• Graduate student S& E enrollments grew steadily at a rate of 2 percent per year from 1977-91. Much of this growth was driven by large increases in the numbers of women and non-U.S. citizens entering these programs. By 1991, more than one-third of graduate S& E students were female and another quarter were foreign citizens. (For more information see: Graduate S&E Students and Degrees.)

• Masters degrees in the natural sciences obtained by males declined by one-third between 1975 and 1991. This decline, from 12,000 to 8,000 degrees, was somewhat offset by increasing numbers of degrees to females. (For more information see: Masters Degrees in S&E .)

• At the doctorate level, the number of engineering degrees grew at a faster rate than any other field. Engineering degrees grew 6 percent annually since 1978, reaching over 5,000 degrees in 1991. (For more information see: Doctoral Degrees in S&E.)

• Foreign students continued to increase their percentage of U.S. doctoral degrees in S& E. In 1991, foreign students obtained over 25 percent of all natural science degrees, over 40 percent of mathematics/computer science degrees, and over 45 percent of engineering degrees. (For more information see: Doctoral Awards to Foreign Students by Field.)

• Asian countries depend on U.S. graduate schools to educate a significant proportion of their doctoral students. Moreover, more than three times as many Asian S& E doctoral recipients planned to stay and work in the United States as S& E doctorate-holders from the Americas and Europe. (For more information see: Asian Students in U.S. Universities.)

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