Under the program, nine colleges and universities in Kentucky and West Virginia will seek to increase the percentage of minority students in STEM disciplines by 15 percent by 2016.
According to data on students who earned doctoral degrees in 2012, nearly 40 percent of African American doctoral recipients funded their education through their own resources compared to 21 percent of Whites.
Blacks who earned doctorates in 2012 had an average of $54,132 in debt from educational loans. Whites who earned doctorates had average educational debts of $25,992.
For African Americans who earned doctoral degrees in 2012, the average number of years that they spent from the time they graduated from college to the time they earned their doctorate was 11.9 years. For Whites the figure is 9 years.
In 2012, there were 1,605 doctoral degrees awarded in various fields where none of the recipients were African Americans.
In 2012, African Americans earned 2,079 doctoral degrees. This was 6.3 percent of all doctoral degrees awarded to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. In 2002, African Americans also earned 6.3 percent of all doctoral degrees.
The associate dean for academic affairs at the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, will be the program manager for broadening participation in the engineering education and centers division of the NSF.
The National Science Foundation reports that between 2002 and 2011, 9,202 Blacks received doctorates in science and engineering fields. Howard University in Washington, D.C., was the leading undergraduate feeder institution for Blacks who earned doctorate in these fields.
Professor Mayo joined the faculty at CalTech in 1991 and for a time was the only African American on the university’s faculty. From 2007 to 2010, he served as CalTech’s vice provost for research.
There are a large number of specific academic disciplines where African Americans earn no doctoral degrees whatsoever.
The number of African Americans earning doctorates has declined in each of the past two years, after reaching an all-time high in 2009. Over the last decade, the percentage of all doctoral degree awards that were earned by Blacks has stagnated at close to 6 percent.
Howard University, Jackson State University, and Norfolk State University will receive five-year grants to conduct materials research and education programs.
The university’s Engineering Research Center will use the grant to design and test an innovative device for spinal fusion operations.
Some, but not all, of the decline is due to a reclassification of 77 doctoral programs in education.
Blacks with scientific doctorates are more likely than similarly educated whites to work in academia while whites are more likely than blacks to work in the corporate world.
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