Career Trajectories of Master's Degree Recipients in the Sciences

American Association For The Advancement Of Science, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

"Graduate education in the US is in a period of change and likely to look quite different in the next 15-20 years, as students, programs, and science continue to evolve. However, we lack research findings on many key issues to guide change." That was the conclusion of an NSF workshop on the future of graduate education held in March 2003. As the structure of the U.S. economy changes, as the participants in higher education change, and as market pressures induce educational institutions to create new programs and practices, there is an increasing need to generate a body of comprehensive knowledge about graduate education. Currently, most of the research done on graduate education in the United States involves doctoral-level studies. However, an area of graduate education that has long been neglected is the master's degree, often called the "forgotten degree." In many fields of science, individuals holding master's degrees have been relegated to "second-class" or "consolation prize" status by administrators and faculty in higher education, and subsequently by researchers as well. In 2001, only one out of five master's degrees awarded was in a science and engineering field and only 34,960 (7.5%) of the 466,645 master's degrees awarded were in the natural sciences. In contrast 12,496 doctorates (30.7%) out of 40,744 total Ph.D.s were awarded in the natural sciences in 2001. There are good reasons to focus on master's degrees. Our nation's graduate schools have been particularly effective in producing research, but are not well connected to the needs of the U.S. economy and U.S. employers. The difficult job market faced by many new Ph.D.s and postdocs, the growth of part-time and adjunct faculty, the 8-9 year average time now needed to acquire a doctoral degree in the sciences followed by long postdoctoral periods, the suitability of present graduate training for non-academic jobs, and the 50% non-completion rate of doctoral degrees suggests a mismatch between career options and educational choices in the sciences. The sizable attrition rate of science and engineering bachelor's degree holders from our science and engineering workforce is also problematic. Intellectual Merit: The proposed study would comprehensively examine the master's degree as it is currently configured using NSF's SESTAT and WebCASPAR databases, augmented by statistical data sources from other government agencies (e.g., U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, National Center for Education Statistics) to gain a complete picture of who earns a master's degree, why, from where, and the impact the degree has had on their overall career path, as well as a national perspective on the value of master's degrees to the overall U.S. economy. This statistical study would serve as the background for a more qualitative look at AAAS members who have a master's degree as their highest degree. Currently AAAS has 5,226 regular members at the master's level (excluding student memberships). A subgroup of these members would be chosen for structured telephone interviews to ascertain their reasons for getting a master's degree, what it has meant for their careers, and what support mechanisms have helped them along the way. Broader Impact: Our ultimate goal is to inform the creation of a wider variety of postbaccalaureate options by a well-researched examination of where the master's degree has succeeded to date. By building on these results, this study could generate recommendations for constructing viable and respectable master's degree programs in the sciences, and hopefully increase interest on the part of U.S. undergraduates in careers in science and math. Perhaps the sizeable attrition among students bright enough to do science and math comes from too narrow a set of career options presented to them.