Major Decline in Doctoral Degree Awards to African Americans

In 2005 African Americans earned 1,688 doctoral degrees. This is nearly a 10 percent drop from a year ago. The decline is only the third time in the past two decades that the number of black doctorates has decreased from the prior year.

Usually at this time of year we have enjoyed announcing major gains in doctoral awards for African Americans. Since JBHE was first published in 1993, we have reported almost continuous and often major increases in the number of blacks earning doctorates. In each of the past two years we reported solid good news that the number of African Americans awarded doctorates had reached all-time highs.
A new study prepared by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago reports a very large decrease in doctoral awards to African Americans  of nearly 10 percent. In 2004 the figure was 1,869. In 2005 just 1,688 African Americans earned doctorates. It was only the third time in the past 20 years that the number of black doctorates had declined from the previous year. In 2005 blacks made up 6.4 percent of all doctorates awarded to American citizens. Yet in 2004 blacks were 7.1 percent of all doctoral recipients, at that time the highest level ever achieved.

Despite the setback this year, the overall progress in the past two decades has been rock solid. In 1987 only 787 African Americans earned doctorates. This year’s total of 1,688 doctorates is more than double the number earned by African Americans in 1987. In 1990 the black share of all doctoral awards was 3.6 percent. That has now grown to 6.4 percent, a showing of significant progress in a relatively short period of time of 16 years.

Although African Americans have made solid progress in doctoral awards, much remains to be achieved. In 2005 African Americans were nearly 13 percent of the U.S. population. Therefore, black doctoral awards amounted to about one half the level that would occur were racial parity to prevail.

Major Shortfalls in the Natural Sciences

The bad news is that there continue to be wide differences among blacks and whites in terms of the academic fields in which they earn doctorates. For instance, 39.2 percent of all doctorates awarded to African Americans in 2005 were in the field of education. In contrast, only 18.8 percent of doctorates earned by whites were in this field. This large percentage of all African-American doctorates in the field of education has been the case for decades with only minor fluctuations.

Arthur Levine, president of the Teachers College at Columbia University, has proposed that these Ed.D. degrees be abolished and be replaced with a master’s degree in educational administration. He believes that people who aspire to be school superintendents or college administrators are wasting their time doing a research dissertation on a topic that will have little or no bearing on the job that they plan to hold. Should the Levine view prevail, the black percentage of all doctoral awards would fall dramatically. If we eliminate educational doctorates from the 2005 statistics, we find that blacks earned only 4.8 percent of all doctorates in fields other than education. In 2004 blacks earned 5.2 percent of all doctorates in fields other than education.

Whites continue to be far more likely than blacks to earn doctorates in the natural sciences. In 2005, 12 percent of doctorates awarded to whites were in the physical sciences. This is more than double the percentage for African Americans, which stood at 5.0 percent in 2005. One encouraging note is that the percentage of all black doctorates that were awarded in the natural sciences increased from 4.1 percent in 2004 to 5.0 percent in 2005.

The very large racial Ph.D. gap in the natural sciences is striking when we examine black Ph.D. awards in specific disciplines. For example, in the U.S. there were 72 doctorates awarded in 2005 in the field of astronomy. Yet not one went to an African American. African Americans earned only 16 doctorates in mathematics. This was only 1.3 percent of all doctorates awarded in the field.

In a major weakness, blacks earned only 10 degrees, or about 0.7 percent, of the more than 1,300 doctorates in physics. In computer science, blacks won 1.3 percent of all Ph.D. awards. In chemistry, only 1.6 percent of Ph.D.s went to blacks. In the earth sciences such as geology, oceanography, and the atmospheric sciences, only two of the 379 doctorates awarded in the discipline went to blacks in 2005. In the ocean and marine sciences, only one of the 190 Ph.D.s in the discipline was awarded to an African American. In 2005, 142 African Americans were awarded a Ph.D. in the biological sciences. But they were only 2.2 percent of all doctorates awarded in the discipline.

The field of engineering also shows serious weakness in black doctoral student participation. Blacks trail whites by a large margin in Ph.D.s in engineering. In 2005, 7.3 percent of all white doctorates were earned in the field of engineering. For African Americans, only 5.0 percent of all their doctorates were in engineering. In 2005 blacks earned a mere 1.3 percent of all engineering Ph.D.s. The huge shortfall in engineering is serious because engineering is a field in which hundreds of thousands of Americans achieve high-income status and middle to upper social status.

No Awards to Blacks in a Large Number of Scientific Fields

A strong indicator of the fact that African Americans as a group continue to avoid most of the natural sciences appears in the statistics for specific disciplines. In 2005, 2,275 doctorates were awarded by universities in the United States in the fields of geometry, computing theory and practice, astronomy, meteorology, theoretical chemistry, geochemistry, geophysics and seismology, paleontology, mineralogy and petrology, stratigraphy and sedimentation, geomorphology and glacial geology, acoustics, elementary particle physics, biophysics, nuclear physics, plasma/fusion physics, polymer physics, hydrology and water resources, oceanography, petroleum engineering, polymer and plastics engineering, communications engineering, engineering mechanics, ceramic science engineering, metallurgical engineering, agricultural engineering, engineering physics, mining and mineral engineering, ocean engineering, animal breeding, animal nutrition, agricultural plant breeding, plant pathology, horticultural science, fishing and fisheries science, forest science and biology, forest resources management, wildlife/range management, biotechnology, bacteriology, plant genetics, plant pathology biology, plant physiology, botany, anatomy, entomology, zoology, and veterinary medicine. Not one of these 2,275 doctoral degrees went to an African American.

The Gender Gap in Black Ph.D. Awards

As is the case in almost every measure of African Americans in higher education, black women have come to hold a large lead in doctoral awards. As recently as 1977, black women earned only 38.7 percent of all doctorates awarded to African Americans. By 2000 black women earned 65.7 percent of all doctorates awarded to African Americans. This is the highest percentage of African-American doctoral awards earned by women in U.S. history. Black men narrowed the gap in both 2001 and 2002. But in 2003 and 2004 black women upped their percentage of all doctorates earned by African Americans. In 2005, 64.9 percent of all African-American doctorates were earned by women.

Since 1990 African-American women have increased their number of Ph.D. awards from 550 to 1,096. This is an increase of 99 percent. In contrast, the number of Ph.D. awards to African-American men increased from 351 in 1990 to 592. This is a rise of 68.7 percent.

Doctorates Awarded by Historically Black Universities

In 2005 historically black colleges and universities awarded 367 doctorates to recipients of all races. This was a slight increase over the 350 doctorates awarded by black universities in 2004.

In 2005 Howard University awarded 99 doctorates, the most of any historically black university. The Howard total was up 12.5 percent from a year ago. Tennessee State University awarded 46 doctoral degrees in 2005, an increase of one from 2004. Jackson State University, Morgan State University, and South Carolina State University each awarded 25 or more doctorates in 2005. Meharry Medical College, Clark Atlanta University, Florida A&M University, Bowie State University, and Texas Southern University were the only other black universities to award at least 10 doctorates in 2004.

South Carolina State University showed the largest increase in doctoral awards. In 2004 the university awarded 23 doctorates. In 2005 the total increased to 38. All 38 doctorates were in the field of education.

Other Racial Disparities in Ph.D. Awards

Here is further information on doctoral awards to blacks contained in the most recent survey on earned doctorates:

• The average age of a black Ph.D. recipient in 2005 was 36.7 compared to 33.8 for all Americans.
• It appears that the predominantly white faculties of our major research universities prefer white teaching assistants over black teaching assistants. About 16 percent of white Americans who earned doctorates in 2005 served as college teaching assistants during their doctoral study. Only 7.5 percent of black doctoral students served as teaching assistants.
• Black Americans on average took 12.7 years to earn a doctorate after receiving their bachelor’s degree and 10.5 years after they first entered graduate school. The average time for all white Americans was 10.4 years after they earned their bachelor’s degree and 8.3 years after first entering graduate school. Disparate economic burdens on black and white Ph.D. candidates probably account for much of the difference.
• Some 22.7 percent of all white Americans who earned doctorates in 2005 plan postdoctoral study. For blacks, 16.2 percent plan on postdoc study.
• Nearly 59 percent of all blacks awarded doctorates in 2005 plan careers in academia. Only 47 percent of white doctorate recipients planned to teach at the university level. More than 11 percent of white Ph.D. recipients plan to secure a job in business or industry compared to 6.5 percent of blacks who earned doctorates.

For many observers the statistics on black doctorates seem of marginal importance. Yet they are a good indicator of black progress in achieving the educational credentials required for teaching positions at our major colleges and universities. It is likely, too, that at such time as blacks achieve Ph.D. parity, or near parity, with whites in all academic disciplines, that day will also mark the arrival of overall racial equality.