The US will need to produce over one million additional graduates with science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees over the next decade to maintain its upper hand in science and technology, according toa report released last week [PDF] by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. The key to meeting that challenge, says the Council, is to inspire and retain more students in STEM fields by improving the first two years of college education.
The US currently produces about 300 000 graduates with bachelor and associate degrees in STEM fields every year. China and India are said to produce many more.The quality of grads that those Asian countries produce might not match that of US grads, but the fact remains: the US needs more STEM grads to stay competitive.
The new report says that less than 40 percent of students who enter college in the US to major in a STEM field complete their degree. Just increasing student retention from 40 to 50 percent would produce 750 000 more STEM degrees over the next decade.
