Engineering -- an endless frontier
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Engineering education
In 2000, American universities awarded about 97,000 baccalaureate and 6,2000 doctoral degrees in engineering and computer science.  They amounted  to about 8 percent of bachelor’s, 9 percent of master’s, and 15 percent of doctor’s degrees in all fields, see charts for science and engineering education in pdf.   Far more than in other sciences, engineers and computer scientists with only a bachelor's degree stay to work in their field of  education.  The practicality of engineering undergraduate education puts a heavier burden on universities, especially when technology is changing  fast.  Engineering schools are continually revamping their curricula – they cannot afford the conservatism in higher education that a 2000 survey by Pew Charitable Trust found in the humanities and social sciences. (J. Mervis, Student survey highlights mismatch of training, goals.  Science, 291: 408-9; 2001).
Historical trends in graduate education Doctorate degrees awarded annually by US universities.  Sources: Census Bureau, Historical Statistics of the United States (1975), p.387.  NSF, Science and Engineering Degrees (2002), Tbs.19, 46.

References

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Wiener, N. 1954.  Invention: The Care and Feeding of Ideas.  Cambridge, MIT Press.  (Inventive talents need social support.