Recently, more and more people say that employers no longer require candidates for basic positions to have a college degree, but most forecasts believe that the demand for college students in the labor market will continue to grow in the future.
These predictions focus not only on the demand of college graduates, but also on different majors. Recently, the National Center for Education Statistics tracked the number of undergraduate degree awards in 32 major disciplines in American universities and released the most complete data on the majors taken by college graduates.
How do prospective college students choose their major? Will they choose a major based on the specific career planning as others suggest? Will majors in humanities, social sciences and arts be on the bench, while majors in medical, business and other applications will be more popular? What are the changing trends of undergraduate education in the United States?
According to the latest data summarized in the U.S. Department of Education 2022 Condition of Education, five obvious trends have been summarized in the past decade of awarding undergraduate degrees by American universities.
The number of undergraduate enrollment decreased, but the number of undergraduate degrees increased significantly
Overall, the number of undergraduate degrees increased significantly in the past decade. From the 2009-10 academic year to the 2019-20 academic year, the number of undergraduate degrees awarded by American universities increased from about 1.6 million to about 2 million, an increase of 24%. The number of undergraduate enrollment fell by 9% during the same period.
, most of those who have obtained undergraduate degrees are women, and the proportion of women to college graduates has almost not changed in the past decade. The number of undergraduate degrees awarded to women in the 2019-20 academic year was 1,177,168, accounting for 58% of the total number of degrees awarded, while the number of degrees awarded to men was 861,263, accounting for 42%. Ten years ago, the number of degrees awarded to women was 943,259, accounting for 57%, and the number of degrees awarded to men was 706,660, accounting for 43%.
However, the racial composition of undergraduate degree recipients has changed a lot in the past decade. In the 2009-10 academic year, 71% of undergraduate degree recipients were white. From 2019 to 20, the proportion of white undergraduate degree recipients fell to 58%. In the 2009-10 academic year, black undergraduate degree recipients accounted for 10% of the total number, and the proportion remained unchanged in the 2019-20 academic year.
But the proportion of Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander undergraduate degree winners has increased. 2009-10 academic year, Hispanic undergraduate degree recipients accounted for only 8.5% of the total number, and by the 2019-20 academic year, its share rose to 15%. In the 2009-10 academic year and the 2019-20 academic year, the proportion of Asian/Pacific Islander undergraduate degree winners was 7% and 8% respectively.
Business is the most popular major
Among the nearly 2 million undergraduate degrees awarded in the 2019-20 academic year, six majors accounted for 58% of the quota. They are: Business (378,900 degrees), medical and related majors (257,300), social sciences and history (161,200), engineering (128,300), biology and biomedical sciences (126,600) and psychology (120,000) .
The majors with a large number of degrees awarded in the 2019-20 academic year include: Computer and Information Science (5%, 97,000 degrees), Visual and Performing Arts (5%, 92,300), News and Communication and related majors (5%, 91,800), and Education (4%, 85,100).
99 university graduates lost the most
Among the majors where the number of graduates reached 5,000 in the 2019-20 academic year, the number of graduates in the nine major categories has declined in the past decade, with the largest decrease in graduates in education, social sciences and humanities. The net number of graduates lost in these nine disciplines is as follows:
- Education – 16,230
- English Language/Literature – 15,193
- Social Sciences and History – 11,618
- Foreign Language – 5,202
- Humanities – 4,060
- Theology – 1,864
- Architecture – 1,006
- Regional/Ethnic/Cultural/Gender Studies – 853
- Philosophy/Religion Studies – 614 people
The number of graduates in applied disciplines has increased the most
The major with the largest increase in the number of graduates in the past decade is mainly practical and applied disciplines.The subjects whose graduates have increased by more than 10,000 in the past decade are as follows:
- Medical – 127,659 people
- Computer Science – 57,454 people
- Engineering – 55,675 people
- Biology/Biological Medical – 40,199 people
- Business – 29,732 people
- Psychology – 22,753 people
- Entertainment and Leisure – 20,417 people
- Agriculture/Natural Resources – 15,505 people
- Homeland Security/Law Enforcement – 13,431 people
- Mathematics and Statistics – 11,187 people
- News and Communication – 10,472 people
STEM discipline is in full swing
2019-20 academic year, the number of undergraduate degrees awarded in STEM disciplines accounted for 21% of the total, totaling 429,300.
STEM majors include mathematics and statistics, computer information science, physics, biology and biomedical , engineering and engineering technology. Among them, the majors with the largest increase in the number of degree awards in the past decade are as follows:
- Computer and Information Science, with an increase of 245%
- Mathematics and Statistics, with an increase of 70%
- Engineering and Engineering Technology, with an increase of 67%
- Biology and Biomedicine, with an increase of 47%
Agriculture and natural resources major categories include animal and plant science, which can be counted as the STEM field, with an increase of 59%. Physics has the smallest increase, at only 31%.
The awarding of undergraduate degree in the past decade shows that there has been a significant increase in applied majors oriented towards professional skills. This is also in line with the results of several national surveys - the primary motivation for students to go to college is to find a good job.
Students make decisions based on the needs of the job market, which is what they should do. However, the continued decline in the number of awarded humanities and social science degrees deserves our attention. These subjects should pay more attention to attracting students. A feasible strategy is to carry out curriculum reform, emphasizing the practicality of the subject. Some discipline purists may not welcome such reforms, but it is still worth considering.
Another strategy is to expand the coverage of college subjects by adding dual degree , combining complementary basic majors, such as foreign languages and business, philosophy and biomedicine, mathematics and sociology, etc.
Finally, educational leaders in the field of humanities and social sciences need to let students see that learning these subjects well has its intrinsic value, can increase people's spiritual capital, and make people become knowledgeable citizens.
