January/February 2020

Communities: Education
Slow Growth Continues in Engineering Degrees, Among Underrepresented Groups

Undergraduate engineering enrollment continued its decade-long growth in 2018, increasing about 0.5% according to the latest statistics from the American Society for Engineering Education. The top three disciplines: mechanical engineering, computer science (inside engineering), and electrical engineering.

Underrepresented groups saw a slight gain in the percentage of undergraduate degrees earned from 2017, with the largest growth among ethnic groups by Hispanic students (from 11.1% to 11.4%). Black/African American students’ 0.1% increase reversed a downward trend from 2008–16. And women continued a slight increase in bachelor’s degrees as well (from 21.3% to 21.9%). The disciplines in 2018 where women earned more than 40% of the bachelor’s degrees were environmental engineering, biological/agricultural engineering, and biomedical engineering.

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