Changes in Foreign National Enrollments in Engineering Disciplines - Current Trends for Undergraduate and Graduate Students

Introduction

Full-time engineering master's degree enrollments of foreign nationals have declined about 17% since Fall 2002 and the relative full-time doctoral enrollments (fraction of engineering) have not grown since Fall 2000. Undergraduate foreign national enrollments have increased slowly from the late 1990s as overall undergraduate enrollments have grown. The relative enrollments of foreign national undergraduates have remained essentially constant for the last quarter of a century. These data are shown in the two graphs below.

This report explores the effects of these trends on the undergraduate and graduate enrollments in the individual engineering disciplines.

Foreign National Undergraduate Enrollments in Engineering Disciplines

The graph above provides full-time enrollment data for seventeen engineering disciplines for the last quarter century. The disciplines codes are aerospace (AspE), Biological (Bio - including both bioeng and biomedical), chemical (ChE), computer (Cmp - including science in universities with engineering programs), civil (CE), electrical (EE), environmental (EnvE), engineering management (MgtE), manufacturing (MfgE), industrial (IndE), marine and naval (MarE), mechanical (ME), mining, geological and minerals (MGM), materials (MatE - science and engineering), nuclear (NucE), petroleum (PetE) and systems (SysE) engineering. To aid in interpreting the data, disciplines currently increasing in foreign national enrollments are indicated by open circles. Those that are currently constant or are decreasing are indicated by closed circles.

Significant long-term growth in Bio is clear, but NucE and SysE also show long-term growth. MfgE has grown in the past few years. Long-term declines in MGM and MarE are evident. Following decades of substantial long-term foreign national undergraduate enrollment growth, Cmp has declining foreign national undergraduate enrollments.

The relative enrollments of foreign national undergraduates are shown in the graph below. Those disciplines with currently increasing relative enrollments are indicated by open circles. Constant or decreasing relative enrollments are indicated by closed circles. The fraction for engineering as a whole is shown by the solid black line.

A strong preference is indicated for both PetE and MfgE (relative enrollments more than twice the overall engineering average). However, PetE has been declining for almost a decade and MfgE has grown significantly since Fall 2000. Disciplines for which there is a slight preference are IndE, EE, MgtE, Cmp and SysE. There appear to be only minor long-term enrollment trend variations within this group of five disciplines.

MGM, ME, CE, EnvE MarE and NucE have relative foreign national undergraduate enrollments less than 4%. Further, all six of these disciplines currently have constant or declining relative enrollment trends.

Foreign National Master's Degree Enrollments in Engineering Disciplines

The overall decline in the enrollment of foreign nationals in engineering master's degree programs since Fall 2002 has resulted in foreign national enrollment declines in essentially all engineering disciplines. The second graph below indicates the magnitudes of these declines for the seventeen disciplines included in this study. None of these disciplines is experiencing foreign national enrollment growth at the master's degree level.

Cmp, NucE and MatE are seen to depart from the trends exhibited by the other disciplines. Foreign national master's degree enrollments in Cmp reached a maximum in the early 1990s, and a minimum in the late 1990s. Subsequently, enrollments increased significantly, but now appear to have reached a new maximum. NucE has declined steadily since the early 1990s. In Fall 1992, the enrollment was 159; in Fall 2004, it was 42. MatE has experienced only minor variations in foreign national master's degree enrollments in the past quarter of a century.

Relative foreign national master's degree enrollments are presented in the second graph below along with the overall relative enrollments in engineering (black line).

As would be anticipated from increasing total engineering master's degree enrollments and decreasing enrollments of foreign nationals, sharp declines in relative enrollments have been underway in essentially all engineering disciplines since Fall 2001.

PetE, MGM, IndE, EE and Cmp had relative enrollments from 67 to 80% in Fall 2001. These five disciplines declined to 54 to 69% in Fall 2004. SysE, MarE, AspE and NucE had relative enrollments from 24 to 49% in Fall 2001. These four disciplines declined to 14 to 30% in Fall 2004.

Foreign national enrollments in master's degree programs account for about half of the total for engineering as a whole. Since many of these students go on to doctoral programs, the decreasing trends described above are expected to impact doctoral enrollments in the very near future.

Foreign National Doctoral Degree Enrollments in Engineering Disciplines

Doctoral enrollments of foreign national engineering students in the seventeen disciplines studied are shown in the graph below. Those disciplines currently undergoing enrollment increases are indicated by open circles; solid circles indicate disciplines with constant or declining enrollments.

All but four disciplines exhibit enrollment growth and those four, MfgE, MarE, PetE and MGM, have the lowest foreign national enrollments. Many of those disciplines increasing in enrollment have experienced increases in their rates of growth since the late 1990s. Parenthetically, research expenditures in engineering colleges grew more slowly in the 1990s than in the 1980s. Since 2000, the annual growth rates in research expenditures have increased and are about the same in the 1980s.

Total engineering doctoral enrollments have been increasing since Fall 1998; foreign national enrollments in engineering have been increasing since Fall 1995. The graph below shows the relative foreign national enrollment trends for the seventeen disciplines included in this study. As in previous graphs, disciplines undergoing enrollment growth are shown with open circles.

Fourteen of the seventeen disciplines included in this study currently have relative foreign national enrollments in the range from 46 to 68%; the overall engineering fraction is 60%. The largest relative enrollments are in MfgE and PetE; the smallest is in Bio.

Most disciplines currently have constant relative enrollments. Slowly increasing relative enrollments can be observed for MfgE, MgtE, EnvE and Bio.

Summary

The number of foreign nationals enrolled in undergraduate engineering programs in the US has been slowly increasing. Enrollment increases are currently occurring in many individual engineering disciplines; the largest increases have been in Bio in recent years. Relative foreign national enrollments in engineering as a whole have been the rage of 6 to 7% for almost a quarter of a century. Most disciplines have relative enrollments in the range of 1 to 10%; these enrollments have been essentially constant for several decades. On the other hand, PetE has declined from 28% to about 15% since Fall1994 and MfgE has increased from 9% to about 16% since Fall 2000.

The decline in foreign national enrollments in engineering since Fall 2002 (29,957) through Fall 2004 (24,802) has been shared by all individual engineering disciplines. The relative enrollment declines have been more severe with the engineering total decreasing from 58% in Fall 2002 to 47% in Fall 2004. Further decreases are anticipated.

Doctoral enrollments of foreign national students in almost all disciplines are currently increasing at rates greater than those in the 1990s. Relative enrollments of most disciplines have been essentially constant since Fall 2000. All but three of the disciplines studied currently have relative enrollments in the range of 46 to 60% (engineering overall is 60%). PetE and MfgE are higher than this range (both at 86%) and Bio is lower (38%).

It is anticipated that the declines in foreign national master's degree enrollments will probably begin to impact doctoral enrollments in Fall 2006, if not Fall 2005.

Acknowledgments

The undergraduate and graduate enrollment data used in this study originated from the annual surveys of the Engineering Workforce Commission of the American Association of Engineering Societies. Engineering Trends acknowledges the efforts of this organization in providing credible data and expresses its gratitude for their services to the engineering profession. Persons seeking further information about their surveys and the availability of survey data should visit the AAES/EWC Web site (www.aaes.org).

Footnotes

Engineering Trends data are compiled mainly from information submitted by universities to the annual surveys of EWC and ASEE. On the very rare occasions where errors in data appear, Engineering Trends corrects the error, if possible, or deletes the data if the error is large enough to alter significantly the trend of the university or the US total.