Research has shown that although bachelor degrees earned by African American students are increasing overall, this group is still significantly underrepresented in engineering and the physical sciences.
According to the American Institute of Physics (AIP), the past decade has seen a boom of degrees granted across scientific and engineering disciplines. However, this boom has not always translated to increased degrees in minority communities.
Bachelor degrees earned in the engineering field between 2003 and 2013 in the US have increased by 29 percent across all US bachelor’s recipients. However, the number of bachelor’s in engineering earned by African American students increased only 10 percent.
"More African-Americans are getting college degrees in all subjects, but this growth is not seen in science and engineering," said Laura Merner, a principal research associate at AIP and author of the report. "At current growth rates it would take over 100 years before African-Americans would be equally represented in the physical sciences and engineering," she added.
Why Are STEM Diversity Programs Not Meeting Expectations?
A considerable amount of money has been spent to improve diversity in STEM fields. However, it appears that this influx of cash is not translating into greater diversity in engineering classrooms.
Research teams will be more likely to develop innovative solutions with more diversity in engineering programs. So does the diversity problem need more innovation to be solved?
The best encouragement for anyone capable of taking on a specific career is to show them relatable representations of someone else pursuing that career.
To reach a wider audience, perhaps the engineering fields need to see more fictional engineers of color, such as Star Trek’s Geordi La Forge and Marvel’s Rhodey Rhodes, to inspire the next generation of engineers.
Or perhaps we need a solution similar to the Next MacGyver challenge, which is creating STEM TV shows aiming to reduce the gender gap?
Breaking Down the STEM Diversity Gap Numbers
Undergraduate degrees in physics granted to people of all ethnicities have increased 58 percent, but physics degrees earned by African American students remain stagnant.
There was some positive growth seen in the engineering technology field. Out of the disciplines analyzed, it was the only field in which African Americans are earning degrees proportionally to the overall population.
However, civil engineering showed the most significant increase at 84 percent in number of bachelor’s degrees earned by African American students. There was also growth in civil engineering for the overall population at 69 percent.
For African American students, mechanical engineering (47 percent) and aerospace engineering (43 percent) disciplines saw the second and third highest increases in population.
Materials science and engineering showed a 39 percent increase and other engineering fields show 11 percent increases.
Significant decreases appeared in electrical and industrial engineering, with a decrease of 15 percent.
The report was produced by Merner at the AIP, compiling data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System database maintained by the US Department of Education’s National Centre for Education Statistics.
The full report is part of a series on underrepresented minorities in STEM fields, and can be viewed online here.