Contents

---

General Notes

Data Tables

Appendix A. Technical Notes

Appendix B. Survey Materials

Suggested Citation, Acknowledgments

Appendix A. Technical Notes

Survey Universe

The data collected in the 2005 Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering represent national estimates of graduate enrollment and postdoctoral employment as of fall 2005 in all U.S. academic institutions that granted doctorates or master's degrees in any science, engineering, or selected health-related fields.[1] The survey collects data for all branch campuses, affiliated research centers, and separately organized components, such as graduate or medical schools. The survey universe consisted of 708 reporting units at 588 graduate institutions: 493 reporting units at 373 doctorate-granting institutions and 215 reporting units at 215 master's-granting institutions.[2]

Data on graduate science and engineering (S&E) enrollment and postdoctoral appointees have been collected since 1966. However, data from 1966 to 1974 are not directly comparable with data from 1975 to 2005 due to changes in both the S&E fields and the types of institutions covered in the survey. From fall 1966 through fall 1971, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Traineeship Program collected data from a limited number of doctorate-granting institutions and requested data only on S&E fields supported by NSF. The NSF Universities and Nonprofit Institutions Studies Group began collecting these data with the fall 1972 survey. Between 1972 and 1974, eligibility definitions were changed to include health-related fields and to increase the number of S&E fields surveyed; the survey was also broadened to include all institutions known to have programs leading to a doctorate or master's degree in science and engineering.

Table A-1 shows the number of institutions, reporting units, and departments by degree level covered by the survey, as well as the estimated total enrollment for each year between 1966 and 2005.

• Data for 1966–71 reflect totals for the NSF Graduate Traineeship program only and are not comparable with data from 1972 through 2005.
• Data for 1972–74 reflect changes in eligibility definitions, which affected both S&E fields and types of institutions surveyed. These data are not comparable to data collected before 1972 or after 1974.
• Data for 1984–87 from master's-granting institutions were collected on a sample basis. Enrollment data for this period have been adjusted to account for the sampling and reflect estimated universe totals.
• Data for 1975–2005 are intended to represent consistent coverage of science, engineering, and selected health-related fields. In 1989, NSF revised the coverage of S&E fields in the survey. This resulted in the exclusion of some fields, and the data for 1975–88 subsequently were revised to reflect this change. Since 1988 the survey has attempted to cover all institutions with S&E and selected health-related doctoral or master's programs and has excluded institutions that do not have any S&E graduate programs.

Tables A-2 and A-3 present data on departmental coverage by S&E and health-related fields for doctorate- and master's-granting institutions for the years 1998–2005.

 Back to Top

Survey Instrument

There were no significant changes in the 2005 survey instrument from previous survey years. The survey instrument consists of NSF Form 811 and NSF Form 812. Form 811 is a list of departments or programs specific to each institution surveyed. The list is based on the departments known to have existed in the previous survey cycle, and each school coordinator is asked to update it. Form 812 is a series of questions completed by the school coordinator or departmental respondent that obtains counts of students and data on key characteristics of interest, such as race/ethnicity, sex, citizenship, and source of funding. In addition to the questionnaires, which include instructions, the survey package contains the following:

• An enclosure detailing mailing package contents
• A flyer explaining NSF's academic S&E surveys
• A cover letter to survey coordinators at graduate or medical schools
• A crosswalk showing representative National Center for Education Statistics instructional program codes corresponding to each S&E and health-related field as defined by NSF
• A postcard for respondent use, acknowledging receipt of the survey and indicating any changes in coordinator name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address
• A flyer informing coordinators of their IDs and passwords to use in responding to the survey through the Web-based data collection system

School coordinators and departmental respondents have had the option of providing data using the Web-based data collection system since the 1998 survey. In 2005, 642 of the 708 reporting units used the online option.

 Back to Top

Survey Methodology

In addition to the verification of the information cited above, the acknowledgment postcard also requested that school coordinators indicate how the data were collected, whether the data were maintained centrally or collected from individual departments, and whether they were derived from a computerized database or were hand tabulated. The majority of reporting units indicate a combination of sources for their data. Over the years, the use of computerized systems has shown a small but gradual increase.

School coordinators were requested to review the departmental listing provided in the survey packet on NSF Form 811 and indicate any changes in their school structure, such as departments newly formed, phased out, split, or merged, and to check off any departments that had neither graduate students nor postdoctorates (for which survey forms would therefore not be submitted). School coordinators returned revised Form 811s to the survey contractor for use as a checklist in tracking departmental responses.

Schools completed a survey questionnaire for each department either centrally or at the department level and returned the questionnaire to the survey contractor for data entry, editing, and tabulation. The survey contractor referred arithmetic errors, inconsistencies between items, and sharp year-to-year fluctuations to the school coordinators for correction or clarification.

 Back to Top

Response Rates

The 2004 and 2005 response rates are not directly comparable with response rates reported for prior years. Response rates from 1975 through 2003 were calculated for reporting units (schools) and departments but not for institutions. For schools, the response rate was calculated as the total number of responding schools divided by the total number of eligible schools. A school was considered responding if one or more of its eligible departments responded. The departmental response rate was calculated as the number of departments not requiring full imputation divided by the total number of eligible departments. A department was considered responding if it reported at least one data item.

For 2004 and 2005, the response-rate calculations were changed for schools and departments/programs, and a response-rate calculation was developed for institutions. The new response rate calculations adhere to the American Association for Public Opinion Research's (AAPOR) standards for computing response rates (see Response Rate 3 calculation in AAPOR 2004:29).[3]

Criteria for distinguishing categories of response (complete, partial, nonresponse) for 2004 forward are as follows:

• A department is considered a complete respondent if it reports complete row and column totals in Items 5, 6, 7, and 8 of the survey. A department is considered a partial respondent if it reports only grand totals for Items 5, 6, 7, and 8. Any other response from a department is considered a nonresponse.
• A reporting unit is considered a complete respondent if 90% or more of its departments provide data (are not nonrespondents). Response is considered partial if more than 50% but less than 90% of its departments provide data. A reporting unit is considered a nonrespondent if less than 50% of its departments provide data. The same criteria are used to categorize institutional response.

Of the 708 reporting units surveyed in 2005, 684 (96.6%) provided complete or partial responses to the survey; 672 (94.9%) provided complete responses, 12 (1.7%) provided partial responses, and 24 (3.4%) were nonrespondents. Five of the nonrespondent reporting units, three at Tulane and two at Louisiana State University, were closed due to Hurricane Katrina and were not available for the 2005 data collection.[4]

Of the 588 institutions surveyed in 2005, 561 (95.4%) were complete respondents, 8 (1.7%) were partial respondents, and 19 (3.2%) were nonrespondents. One partially respondent institution (Louisiana State University) reported limited data and one nonrespondent institution (Tulane) reported no data as a result of Hurricane Katrina.[5]

In 2005, using the new response rate calculations, 10,783 (87%) of the total 12,396 eligible departments were considered complete respondents. An additional 1,270 (10.3%) were considered partial respondents, reporting only grand totals to items 5, 6, 7 and 8. A total of 343 departments (2.8%) were considered nonrespondents, including 88 departments from schools closed due to Hurricane Katrina.[6]

Table A-4 shows departmental response rates for 1975–2005. For comparison purposes, two sets of response rates are shown for 2004 and 2005. The first set follows the response-rate calculation used from 1975–2003. The second set follows the response-rate calculation introduced in 2004, which adheres to AAPOR standards. For example, in 2005, 343 departments were considered nonrespondents under the new response rate calculations, whereas only 241 would have been considered nonrespondents under the older method.

Imputation techniques were used to fill in missing data for departments in 2005. Departments that could not report data due to Hurricane Katrina were not imputed. Tables A-5 and A-6 show the total number of departments in doctorate- and master's-granting institutions, the imputed number of full- and part-time graduate students enrolled, the imputed number of postdoctoral appointees, and imputation rates for 2003, 2004, and 2005. Tables A-7 through A-12 provide imputation rates and imputed data by specific data items for 2005.

 Back to Top

Changes in Data Items

Over time, changes have been made to the content of the survey to keep it relevant to the needs of data users. Such changes prevent precise maintenance of trend data. Therefore, some data items are not available for all institutions in all years. Major changes in the data collected (with the year changes became effective) include the following:

• Data Collection
  

  1975	Graduate institutions that granted only master's degrees were asked to provide estimates for the number of full- and part-time students and the number of postdoctorates and/or research associates.
  1976–77	Data for master's-granting institutions were collected on an abbreviated form of the survey (short form), which did not collect data on citizenship of graduate students.
  1978	Doctorate-granting institutions received a short form of the survey collecting selected data items; master's-granting institutions were not surveyed. The 1978 figures shown in the tables for total enrollment and full-time enrollment for master's-granting institutions represent estimates based on 1977 and 1979 data.
  1979	All graduate institutions were surveyed using the same form; the full-scale survey was resumed.
  1984–87	The survey design was changed to a stratified random sample with a certainty stratum that included all doctorate-granting institutions, all master's-granting historically black colleges and universities, and all land-grant institutions. The remaining master's-granting institutions were divided into two sample strata based on enrollment size. Enrollment data for 1984–87 have been adjusted to reflect universe totals.
  2005	Due to Hurricane Katrina, data for Tulane University and Loyola University were not included, and Louisiana State University data are for the Graduate School (Baton Rouge) and Health Sciences Center (Shreveport) only; the two New Orleans campuses were closed. Data from these schools were not available and were not imputed.

• Sex
  

  1976–77	Master's-granting institutions were requested to provide data on all graduate students by sex.
  1978	Doctorate-granting institutions received a short form of the survey collecting selected data items, which did not request any information on sex; 1978 figures in the tables represent estimates based on 1977 and 1979 data. Master's-granting institutions were not surveyed.
  1979	Data on sex were requested for all graduate students at all institutions.
  1993	The survey began collecting race/ethnicity data by sex.

• Race/Ethnicity
  

  1979	The survey began collecting race/ethnicity data as an optional data item; collection of this information became an official part of the survey in 1980.
  1993	The survey began collecting race/ethnicity data by sex.
  1999	The survey presented respondents with new race/ethnicity categories. The Asian/Pacific Islander category used in previous years' surveys became two categories: Asian and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. In addition, the survey included two new categories: More Than One Race Hispanic/Latino and More Than One Race Non-Hispanic/Latino. The 1999 survey excluded the Other category included in previous years' surveys. These changes are not reflected in the 2005 published tables. In each of the 7 years of collecting these data, only about 8% of the departments have reported data in any of the new categories. For this year's table production, as in the previous 6 years, the data reported in the new categories are combined into previous survey categories. The data are combined for the tables as follows: the Asian and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander categories form the Asian/Pacific Islander category; the One Race Only Hispanic/Latino and More Than One Race Hispanic/Latino categories form the Hispanic category; and the More Than One Race Non-Hispanic/Latino and Unknown or Did Not State categories form the Other or Unknown category.

• Citizenship
  

  1972–77	The survey collected citizenship data for graduate students enrolled full time in doctorate-granting institutions.
  1975–77	Citizenship data were not collected from master's-degree-only institutions for either full- or part-time students.
  1978	Doctorate-granting institutions received a short form of the survey, which did not collect any citizenship data; 1978 figures in the tables represent estimates based on 1977 and 1979 data. Master's-granting institutions were not surveyed.
  1979	The survey began collecting citizenship data for all full-time graduate students.
  1983	The survey began collecting citizenship data for graduate students enrolled part time.

• Full-Time Enrollment
  

  1999	The survey began collecting data on first-time enrollment by race/ethnicity, but data collected by the 2000 survey were the first of these data released.

• Graduate Student Support
  

  1978	The survey did not collect data on mechanisms of support, but did collect sources of support for full-time students. Because actual mechanisms of support were unknown, data were reported only as "other." Master's-granting institutions were not surveyed.
  1979	The survey began collecting separate data on mechanisms of support for fellowships and traineeships (prior years combined these mechanisms). It also started to collect information on "other nonfaculty research staff with doctorates" along with the information collected on postdoctoral appointees.
  1985	The survey began collecting separate data on students receiving their primary support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  1996	The survey began collecting separate data on students receiving their primary support from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
  1999	The survey began collecting separate data on students receiving their primary support from the U.S. Department of Energy.

 Back to Top

Data Revisions

During the fall 1988 survey cycle, a review of the survey universe and of the S&E definition resulted in the exclusion of departments that were not primarily oriented toward granting research degrees. A number of departments—mostly those in the field of "Social sciences, not elsewhere classified"—were found to be primarily engaged in training teachers, practitioners, administrators, or managers rather than researchers; thus, they were no longer eligible for the survey. During the 1989–2005 survey cycles, this process continued, and all ineligible departments identified were removed to ensure trend consistency for the entire 1975–2005 period. These changes resulted in a reduction in total enrollments and social science enrollments for all years. Table A-13 shows the net effect on enrollment data of these adjustments over the years.

Each survey cycle since fall 1992, an institution's previous year's data for the highest S&E degree granted have been changed to reflect the institution's highest S&E degree in the current survey cycle. Over the years, a number of master's-granting institutions have become doctorate-granting institutions. This change has resulted in a smaller decrease in enrollment at doctorate-granting institutions than at master's-granting institutions, because it partially offsets the reductions in enrollment that occur when ineligible departments are removed from the survey as a result of the survey universe review process.

Since the 1992 survey cycle, the definition of medical schools has included only those institutional components with membership in the Association of American Medical Colleges. Data collected before 1992 are not comparable with data collected for the fall 1992 and subsequent surveys.

 Back to Top

 Back to Top

---