The American Geosciences Institute has released another analysis of the geoscience workforce. "Currents #56" [right] concludes that
"Geoscience enrollment and degrees in the U.S. slipped back from their highs
during the 2010-2011 academic year. After several years of rapid increases,
enrollment at the undergraduate level dropped 8% to 22,162 while slipping 3% for
graduate students to 8,977. These decreases still left enrollments at or above
the 2008-2009 levels. Degrees conferred dropped by similar percentages."
It's not clear this is part of a trend. There is a fair amount of variation from year to year, and the previous year was higher than average for the past decade or two.
Funny thing, we're seeing a boom right now in Geosciences majors and in enrollment across all our classes, major and minor alike. I'd imagine this 8% shift nationally is within the noise.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if some of the drop is due to universites dropping the geology major because they do not have enough students to fill seats and because of budget cuts, some universities have eliminated their geology program or have merged the program into another department.
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