Article
ID: CBB759508673

A Symbiosis of Access: Proliferating STEM PhD Training in the U.S. from 1920–2010 (2021)

unapi
Educational change Academic freedom Academically sponsored science Research institutes; research stations Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) Universities and colleges Education (graduate) 21st century 20th century

Over the course of the 20th century, unprecedented growth in scientific discovery was fueled by broad growth in the number of university-based scientists. During this period the American undergraduate enrollment rate and number of universities with STEM graduate programs each doubled three times and the annual volume of new PhDs doubled six times. This generated the research capacity that allowed the United States to surpass early European-dominated science production and lead for the rest of the century. Here, we focus on origins in the organizational environment and institutional dynamics instead of conventional economic factors. We argue that three trends of such dynamics in the development of American higher education not often considered together—mass undergraduate education, decentralized founding of universities, and flexible mission charters for PhD training—form a process characterized by a term coined here: access symbiosis. Then using a 90-year data series on STEM PhD production and institutional development, we demonstrate the historical progression of these mutually beneficial trends. This access symbiosis in the U.S., and perhaps versions of it in other nations, is likely one critical component of the integration of higher education development with the growing global capacity for scientific discovery. These results are discussed in terms of the contributions of American universities to the Century of Science, recent international trends, and its future viability.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB759508673/

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Authors & Contributors
Willcox, Karen E.
Miller, Haynes R.
Almeida, Mike
Amaral, Isabel
Bucciarelli, Louis L.
Carneiro, Ana
Journals
The Bridge: Journal of the National Academy of Engineering
Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science
Physis: Rivista Internazionale di Storia della Scienza
Science as Culture
Scientia Canadensis: Journal of the History of Canadian Science, Technology, and Medicine
Publishers
University of Michigan
Gallimard
Presses de l'Université de Montréal
NOVA School of Science and Technology (FCT NOVA)
Concepts
Universities and colleges
Educational change
Education
Information technology
Academically sponsored science
Curriculum change
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
Modern
Places
United States
Massachusetts (U.S.)
Canada
Italy
Lisbon (Portugal)
Institutions
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT
National Institute of Health (U.S.)
Seminario di Storia della scienza
Universidade Nova de Lisboa
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