A new report from the Association of Public Land-grant Universities offers a wealth of date on degree attainments in engineering disciplines by students from underrepresented groups.
The report found that Blacks earned 3.9 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in engineering in 2016. They received 2.2 percent of all master’s degrees awarded in engineering fields and 1.9 percent of all Ph.D.s in engineering that year.
There is good news to report. The number of Blacks earning bachelor’s degrees in engineering was up more than 34 percent from 2011 to 2016. There was a similar increase in engineering doctorates. But the number of master’s degrees in engineering earned by African Americans was up only 6.2 percent from 2011 to 2016.
The report also noted that North Carolina A&T State University, the historically Black educational institution in Greensboro, awarded more bachelor’s degrees in engineering to Blacks than any other college or university. A total of 153 bachelor’s degrees in engineering were awarded to Blacks at the university in 2016. The only other college or university to award more than 100 bachelor’s degrees in engineering to African Americans that year was the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Other colleges and universities that awarded more than 60 bachelor’s degrees in engineering to African Americans in 2016 were Prairie View A&M University in Texas, Morgan State University in Baltimore, Tuskegee University in Alabama, the University of Central Florida, and North Carolina State University.
The full report, The 2018 Status Report on Engineering Education: A Snapshot of Diversity in Degrees Conferred in Engineering, my be downloaded by clicking here.
