Hispanic American Degree Recipients and Faculty in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)

The field of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) has undergone considerable growth in recent decades (see African American MSE and Bowman 2011). Degree production at all levels has grown, as has the number of faculty, but the fraction of Hispanic Americans participating as professionals and educators with MSE degrees still trails the representation of Hispanic Americans in the US (see also Hispanic Engineering and Texas vs California). More than 1.6% of US engineering bachelor’s (BS) degrees for 2015 were earned in MSE, but MSE is strongly research-oriented and produced a greater fraction of graduate degrees (see ASEE Engineering by the Numbers). In 2015 MSE produced 1.9% of US master’s (MS) degrees and almost 7% of doctoral (PhD) degrees. Faculty with primary appointments in MSE comprise 3.7% of all engineering faculty, although many more engineering faculty lead research that is principally focused on MSE topics.

MSE experienced significant increases in BS degree attainment as it experienced greater growth than most other engineering disciplines. Diversity in terms of underrepresented minorities has been disappointing compared to the limited progress made in other engineering disciplines. This post is focused on degree trends for female and male Hispanic Americans in MSE and the growth of degrees earned by Hispanic Americans compared to the overall growth in MSE degrees and all engineering degrees.

Using ASEE data, which has been broken out by race/ethnicity and gender since 2005, Table 1 shows degree production for Hispanic American women and men who earned BS, MS and PhD degrees. Across all three degree levels, the female fraction of Hispanic American degrees is on average greater than 30%, which is higher than for MSE degrees overall. Figure 1 shows that the rate of growth of MSE BS degrees for Hispanic Americans is much greater than for all demographic groups. The number of BS MSE degrees earned by Hispanic Americans tripled while MSE BS degrees for all demographic groups nearly doubled.

Figure 1 Log plot showing Female and Male Hispanic American MSE BS degrees compared with all MSE BS degrees since 2005 (ASEE Data).

Figure 2 shows a comparison of the Hispanic American fraction of  MSE BS degrees compared to all engineering disciplines. Throughout the period shown, the fraction of Hispanic American MSE BS degrees lags behind the Hispanic American fraction for all undergraduate engineering degrees.

Figure 2 Fraction of Hispanic American BS degrees in MSE and all engineering disciplines since 2005 (ASEE Data).

Figures 3 and 4 show a comparison of MSE to all engineering disciplines for MS degrees and PhD degrees, respectively. For both graduate degrees the fraction earned by Hispanic Americans in MSE is comparable to all engineering disciplines.

Figure 3 Fraction of Hispanic American MS degrees in MSE and all engineering disciplines since 2005 (ASEE Data).

Figure 4 Fraction of Hispanic American PhD degrees in MSE and all engineering disciplines since 2005 (ASEE Data).

As reported to ASEE, MSE tenured and tenure track (TT) faculty numbered about 750 in 2005 and had grown to nearly 990 by 2015, an increase of 32%, which is much greater than the approximately 15% growth in all TT engineering faculty. Growth in TT Hispanic faculty in MSE, which started from a very small number, is about 70%. Figure 5 shows the growth in female and male Hispanic faculty.

Figure 5 Number of Hispanic Faculty for MSE since 2005 (ASEE Data)

Discussion   A significant component of the difference in Hispanic American representation between MSE and all engineering disciplines at the undergraduate level can be explained, in part, by the distribution of MSE degree programs. Of the twenty US engineering colleges that produce the largest number of engineering BS degrees earned by Hispanic Americans in 2015 only five are among the top forty producers of MSE BS degrees. MSE degree programs are mostly concentrated in larger engineering colleges since those colleges offer a broader range of degrees and are often strongly focused on research. The top eleven colleges producing MSE BS  degrees for 2015 (listed in Table 2) generated 14% of all engineering BS degrees and 38% of all MSE BS degrees. But, these programs produced only 20 of the 96 MSE BS degrees earned by Hispanic Americans. Of the 66 US MSE BS degree programs that reported BS degrees to the 2015 ASEE database, 28 reported no Hispanic American degree recipients.  

I have shown there is  little correlation between MSE BS degree programs and departments at Hispanic-serving institutions. One exception is the University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP), which produces MSE degrees at about the national median. In 2015 UTEP reported that seventeen of twenty-two of their MSE BS degree recipients were Hispanic Americans. 

The closer registry between the fraction of Hispanic American degree recipients from MSE with all engineering degrees is likely due to an important attribute of MSE programs. The relatively large number of MS and PhD degrees generated by MSE programs is achieved by recruiting many students with backgrounds from other science and engineering disciplines, including physics, chemistry, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and others. There are also many engineering colleges wherein MSE degrees are only produced at the graduate level. For 2015 there were 35 degree programs that reported student data for just graduate programs. This high degree of cross-disciplinary backgrounds among MSE graduate students also carries over to MSE faculty, who may be recruited from doctoral and even postdoctoral programs situated in other disciplines (see MSE Gender, MSE Diversity Report and MSE URM).

On the Data Careful review of individual academic programs wherein I know the students and faculty suggests that the reporting of some singular demographic groups, including Hispanic Americans, may be underreported from a combination of personal choice when filling out forms as well as institutional practice and interpretation. The data presented here depends on information reported by academic institutions. It also depends on individual self-reports to those institutions on race and ethnicity, which can be challenging for simple data analysis since Hispanic Americans, like everyone, can choose whether or not to be identified by their ethnicity. They also can choose to be defined as African, Asian, Caucasian, multiple races or choose no race at all.  The new category of "Two or more races" and folks not declaring their race and/or ethnicity so that they are "Unknown" may also reduce precision compared to some other types of data. Other smaller demographic groups used by ASEE such as Native Americans/American Indian and Pacific Islander vary considerably  year-to-year making it difficult to note any trends or make cogent conclusions except that their numbers are small. Individual states like California also collect a broader range of data fields. Anyone attempting to report to databases on this type of data also runs into a number of other difficulties. For example, the National Center for Education Statistics recommend listing undocumented students as “Unknown” rather than listing them by race/ethnicity. One exception is for students declared by the Department of Homeland Security as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), who are to be listed as foreign nationals. For all of the work I have done in reporting this similar data I simply report what is available in the database unless I see obvious errors, such as a large program that one year has five times as many women listed as in all other years. From my perspective, the variability in the data has not changed the reality that groups with some identities are still very much underrepresented in most engineering classrooms and workplaces.

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Keith J. Bowman, ?2016                   Please let me know of any concerns, errors or questions about the post as well as data you may be interested in seeing. I apologize in advance if I have missed an important point or if an error results in misrepresentation or a misunderstanding. I am happy to make any update required to correct errors. Also, please do share the post and data and discuss it with others! The data were prepared using the ASEE datamining tool and I am entirely responsible for putting it together and presenting it.   The photo at top is from downtown Denver. If you choose to use it, please cite it back to me. (Contents of this post represent only my personal opinion and analysis and do not represent the opinion of my employer)