American Association of Engineering Societies
1111 19th St. NW Suite 403
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 296-2237
fax (202) 296-1151
http://www.aaes.org/ewc
For Immediate Release: July 30, 1999
Contact:
Matt Doster, (202) 296-2237 x210; [email protected]
Charles Blue, (202) 296-2237 x208; [email protected]
Freshman Engineering Enrollments Rebound: Positive Trend Indicated After 17-year Low
WASHINGTON, DC - The number of undergraduate students choosing to study engineering has increased steadily over the past two years, heralding an upswing in the recent lows of engineering bachelor's degrees awarded.
According to a new report* by the Engineering Workforce Commission (EWC), a project of the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES), the national total of engineering's freshmen class increased 4.4 percent last fall to a total of 94,909 students. This marks the second year in a row that the number of freshmen deciding to study engineering has increased. These numbers are welcome news following 1998's 17-year low in the number of engineering bachelor's degrees awarded. The 1998 figures also reflect the fact that the 1994 freshman engineering class of 85,047 students was the smallest since the 1976 class of 82,250. The high point for engineering freshmen enrollment was 115,303 in 1982.
"This latest report from the Engineering Workforce Commission is welcome news for the engineering profession," said EWC Chair Eleanor Baum. "After witnessing a steady decline in bachelor's degrees granted, it's comforting to see signs that new students are entering the pipeline and realizing what an important and interesting career engineering offers."
Engineers Important for Economic Growth
The U.S. economy is enjoying a period of unprecedented growth and technological innovation. Engineers have played a key factor in establishing and maintaining this pace, as demonstrated by the United States' robust technology sector. The ability to maintain this growth and to ensure future prosperity, therefore, is directly tied to the number, quality, and diversity of engineers entering the profession.
"Engineers are needed to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life," explained Baum. "So it is important for our nation that universities continue to attract the best and the brightest students into engineering." Baum cautioned, however, that a 2-year trend in overall enrollment does not indicate that the engineering profession has solved its long-term problems with recruitment, especially among women and minorities, who continue to be vastly underrepresented in all levels of the profession and whose creativity is sorely needed.
Computer Engineering Attracts More Students
Leading this recent upswing is the dramatic growth in freshmen computer engineering students. Long seen as a growing discipline in the engineering field, computer engineering-for the first time in the 25-year history of the EWC collecting these data-has surpassed all other disciplines in the number of new students. Up until this point, electrical and electronics engineering has proven to be the most popular among freshmen engineering students.
Overall, more students currently pursue electrical and electronics engineering than any other discipline. The EWC predicts, however, that this dominance may end in as little as 5 years if current trends continue.
It should be noted that of the approximately 13,000 freshmen that EWC considers enrolled in computer engineering programs, nearly half are not studying to become computer engineers. EWC annually includes those students earning degrees in programs such as computer science, software engineering, and information science.
Minority Numbers Improve
Another positive trend in the freshmen enrollment data is that the number of African Americans pursuing engineering is increasing after a 5-year slump. African Americans at the freshmen level totaled 8,028 in 1998, an increase of 8.4 percent from the year before.
Despite the positive news, George Campbell Jr., president and chief executive officer, National Action Council of Minorities in Engineering (NACME), recently urged cautious optimism rather than celebration. "We have to remember that we are still well below the peak year of 1992-1993 when we had 15,181 minority engineering freshmen," said Campbell. "And because freshmen enrollment was also up among non-minorities in 1998, the minority share of the incoming class is actually lower than last year. African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians now represent only 15.6 percent of the entering cohort, a decline from 15.7 percent."
The American Association of Engineering Societies is a federation of engineering societies dedicated to advancing the knowledge, understanding, and practice of engineering whose membership represents more than one million engineers in the United States.
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