctorate-gronting chemistry departments, fall, 1967.
Doctoral-Granting Chemistry . Departments in the United States& ~
1955'
1957L
195gb
1961b
No. depts. No. faculty Faculty/dept. PhD awarded' PhD/dept./yearf No. postdoctorals~
93 1593 17.1 1013 10.9
110 1865 17.0 986 9.0
121 2047 16.9 939 7.8
125 2157 17.3 1131 9.0
PhD/full-time grad. students/year
...
...
Graduate Enrollments
...
...
...
...
...
...
1963b
1969
141 2516 18.0 1219 8.7 1447
...
0.126
153 2989 19.5 1377 9.0
1966"
...
(3188) (17') (18.8) (1533) (9.0) 1995 (1756)\
0.123
0.123
(1715)
1967' 165 3347 20.3 1701 10.1
...
1967b (172) (3202) [36281; (18.6) [21.11 (1672) (9.7) (1955)"
0.127
Thme statistics include biochemistry and chemical engineering only to the extent that they are part of the programs in departments of chemistry. *Source, American Chemical Society. Directories of Graduate Research. Faculty members are total full-time faculty current in the fall of the year indicated. Source, this study. Faculty in this study are graduate faculty. Total full-time faculty. 'U.S. Dept. of HEW/Office of Education statistics except the 1867 figures are from this study and the ACS Graduate Directory. J Doctorates awarded for the previous year (e.g., 1955 figures are for the period, July 1, 1954-June 30, 1955). 0 Postoctorals for the fall 1962, 1964, 1966 are from ACS Graduate Directories. "his study. The ACS Graduate Directory postdoctoral count is probably significsntly larger became it includes same of the more permanent type research appointments, not counted as pastdoctords in this study. Volume
46, Number 2, February 1969
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Table 2.
Full-Time G r a d u a t e Student Enrollment in 172 Doctorate Granting 1967. Chemistry Departments-Fall
Year (Fall)
--First U.S.
1963 1964 1965 1966 1967
2787 3079 3348 3373 3159
Year--For. Tot.
Beyond First Year U.S. For. Tot.
-U.S. -
Totals----For.
Tot.
517 510 519 584 592
5872 6508 7415 7995 8556
877 1127 1219 1213 1331
8659 9587 10763 11368 11715
1394 1637 1738 1797 1923
10053 11224 12501 13165 13638
3304 3589 3867 3957 3751
6749 7635 8634 9208 9887
" A consistent universe of the 172 departments offering doctorates in the fall of 1967 was studied although some 30 of these departments did noL have doctoral programs in 1963. Table 3. Full-Time G r a d u a t e Enrollment Changes" 172 Doctorate Granting Chemistry Departments 1963 1964
All Full-Time Grad. Students Number of depts. with increases Increased enrollment Number of depts. with decreases Decreased enrollment Net enrollment increase (decrease) First-Year. U S . Citizens Numbeiof depts. with increases
1964 1965
1965 1966
1966 1967
135 1255 22 (84) 1171
Net enrollment increase (decrease) Beyond First-Year, US. Citizens Number of depts. with increases Increased enrollment Number of deots. with decreases Decreased e b l l m e n t Net enrollment increase (decrease) First-Year, Foreign Number of depts. with increases Increased enrollment Number of depts. with decreases Decreased enrollment Net enrollment increase (decrease) Beyond First-Year, Foreign Number of depts. with increases
Net enrollment increase (decrease)
.
.
All statistics shown are based on differences between the fall statistics, for the two yeam indicated.
Enrollment changes, by individual department, yield a more detailed picture. Although total full-time graduate enrollments have increased since 1963, the number of departments experiencing a decline in total enrollment have increased to over 50 and the total decline in students enrolled in these departments has increased each year since 1963, reaching 457 students in 1966-67 (Table 3). First-year US. graduate students have shown several trends (Fig. 2 and Table 3): (1) the nurnber of depnrtments with decreased enrollments IRIS inrreosed enrh year from 45 i n 19f134-1to SO in l9GG-67, (2) the number of departments experiencing increased enrollments has declined from 101 in 1963-64 to 71 in 1966-67, and (3) the net enrollment change has steadily declined from an increase of 292 in 1963-64 to a deficit of 214 in 1966-67. Changes in foreign enrollments do not reveal any consistent pattern of change (Table 3). If the number of doctorate-grant,ing chemistry departments continues to increase and graduate student enrollments do not increase, a major problem in doctoral education may develop. The supply of qualified and motivated undergraduates interested in doctorate work in chemistry is undoubtedly the major problem (see section on undergraduate education of doctorate chemists). 72 / Journal of Chemical Education
Complete data for an inpub output analysis of graduate students in doctoral chemistry departments is not available. The analysis presented in Table 4 is therefore based on the following assumptions: (1) 75y0 of all chemistry masters degrees are awarded by the doctorate granting chemistry departments;' (2) 36% of the PhD's awarded in any year earned master's degrees two years earlier in a doctoral chemistry department;2 (3) 4y0 of the doctoral degrees awarded in chemistry had earned master's degrees in a non-doctoral granting department two years earlier and entered the doctoral department as a beyond first year student a t that time;a (4) 10% of the part-time graduate students of the previous year represent a reasonable estimate of the number of new beyond first-year graduate students coming into the doctoral chemistry system as full-time students.' Although the assumptions used undoubtedly cause uncertainty in the final results, they provide a rough overall picture and some basis for examining year-to-year results for a possible trend. Dropouts%ay be summarized as follows 1963-64 1964-65 1965-661966-67
1)ronoots. % ' of total full-timk ' ' Dropouts, % of finbyear, full-time
8
7
10
8
23
22
33
28
We do not know to what extent dropouts are first-year as compared to beyond first-year students but i t seems -
.-
'The 172 dortorntr grantirtg rhemistry departments included in thh study awarded 1305 inaatcr's deyreai (errlud~ng.\[AT drunes) il. 1900-67 out of the total of lk7.i (e.,timxtedr rhernistrv master's degrees or 75% of the total. %Derivedfrom refrence ( d l , Table 12, p. 84. In FY66 (July 1, 1965-June 31, 1966) 1580 PhD's in chemistry were recorded in the NAS/NRC Doctoral Studies; of these Phil's, 323 earned master's in the same department as the doctorate and 272 additional master's had been previously earned a t another inatitution. Assuming that 25% of the latter group came from nondoctorate granting departments, the total master's in the doctorzl departments is 529, which is 33.5% of the 1580 total PhlYs. This percentage was arbitrarily increased to 36% to allow for dropouts. T h i s is based on the same data, shown in footnote 2 and corrects for the PhD's with master's degrees from non-doctorate granting departments. 'This is an arbitrary percentage arrived s t auhjectively since no statistics are av$labl.ble. Dropouts are full-timegraduatestudents wholeave the system without either a master's or doctor's degree.
'0001
Total Increases
Time Interval (Years as of Fall)
-- -.
Figure 2. Changer in full-time, Rmt-year US. grodvote enrollmenh in 172 PhD granting deportmenh of chemistry, fall 1967. Number in parentheses ore numbers of departments with lhe indicated increaser or derreaser in enrollment.
reasonable to suppose that they are generally first-year students. If this is true, the dropout rate does seem high. Since almost all chemistry graduate students receive financial support (see section on support of graduate students and Table 5) and the proportion of self-supporting students is smaller for beyond first-year (3.1%) than for firstyear students (4.8%), it is reasonable to assume that academic factors are of major importance as a cause of dropouts. We have no information on how dropout rates vary from one department to another but wide variations, between departments, for other graduate education statistics, would tend to indicate that dropout rates do vary considerably. The entire complex of questions regarding dropouts deserves greater thought and should he a matter of major concern.
support are of interest. In this study each full-time student was counted only once, by major type ofappointment and major source offinancial support. About one-quarter of all full-time chemistry graduate students receive fellowship or traineeship appointments; one-quarter, research assistaritships; somewhat over one-third, teaching assistantships; and less than one-tenth, all other types of appointment (Table 5). During the last three years there have been no major changes except for the decline in "Other Types" support. Comparisons with other fields indicate an exceptionally low percentage of "Other Types" support in Chemistry. Chemistry graduate students have the lowest loans, other institutions, and other support ("Self-Support"). The high institutional support for chemistry and mathematics is closely related to the large proportion of graduate students with teaching assistantships. U.S. Government support for chemistry is exceeded only by biochemistry and physics. The relationship of graduate student appointment to status as first-year versus beyond first-year is shown in Table 6. These statistics are especially interesting when considered in terms of several problems: (1) recruiting new graduate students, (2) securing adequate numbers of competent teaching assistants, and (3) development of a graduate program which provides maximum opportunity for student growth and development in course work, research, and teaching. I n chemistry and physics research assistantship appointments in-
Table 4. 172 Doctorate Grantina Chemistrv Deoartmentr Input-Output Analysis of ~;aduote Shdenka Input
Output
1963-64 1st year Beyond first year
3,304 6,749
Totals 1964-65 1st year Beyond first-year Continuing, no master's Continuing, with master's Transfer, part-time, etc. Totals 1965-66 1st year Beyond first-year Continuing, no master's Continuing, with master's Transfer, part-time, etc. Totals 1966-67 1st year Beyond first-year Continuing, no master's Continuing, with master's Trander, part-time, etc. a
-
PhD's awarded Terminal master's IMaster's continuing Continuing, no master's Dropouts
1,271 620 555 6,840 767 10,053
PhD's awarded Terminal master's Master's continuing Continuing, no master's Dropouts
1,377 663 600 7,784 800 11,224
PhlYs awarded Terminal master's Master's continuing Continuing, no master's Dropouts
1,533 727 640 8,318 1,283 12,501
PhD's awarded Terminal master's Master's continuine Continuing, no maiter's Ihopouts
1,762 746 660 8,987 1,100 13.165
10,053 3,589
6,840 555 240 11,224 3,867 7,784 600 250 12,501 3,957 8.318 '640 250 13.165
See text for the assumptions used in deriving these estimates.
Suppoll of Graduate Students in Chemistry'
Graduate students are usually supported by fellowships, traineeships, teaching assistantships, or research assistantships. "Other Types" of support are prim a r i l ~ self-support loans, etc). Both type of graduatc studcnt appointment and financial source of
crease dramatically for beyond first-year students as compared to first-year students; this change is accompanied by a decrease in teaching assistantship and ''Other Types" of appointments held by beyond first-
,
on graduate student support were obtained from applications to the National Science Foundation's Graduate Traineeship Program.
Volume 46, Number 2, February 1969
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Table 5.
Full-Time Graduate Students in Doctoral Science Departments
year students. Chemistry and Physics departments appoint Biolarge numbers of first-year All Chem- chem- Chem. Social istry Sciences istry Eng. Physics Math:Seiences students as teaching assistants because: (1) substantial numTypes of Major Support, Percent of Full-Time Students bers of teaching assistants are Fellowship and trainoeship required for service courses, 10fi.K - .. ( 2 ) teaching assistantship 1967 funds represent a major source Tcaching assistantships of available graduate student 1965 1066 support, and (3) appointment 1967 of heyond first-year graduate Research assistantships students as teaching assistants 1965 1966 would delay research thesis 1967 work and impede doctorate Other types 1965 training. In mathematics 1!166 large numbers of teaching 1967 assistants are required, as in Sources of Major Support, Percent of Full-Time Students chemistry and physics, and U.S. government the proportion of graduate 1966 37.8 42.7 69.9 45.7 50.2 27.4 21.9 students supported by insti1967 41.8 45.1 69.7 47.1 54.1 28.6 25.7 Institutional* tutional funds is even larger 1966 35.8 44.8 19.9 24.9 37.4 49.5 35.3 than in chemistry or physics; 1967 20.0 24.6 33.8 49.7 35.5 33.8 43.4 Industry however the total proportion 1966 3.0 3.1 0.4 11.6 1.8 0.8 0.7 of full-time graduate students 1967 3.1 3.1 0.8 11.4 1.1 1.4 0.6 in mathematics supported by Private foundrttions 1966 2.6 3.0 2.3 3.2 1.1 1.1 5.5 research assistantships (6.51967 2.9 2.8 3.0 4.3 1.2 0.8 6.0 7.1%) is much lower than in Foreign chemistry or physics. Thus a 1966 3.5 1.1 1.6 5.9 1.4 1.0 4.5 1967 1.7 0.7 1.1 1.0 2.3 0.7 1.8 larger proportion of heyond Loans, other institutions first-year graduate students in and o t h d 1966 17.3 5.3 5.9 8.7 8.1 20.2 32.1 mathematics are teaching as1967 16.7 4.9 5.4 10.3 8.8 18.8 30.4 sistants than are first-year * Includes state and local governments. students; the increase in re' "Self-support." search assistants, first-year versus heyond first-year, does Table 6. Full-Time Graduate Students in Doctoral Science Departments not dominate because this type of appointment is small for all BioAll Chem- chem- Chem. Social mathematics students. AnSciences istry istry Eng. Physics Math. Sciences other important factor is the "Other Types" of appointment. Types of Major Support, Percent of Full-Time Students and the "self-support" source Fellowship and traineeship of support. Mathematics 1965: first-year students 1067: first-year students graduate students rank high in 1965: beyond first-year students both "Other Types" of ap1967: bevond first-vear students pointments (approximately Teaching assistantships 1965: - first-year &dents one-quarter of all students) 1967: first-year students and in self-support (about one1965: beyond first-year students 1967: bevond first-vuar students fifth) whereas chemistry and Research as&tantshipi physics have the lowest per1965: firstyear students centages of graduate students 1967: first-year students 1965: bevond first-vear students in these two categories. An 1067: b e h d first-vear students examination of these statistics Other typosfor all fields of science (3) in1965: first-year students 1967: first-year students dicates that chemistry and 196.5: beyond first-year students physics are unusual and in 1967: beyond first-year students general, in other fields, heyond Citiaenship, Percent of FuU-Time Students first-year graduate students U.S. citizens have ahout the same, or 1965 1966 greater, teaching assistantship 1967 support as do the first-year Full or Part-Time Attendance Status, Percent of All Graduate Students students. I n most fields of Full-Time science research assistantship 1965 72.6 87.9 94.4 69.2 81.3 70.8 76.8 support of graduate students 1966 75.1 89.0 94.4 70.8 83.1 72.5 77.1 1967 increases on moving from first76.0 90.0 91.6 69.1 82.8 73.5 77.1 74
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Journal o f Chemical Education
Table
7. Comparison of New& and Establishedb Doctoral Chemistry Departments Full-Time Graduate Students, Fall 1967
Establishedl
News
AIP
Types of Major Support, Percent of All Full-Time Students Fellowshio and traineeshi~ 21.1 29.0 28.5 ~eaching'assistantshi~s' 43.7 37.7 38.0 Resedrch assistantships 21.4 28.2 27.8 Other types 13.8 5.1 5.7 Sources of Major Support, Percent of Full-Time Students U.S. eovernment 37.0 45.7 45.2 Industry 2.8 3.1 3.1 Private foundations 3.3 2.8 2.8 Foreien 0.6 0.6 0.6 ~ o a n gother institutions 9.9 4.6 4.9 and' other Full-Time Enrollments, Percent of All Full-Time Students 94 90.6 100.0 First-war ~i$o~Xfirst-yew 514 94.6 100.0 Total full-time 6.5 93.5 100.0 Faculty and Postdoctorals, Percent of Total Full-time faculty 12.8 87.2 100.0 Graduate facultv 12.5 87.5 100.0 Postdoctorals 5 94.7 100.0 ~~~
33 departments with doctorate programs established since TDfil &""V.
139 departments with doctorate programs in 1963. Table 1 indicates 141 departments in 1963; we have combined the statistics for Case Institute of Technology-Western Reserve University and Itntgers University, New Brunswick, and Newark. 172 departments with doctorate programs, Fall 1967.
chemistry have an average graduate student support picture which is somewhat different from that of the established doctorate departments (Table 7). The 33 departments which have inaugurated PhD Chemistry programs since 1963, compared to 139 departments with older PhD chemistry programs are characterized by: (1) more teaching assistantship and "Other Type" appointments, (2) fewer fellowship-traineeship and research assistantship appointments, (3) more support from the institution, private foundations, and selfsupport, and (4) less support from the U.S. Government. Departmental needs for teaching assistants undoubtedly are a factor influencing institutions to establish a doctoral chemistry program. During the early phases of new doctoral programs the competitive position is such that less U S . Government support, which closely relates to research assistantships and fellowshiptraineeship support, is to be expected. Faculty and Portdoctomls
Faculty and postdoctorals in doctoral chemistry departments are compared to other science fields in Table 8. Several points stand out: (1) very high percentage of chemistry and biochemistry faculty are graduate faculty, (in chemistry the "average" department has 21.1 full-time faculty, of whom 2.5 are not involved in the graduate program); (2) part-time faculty are of very minor importance in chemistry and mathematics, (an average of 1.37 part-time chemistry faculty per department); (3) research professors are a small group in chemistry, (an average of 0.47 per department); and (4) postdoctorals are of major significance in chemistry and biochemistry departments (an average of 11.4 per chem-
year to beyond fir& year status; these increases in chemistry and physics are exceptionally large. This appears to be due to several factors: (1) high total research assistantship support, (2) concentrations of teaching assistantship support in the first year, and (3) very low "Other Types" of support. A smaller percentage Table 8. Faculty and Post-doctorals in Doctoral Science Departments Fall 1967. of chemistry graduate students are "self-supporting" than in Bioa n y other science field. Also All Chem- chem- Chem PhysSocial Sciences istry istry Eng ~ c s Math Sciences the percentage of chemistry graduate students who were Fa~"lty 1967 45,345 3628 1242 900 3908 4245 7504 t c self-supporting" declined in Total, full-time5 Full-time, graduate" 1966 35,725 3132 928 815 3312 3082 5901 1967 compared to 1966 (Table 1967 36,639 3202 1103 767 3315 3173 5886 5). The overall graduate stu1967 8 0 . 8 88.3 88.8 8 5 . 2 84.8 74.7 78.4 1966 8096 221 380 130 446 308 1477 dent support picture indicates 1967 7187 236 398 101 335 255 1367 that in relationship to the supP.T., 7' F.T. graduate 1966 22.7 7 . 1 40.9 15.9 1 3 . 5 10.0 25.0 faculty 1967 10.6 7 . 4 36.1 13.2 1 0 . 1 8 . 0 23.2 PLY of acceptable graduate st%Research professorsa 1966 2349 50 163 28 283 57 247 dent applicants there i s rela1967 2458 81 82 34 131 63 337 tively more support available for Res. prof., F.T. 1966 6.6 1 . 6 17.6 3 . 4 8.5 1.8 4.2 graduate faculty 1967 6.7 2.5 7.4 4.4 4.0 2.0 5.7 chemistry than for a n y other 485 55 1059 149 214 field of science. PostdoctoralsJ 1966 6268 1756 1967 7231 1955 728 89 1134 190 244 There does not appear to be %F.T. grad. faculty 1966 17.5 56.1 52.3 6.7 32.0 4.8 3.6 any inherent characteristic of 1967 19.7 61.1 66.0 11.6 34.2 6.0 4.1 doctoral education in chemis%F.T. grad. students 1966 5 . 3 13.5 22.9 1.7 9.7 1.6 1.0 1967 5 . 6 14.3 25.5 2.7 10.0 2.1 1.0 try requiring teaching assise %PhD's awarded0 1966 60.0 113.0 218.0 15.0 110.0 23.0 15.0 antship appointments to be 1967 60.0 116.9 219.9 27.2 106.4 28.1 14.2 No. depts. included 1966 2425 167 91 89 157 125 407 concentrated in first-year stuin statistics 1967 2580 172 107 86 156 127 428 dents; the present situation ' The absolute numbers given are the sums from responding departments which include science appears to reflect the dominant departments awarding about 95% of all science doctorates. importance of research produe a The number of full-time departmental faculty, instructor or above, teaching one or more tivity in doctoral training in undergraduate or graduate academic courses and/or supervising thesis research. 'The number of full-time departmental faculty, instructor or above, teaching one or more and a view that graduate academic courses and/or supervising graduate thesis research. graduate teaching experience, Graduate faculty with major responsibilities in another department or elsewhere. 'Full-time faculty who do not teach any regularly scheduled academic courses. by is of Essentially full-time research appointments, of temporary nature, involving research trainim~ortance. ,mv ...PhD's awarded July 1, 1966June 31, 1967. +he newer PhD programs in
~;;&i.&O~r","~;~ted
J
Volume 46, Number 2, February 1969
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75
istry department). The factors tend to indicate that doctoral granting chemistry departments emphasize graduate work (research and teaching) somewhat more than most other fields of science. Undergraduate Education o f Doctorate Chemists
1964-June 30, 1966, have been reported by the Kational Academy of Sciences (2). Restricting our survey to baccalaureates from U.S. instit,utious and classifying institutions by type of chemistry program available at the time corresponding to that when the baccalau1,eate was awa~deled(footnote i), we obtain the results shown in Table 9. Ro trend is apparent in these statistics on baccalaureate sources of chemistry doctorates and it is found that over one-half of all chemist,rv ~" doct,orat,es earned baccalaureates in no7~-doctorate-yranti~~f, departments; these nor-doctorate departments are about, equally divided, in importance as baccalaureate sources, between ACS-certified and uon-certified departments. S o t e that doctoral-granting departments currently produce about 427, of all chemistry haccslaureates and account for about 45% of the haccalaureat,es who earn doctorates indicating n o significantly higher probability for a doctoral department bachelor to earn a I'hD than t,he non-doctoral department bachelor. Total annual chemistry baccalaureates reached a peak of 10,619 in 1949-50, a low of 5791 in 1953-54, and a general increase since that t,ime, \\-it,ha leveling over t,he last four years. The statistics shown in Tablc 10, from the ACS Commit.tcc on I'rofcssional Training (4, are in agreement with National Academy of Sciences data ( 8 ) ; especially significant is the fact that moi,e than one-quarter of all recent chemistry doctorates earned baccalaureates a t non-ACS certified departments. ACS certified departments may have a somewhat higher rate of chemistry bachelors who earn cloctorates than the non-certified departments since the certified departments produced only 62% of all chemistry haccalaureates (1966-67) whereas slightly over 70% of all the chemistry doctorates (1906-67) earned baccalaureates a t ACS certified departments. Since departmental status (i.e., ACS certified versus non-certified) may change with time, it is not certain that this is true.
About 85% of chemistry doctorates are awarded to individuals with an undergraduate major in chemistrv (2). I t is therefore clear t h a t successful developmeit of doctoral education in chemistry depends on a cont i m e d supply of well-trained, highly motivated baccalaureate chemists. I n 1966-67, 1690 chemistry doctorates were awarded by 164 departments. About one-third of these departments (52) awarded as mauy OY more doctorates as ACS certified bachelors-in total more than one-half the doctorates (917 of 1690) and only 13% of the total baccalaureates (1275 of 9870). Twenty of the departments awarding PhD's in 1966-67 awarded as m a n y or more doctorates as the total number of baccalaureates they awarded (ACS certified noncertified) over onequarter of all the PhD's (444 of 1690) and only 3.57, of the total baccalaureates (353 of 9870). Another relationship of undergraduate education to graduate work is indicated by a comparison of baccalaureates awarded with the admissions of new firstyear, full-time graduate students. I n the fall of 1967, 85 doctoral chemistry departments, out of the 172 total, admitted a s m a n y or more full-time, first-year graduate students as they awarded total chemistry baccalaureates July 1, 1966-June 30, 1967; these departments admitted 61% of all new graduate students in doctoral departments (2288 of 3751) and awarded 147, of the chemistry baccalaureates (1364 of 9870) for a n average ratio of 1.7 new graduate students per baccalaureate awarded. Since on the whole only about one-third of chemistry baccalaureates continue their educaTable 9. Baccalaureate Sources of Earned Chemistry Doctorates ( 2 ) tion a t the graduate levcl in .. IJactarates, chemistry; the ratio of new Baccalaureate 1)octoral Ilepts." ACS Certifiedb All Others graduate students admitted to Years Source: U S . No. YO No. "/A. No. 91, .. baccalaureates awarded who con1960-62 1094 913 45.8 559 28.0 5'22 26.2 tinue to graduate education in 1962-64 2300 1002 43.6 613 26.6 685 29.8 chemistq would undoubtedly .- 1964-66 236 1208 46.9 700 27.2 688 23.9 be much higher, probably a Classified as baccalaureate source with doctoral chemistry program, as follows: Phil's awarded 5. these in 1860-6'2, 1!)55 ACS Graduate 1)irectury; 1062-64, I957 ACS Graduate Ili~.cc!ory; 1!)64-66, 193!1 ACS Graduate IXrectory. istry departments deficitgYaduExcludes doctoml departments as defined in footnote a above. Classificillion of instilubion ate departments. was based 011 lists af ACS certified chemistry departments published by tho ACS Committee OIL , March, ~ h ~ ~ h ~ ~ Professiollal i ~ Training, t ~ as~ follows: b Phil's ~ ~swal.ded ~ 1960-162, ~ l Progress ~ ~ Ileparl ~ Nu. ~ 2'1~ t ~ 1!)56; 1!)62-64, Progress Report No. 31, February, 1958; and 1!164-66, Progl.ess Report No. 33, production of all 172 doctoral nr,,.,h 1wn chemistry departments July 1, Table 10. Chemistry Baccalaureates 1962-67 1966-June 30, 1967 was about 42% of the total U S . bacca1062-63 1'363-64 1964-65 1965-66 1066-67 laureates awarded in chemisChemist1.y baccalanreates try. Obviously non-doctoral all U.S. ilmtitutiuns" 8822 9717 100:17 1 7 9870(6126)d granting chemistry departACS certified bnccalanreates' 2!15:3 30277 :334!f 310i :Dl11 PhlYs wilh undergraduate ments arc a very important work a t institution not on source of chemistry graduACS list, '?;of tot. Phl)'sb 28.!) 30.1 :l0.6 32.5 26.8 ate students. Baccalaureate Tulsl first degrees' 450,592 >02,104 I 34.S62 738,830 G Science and Engineering only 135,!164 1 3 , 3 6 1 164,936 17:3,471 1Xi,84!l sources of chemistry doctoratcs awarded during the three two" U S . Ilept. uf HEW/Office of Edacation. Earned 1)egres Conferred. Committee on P~.ofessio~~al Tramng. Somrnary Report*. Ileprwted i n Cheminl and Engiyear periods, July 1, 1960neering A'ews, in a. March issue each year (3). June 30, 1962; July 1, 1962' U.S. I k p l . of ITGW/ORice of Education and Sntirxlnl Scieure Foundntion. June 30, 1964; and July 1, Frum ACS certified departments. ~~~~~~
+
~
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journal of Chemical Education
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Table 1 1. Distribution of Chemistry Baccalaureates 1965-66 Chemistry baeealsureates to mediesl and dental sehools.n fall 1966
. ..
training
I n the face of the limited supply of chemistry baccalaureates and the increasing number of doctoral chemistry departments, recruitment of chemistry graduate students has become very competitive. The competitive pressures are forcing re-examination of the tradition in chemistry which has encouraged doctoral education a t a different institution from that a t which the undergraduate work was done. About 10% of chemistry doctorates have earned baccalaureates a t the same institution as the doctorate; the corresponding percentage is 26% for chemical engineering, 17% for physics, 18% for mathematics, and 13y0 for biological sciences (2, 4). If a trend should develop for an increasing retention by doctoral departments of their own baccalaureates, the quality of doctoral education could decline and the deficit graduate departments would be in the weakest position. In the Cartter study (6), 60 chemistry departments were rated by effectiveness of graduate programs. The top 9 departments, "extremely attractive," awarded 313 PhD's in 1966-67 of which 17 (5.4%) were to their own baccalaureate students-and of these 17 students, 5 were all a t one institution; these top-rated departments therefore have a very low rate of retention of their own baccalaureates. The next rated group of 14 "attractive" departments, awarded 353 PhD's in 1966-67 of which 12 (3.4%) were to their own baccalaureate students-also a very low retention rate. The 37 departments with a rating of "acceptable plus" awarded 461 PhD's, 71 of which (15.4'%) were to their own baccalaureates-a much higher retention rate; some of these departments had retention rates of 50$& or more. The overall average retention rate of 196647 PhD's was 10.3% and the 104 chemistry departments awarding PhD's in 1966-67 which kere not rated in the Cartter study, and presumably therefore in general of somewhat less effectiveness of graduate program, had a 7.9% retention rate. Retention of baccalaureates for the doctorate, if it can be justified a t all, is probably most acceptable a t large, high quality institutions. They can offer students the greatest variety of opportunities and experiences. Such institutions generally have departments with graduate programs rated extremely attractive or attractive in the Cartter study. However, the above analysis indicates that in general the highest retention rates, baccalaureate-doctorate, in chemistry, are not in these institutions. If competition for chemistry graduate students continues to be very keen, as seems quite likely, retention rates need to be carefully followed for possible ill-effects in the doctoral training of chemists.
1760
68%
"There were 8964 firs6year medical students in the fall of 1966; 18% of these stndents were chemistry undergraduate majors and 16% had no degrees. We therefore estimate 0.18 X 0.84 X 8964 = 1355 chemistt.y baccalaureate entering medical school. Of 3942 freshmen dental students in the fall of 1966, 2038 had earned haccalaureates; there are no good figures available on the undergraduate majon of dental students hut informal information from the American Dental Association indicates that. substantial numbers of dental students were chemistry majors. As an estimate we assume 20% of baccalaureate freshmen dentistry stndents are chemistry majors or 408 students in the fall of 1966. 0.85 X 3373 = 2867. I t is assumed t,hat all foreign firstyear full-time graduat,e studen1.s are non-U.S. baccalaureates; a small correction should he added to account far those foreign students with U.S. haccalaureates. 0.85 is the fraction of P h D chemists with chemistry baccalaureates (8). '257' of all chemistry master's degrees are awarded by the master's departments, 470 in 1966-67. Asailme entering baecalaureates are twice this number or 940. Alt,ernstively, U S . Office of Education statistics for total full-time graduate enrollments in chemistry (master's and doctorate departments) as compared to the statistics in this study indicate that 90% of all the full-time graduate students in chemistry are enrolled in the doctoral departments. On this basis there are 1460 full-time students enrolled in mast,er's granting chemistry departments in the fall of 1966. Some mmter's degree candidates have transferred from part-time to full-time; also master's programs are one year 01. two years in duration. Unpublished data on some master's chemistry departments show 60% of full-time students are firsbyear; hence 0.60 X 1460 = 876 students. An estimate of 900 has been used in this calculation. a I h i n g t,he combined fiscal years 1958-66, 12,877 individuals with earned baccalaureates in chemistry earned a doctorate in some field; 9387 earned doctorates in chemistry out of a total of 11,040 earned doctorates in chemistry. These figures show that more ehemistrv baccalaureates transfer to another field for their doctorate t h i n non-chemistry baccalaureates t,ransfer t o
the.sam2 (graduate & r a l i & & t ) / i ~ h l ) ratio in the& other field: we estimate ,372 X 2870. = 1066 bac&alaureate chemists in the fall of 1966 entering graduate work in non-chemistry fields. These estimates will not include t,hnae enterine master's dennrt-
Large numbers of chemistry baccalaureates continue post-baccalaureate training in fields other than chemistry. We estimate the supply-demand picture for 1965-66 chemistry baccalaureates as shown in Table 11. An earlier study of June, 1961 baccalaureates (5) indicated that 46% of the chemistry majors had been accepted in graduate school and an additional 10% had applications pending, a total of less than 60% planning graduate work immediately. Only 60% of the June, 1961 chemistry baccalaureates who planned to do graduate work intended to continue in the field of chemistry, with 13% additional in biochemistry. Only about onehalf of all those individuals with a bachelors degree in chemistry who earn a doctor's degree in any field (PhD, MD, DSc, etc.) earn this degree in chemistry. All of these analyses indicate that the available supply of chemistry baccalaureates is substantially committed and there is not inuch flexibility for recruitment of additional chemistry baccalaureates to do graduate work in chemistry.
Proflles of Doctoral C h e m i s t r y D e p a r t m e n t s
a
Wide differences among doctoral granting chemistry departments (Fig. 3 and 4; Table 12) are readily apparent if these departments are rank-ordered in turn by numbers of graduate faculty, postdoctorals, etc. from highest to lowest. An indication of the concentration of graduate faculty, postdoctorals, etc. can be obtained from Figure 3 by noting the minimum percent of departments in which are found 50% of the graduate faculty (32% in curve 12), postdoctorals (12% in curve I), etc. Fall 1966 and fall 1967 do not indicate any major changes. Several factors stand out (1967 figures are cited) : (1) Graduate faculty are more widely distributed Volume 46, Number 2, February 1969
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U. S. Government
Per Cent of Departments Bared on 172 Departments Figure 3. Representdive distributions of 1 7 2 doclord-granting chemistry dcpartmenh. Cvwe 1, port-doctorair; curve 6, PhD degrees awarded; curve 12, full-time graduate faculty lree Table 71.
among departments thanseither graduate students, graduate degrees awarded, or post-doctorals. The example of 50% of the graduate faculty being in 32.0% Per cent of Full-time auden* within a Depslfment That Derivetheir Major Suppolftrom the indieat& Savree of the departments can be compared with the fact that 50% of all full-time graduate students are in 21.2% Figure 4. Dirtribution of full-time graduate student support in 1 7 2 of the departments; 50% of master's degrees are doctorate granting chemistry departments, fall 1967. awarded by 16.6% of the departments; 50% of the PhD's are awarded by 16.7% of the departments. maior support from teaching assistantships were in -- (Z) -PnstdarSoraJs ~rkresoncentra$Bd.jnf ~ w e r h n a r f ~ nEeuts tlian graduate f%zlty," graauade stuaents, or degrees awarded. 25% of all postdoctorals are in lowest to highest) 25% of all T.A.'s were in 58.3yo of the 4.6% of the departments, 50% in 11.9% as noted above, denartments. There were 12 denartments with 4% and 75yo in 25.1%. Therefore 74.9% of the departoriess of full-time students s u p p o r h by T.A.'s and 4? ments have only 25% of the postdoctorals and 36 have departmehts with 52% . - or more of full-time students no postdoctorals. supported by T.A.'s. ( 5 ) One-half of ail students supported by the U.S. ( 3 ) Self-supporting graduate students are concentrated in fewer departments than students supported Government are in 15.9% of the deuartments althoueh by teaching assistantships or those supported by the one-half of all ggrduate"students are in 21.2% of &e U S . Guvernment. For example, 50% of all the selfdepartments. I n the departments with least U.S. supporting students are in 13.1% of the departments, Government support (again viewing the rank ordering whereas 50% of the teaching assistants are in 20'1% of the Table 12. Distribution of Personnel, Graduate Student Support, and Degrees Awarded departments and 1 7 2 Doctorate Granting Chemistry Departments Fall 1 9 6 6 and Fall 1 9 6 7 (see Fig. 3) Government supported stuNo. of dents are in 15.9% of the departments. I n those departDeptJ. With no ments with the fewest self-supPer Cent, of Departments 4 Hwing the Given Per Cent of po~ntporting graduate students, Year Persons or Degrees Awarded Number ments (viewing the rank ordering C,v, 25% 50% 75% of (or Iless of (B) (C) Persons arees) (A) from lowest to highest) 25% of No. Cateaorv Fall . . these self-supporting students Postare distributed over 72.7% of doctoral Self snpport" all departments (Table 12). 1\18degrees There are 99 departments each MS degrees Phl) dcg. of which had 4% or less of their PhD deg. full-time graduate students U.S. govt." self-supporting; in contrast, T.A.* Full-time 37 departments had 8% or more grad. stud. of their full-time graduate stuFull-time dents self-sumortine (Fie. 4 ) . mad. fac. (4) of fuil- Full-timegraduate students with major support from the given sources. ' time graduate students with 1 Fiscal year graduate.
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78 / Journal o f Chemical Education
from lowest to highest), 25% of the U.S. Government supported students are spread through 63.7y0 of the departments whereas in the departments with the smaller enrollments 25% of full-time graduate enrollment is spread over 55.6% of the departments. There are 5 departments with 4y0 or less of their full-time students supported by the U.S. Government and 39 departments with over 52% of their full-time graduate students supported by the US. Government. Doctoral granting chemistry departments vary considerably in programs and objectives. Some doctoral departments have a major commitment lo undergraduate programs whereas others concentrate on the doctoral students and research. If we consider postdoctoral education as advanced research training, primarily designed to provide an opportunity for promising young researchers to work with outstanding established investigators, this would lead to a concentration of the postdoctorals a t those relatively few departments where graduate education and research are dominant. With a few exceptions, this is the statistical situation which we find. In respect to graduate student support, some departments have very little flexibility since they depend very heavily either on teaching assistantships or U.S. Government support; a few have excessive numbers of self-supporting students or very little U S . Government support. Summary and Conclusions
Shortages of trained chemists, at all degree levels, have been predicted (7, 8). It is extremely difficult to predict meaningful future manpower needs. A growing population and increasing technology coupled with the broad nature of the fields involving chemistry all point to national needs for additional numbers of chemists. However, the statistics presented in this report provide a consistent picture indicating a lack in growth of student interest in chemistry. Trends in graduate enrollments in doctoral-granting departments now indicate a slowing down in growth and a possible leveling or decline in the near future. Financial support of chemistry graduate students appears quite adequate for the present number of qualified and motivated available students. Since there is a smaller percentage of self-supporting chemistry graduate students than in any other field of science, lack of financial support cannot be a major problem in determining student interest in chemistry. Chemistry baccalaureate production has not been increasing over the past four years, and the available baccalaureate manpower is completely committed. The dropout rate of graduate students is already high, indicating recruitment of some students of marginal interest and ability for chemistry. Many of the doctoral departments are deficit graduate departments indicating that they recruit more new graduate students than they produce baccalaureates.
Clearly the most serious problem in chemical education is the need for large? numbers of undergraduate majors. More vigorous efforts to recruit chemistry graduate students, additional graduate student stipends, and inauguration of new doctoral programs will not solve this problem. We find that slightly over one-half of recent doctoral chemists earned baccalaureates in non-doctorate granting chemistry departments. An important part of the educational philosophy relating to the need for doctoral programs bas been that adequate faculty and facilities for a good undergraduate program can only be developed within the environment of a doctoral department. Since these departments are currently supplying only one-half of the baccalaureates who earn doctorates in chemistry, there is a real problem. Perhaps the philosophy rests on a faulty assumption and given adequate resources, non-doctoral departments can provide good undergraduate education in chemistry both now and in the future. Student motivation and recruitment of more undergraduate chemistry majors may he related to the type of institution attended and the relative emphasis on the undergraduate program. To insure the continued quality and development of their programs, doctoral departments will need to make more major efforts to recruit undergraduatechemistrymajors, including evaluationand improvements of their undergraduate programs. However, it seems likely that non-doctoral departments \rill continue for some time to supply substantial numbers of chemistry graduate students. Hence vigorous new efforts are needed to assist these departments to improve their faculty and facilities and to interest more students in the opportunities and challenges in the field of chemistry. Literature Cited (1) ACS COMMIWGX: O N PROFESSIONAL TRAINING, "Doctoral Education in Chemistry-A Report of Current Needs and Problems," C h a . Eng. News, 42, 76 (May 4, 1968). OFYSCIENCICS, "Doctorate Recipients (2) NATIONAL AC~DI~M from U S . Universities, 1958-66," Publication 148U, Washington, D . C., 1967. (3) LINNELL,RORERTH., "Graduat,e Student Support and Manpower Resourcesin GraduateScience Education. Fall 1965, Fall 1966," U S . Government Printing Office, Washingloo, 1). C., Z0402, June 1968. (4) "Summary of Activities of the Committee on Professions1 Training for 1967,'' Chcm. Eng. News, 46, 61 (March 18, 1968). (5) DAVIS~JIMICS A,, "Great Aspirations, the Graduate School Plans of America's College Seniors," Aldine Pnhlishing Co., Chicago, 1964. (6) CARTTER, ALLENM., "An Assessment of Quality in Creative Education," American Council an Education. Washinnton. .. . D. C., 1966. (7) SCOTT,ARTHURF., "The Crisis in Chemical Education," C h a . Eng. News, 43,94 (April 26, 1965). (8) LINNELL,ROBERTH., "Chemist,ry Manpower: Needs and Supply," unpublished paper presented at the 150th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Atlantic City, N. J., September 12, 1965.
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