The Council of Independent Colleges
(CIC) today released a report, Strengthening the STEM Pipeline: The
Contributions of Small and Mid-Sized Independent Colleges, that
demonstrates that small and mid-sized independent institutions are preparing
students for careers and graduate study in STEM fields more efficiently than
many public universities.
CIC President Richard Ekman said, “This study shows persuasively that small
and mid-sized private colleges are more effective at producing both bachelor’s
degree-level and future PhD-level professionals in STEM fields than other kinds
of educational institutions. That is, the absolute numbers of PhD recipients are
impressive and, as a percentage of students who start out to major in one of
these fields, the record of small colleges is extraordinary.” He added, “In
today’s tight budget climate, it is incumbent on private, state, and federal
funders to build on demonstrated efficiency of this kind rather than expending
hard-to-find tax and philanthropic dollars on less effective ways of producing
an equivalent number of STEM professionals.”
Contrary to popular assumptions, the report shows that smaller private
colleges have higher student persistence and degree completion rates in STEM
fields and shorter time to the bachelor’s degree than larger universities.
Bachelor’s degree recipients from small and mid-sized independent institutions
in the STEM fields also are more often committed to further education at the
time of graduation, and many of them immediately enroll in graduate programs
after obtaining bachelor’s degrees. And graduates of private colleges are more
likely to pursue doctoral degrees in STEM fields than graduates of public
four-year institutions. In some of the STEM fields, small and mid-sized
independent colleges produce more graduates who obtain PhDs than much larger
research universities.
P. Jesse Rine, CIC’s director of research projects and principal author of
the report, said, “Many assume that America’s large research universities
provide the clearest pathway to a career in a STEM field. On the contrary, the
report demonstrates that students who graduate from small and mid-sized private
colleges are more likely to persist in their major, graduate on time, and pursue
graduate work in STEM. These findings suggest that students can enjoy the
distinctive characteristics of a liberal arts undergraduate college
experience—smaller classes, more personal attention from faculty, and an
integrated curriculum—without compromising their prospects for future employment
or graduate study.”
Report Findings. The data suggest that, as a sector, small
and mid-sized private institutions performed better than public institutions in
students’ persistence and undergraduate degree completion rates in STEM fields
and they substantially outperformed public nondoctoral institutions. In
addition, STEM graduates of small and mid-sized private colleges are just as
likely to enroll in a graduate program as their peers who graduated from larger
public universities.
- At small and mid-sized independent institutions, 80 percent of
bachelor’s degree recipients in STEM fields earned their degrees in four years
or less, compared with 34 percent at public four-year nondoctoral institutions
and 52 percent at public four-year doctoral institutions.
- A much larger proportion (57 percent) of graduates in STEM
fields from small and mid-sized independent institutions planned to apply to
graduate school upon receipt of their bachelor’s degrees, compared with slightly
more than 40 percent of graduates from public four-year institutions.
- One-fifth (19 percent) of the bachelor’s degree recipients in
STEM fields from small and mid-sized independent institutions immediately
enrolled in master’s or doctoral degree programs after obtaining their
bachelor’s degrees, a comparable percentage with public four-year doctoral
institutions (22 percent) and exceeding that of public four-year nondoctoral
institutions (14 percent).
Efficiency by Institution and Discipline. The productivity
and efficiency of small and mid-sized independent colleges and universities is
further demonstrated in the rates of attaining PhDs in STEM fields by
comparisons among specific institutions and disciplines. For example:
- A higher percentage of students who attained bachelor’s
degrees in chemistry from Allegheny College (PA) subsequently completed a PhD in
the discipline (36 percent) than did graduates from the University of Pittsburgh
(13 percent) or Carnegie Mellon University (24 percent). And despite Allegheny’s
significantly smaller undergraduate enrollment, the number of its graduates who
later received doctorates in chemistry was 25–comparable with 25 graduates of
Carnegie Mellon and 30 of Pitt.
- In the biological sciences, one out of every four graduates
from Swarthmore (PA), Haverford (PA), Grinnell (IA), and Oberlin (OH) colleges
went on to complete a PhD, a rate higher than that of the large public research
universities in their respective states: Penn State (16 percent), University of
Iowa (13 percent), Iowa State (10 percent), and Ohio State (8
percent).
- Although Bucknell University (PA) enrolled fewer than
one-tenth of the number of undergraduates as its nearby public flagship
university, computer science majors who graduated from Bucknell were twice as
likely to complete a doctoral degree than their peers who completed
undergraduate studies in computer science at Penn State (6 percent vs. 3
percent).
Other Findings of Note
- Two out of five STEM PhD recipients in the U.S. obtained
bachelor’s degrees from foreign institutions, suggesting that the U.S. still has
a long way to go to produce “home grown” scientists.
- Among PhD recipients in STEM fields who earned bachelor’s
degrees from U.S. four-year institutions, 20 percent earned their bachelor’s
degrees from small and mid-sized independent institutions, a share that exceeds
this sector’s overall production of bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields (17
percent).
Blackburn College alumna Dr. Elisabeth Gantt, Distinguished University
Professor Emerita, University of Maryland, College Park, and Member of the
National Academy of Sciences, said of the report:
“The results of the study Strengthening the STEM Pipeline: The
Contribution of Small and Mid-Sized Independent Colleges are fully
consistent with my personal experience. Years ago when I graduated from a small
college (Blackburn College) all my colleague biology graduates went on directly
for advanced degrees. As a teacher and researcher in larger institutions it has
been a privilege to mentor both undergraduate and graduate students. Yet, the
individual attention that most students thrive on is hard to duplicate with
hundreds of students. As a former graduate director over many years, I also
found that a proportionately larger number of successful graduate school
entrants were from small and mid-size colleges.”
American chemist and D’Youville College (NY) alumna Edith M. Flanigen spent
42 years at Union Carbide, and while there invented more than 200 synthetic
substances and was awarded 109 patents. She was inducted into the National
Inventors Hall of Fame in 2002, was the first female recipient of the Perkin
Medal (the highest honor given in the U.S. industrial chemical industry) in
1992, and is known for her work on synthesis of emeralds. Commenting on the
impact that a small college had on her unusual career choice as a scientist in
the 1950s when female scientists were rare, Flanigen said:
“I graduated from D’Youville College, a small private women’s
Catholic college in Buffalo, NY, in 1950. I was educated there in my major,
chemistry, as well as in the liberal arts. Both prepared me excellently for a
very successful career in materials chemistry in industry. I attribute my later
success in an industrial setting to the combination of a sound basic education
in both science and liberal arts at a small private college.”
Policy Recommendations. In order to reap the full benefits
of a strong STEM workforce, the report recommends that policy makers should
assist higher education institutions that have demonstrated that they can
prepare many people for STEM careers effectively and efficiently—namely smaller
private colleges. Proposed policy changes might include:
- Provide additional federal funding to students who major in
STEM fields at small and mid-sized private colleges to maximize efficient
production of undergraduate degrees in STEM fields and of future
scientists;
- Allow students who wish to major in a STEM field to receive at
least as much state financial aid for use at private colleges that have
demonstrated equivalent efficiency in degree production as their in-state
flagship research university;
- Foster partnerships among high schools, businesses, and
community organizations to identify promising students and encourage special
programs and funding for both their STEM education at small and mid-sized
private colleges and their future entry into the U.S. STEM workforce;
and
- Create incentives through tax relief for businesses to provide
specialized laboratory equipment to small and mid-sized private colleges to
shorten transition time from the classroom to the workplace.
This report was prepared as a component of CIC’s public information
campaign,
Securing America’s Future: The Power of Liberal
Arts Education. The initiative promotes the effectiveness and quality of
private liberal arts colleges and universities and the importance of the liberal
arts as fields of study. In addition to this report, the campaign includes a
website with related news, social media activity, data and analyses, editorials,
speeches, alumni testimonials, and additional reports. Generous support for
Securing America’s Future is provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York,
Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, Jessie Ball DuPont Fund, and Gladys
Krieble Delmas Foundation.