Our degree attainment studies reveal impacts of and predict the future from unanticipated challenges influencing STEM disciplines in academia. Our studies are of increasing interest because challenges for some disciplines are expected to increase, due President Trump’s announced plans for academia.

Last October, we reported in Chemistry World that several chemistry departments in the UK and in the US have closed, merged, or combined by sharing courses with other departments or schools. One reason cited was because chemistry is expensive due to so many required chemistry labs. Also, in some departments, students and female faculty and staff depart frequently due to the environment.

These closures precipitated from conflicts and challenges which developed over decades. Now, President Trump is reducing and withholding funding and grants to academia, so additional budgetary problems and more closures can be expected for chemistry. Our data reveal where students appear to be going.

Another significant challenge is that some university departments rely heavily on international students to populate graduate programs, while Congress expressed that US tax dollars should fund degrees to domestic students. Therefore, we report the ratio of domestic vs international degree recipients among STEM disciplines nationally and at specific universities of interest to President Trump.

President Trump is acting to reduce the number of international students in the US. However, in the last 15 years some schools awarded no (zero) PhDs to domestic students in civil engineering and others awarded none in computer science; all such PhDs went to international students. This imbalance went undetected until now, but such complete exclusions of domestic students won’t likely be allowed in the future.

President Trump recently capped international students among undergraduates at 15%, so similar restrictions might soon be expected for graduate students as well. Also, he is further restricting internationals from US science by reducing the number of H-1B visas permitted and increasing fees for them. Statistics on degree attainment characteristics will help understand and prepare for challenges facing STEM disciplines.

Dr. Nelson welcomes comments and questions sent to djnelson@ou.edu.