Small and mid-sized institutions play a significant role in strengthening the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) pipeline among underrepresented students, according to a new report by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC).
“Strengthening the STEM Pipeline II: The Contributions of Small and Mid-Sized Independent Colleges in Preparing Underrepresented Students in STEM,” is an extension of CIC’s 2014 research which focused on the role that institutions play in students obtaining STEM degrees.
Their previous research found that smaller private colleges, in many cases, did as well or even better than their larger research university counterparts in terms of attainment rates.
“We thought that was really compelling, but we did not do analysis broken out by type of student,” said Dr. Harold V. Hartley III, senior vice president at CIC. “We were particularly concerned about underrepresented students and their success in STEM fields. STEM obviously is very important for our economy and a great opportunity for employment for students. Underrepresented students, especially women and students of color, tend to be left out in these STEM fields.”
Within the United States, 52 percent of Asian American and 43 percent of White students complete a STEM bachelor’s degree in six years compared to only 29 percent of Latinx and 22 percent of Black students. On the other hand, women only earn about half of all STEM degrees. Additionally, though women hold about half of all jobs in the U.S. workforce, they hold fewer than 28 percent of STEM jobs, according to the report.
Surveying over 700 CIC college and university members, the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago carried out the 2019 research.
Four types of institutions were analyzed including public non-doctoral, public doctoral, private nonprofit non-doctoral and private nonprofit doctoral. They were compared based on various rates such as post-baccalaureate employment and education outcomes, earning a doctoral degree in a STEM field, persistence in undergraduate STEM programs and time-to-degree.
