HBCUs as the Most Productive Undergraduate Sources of Black Doctorates in Science & Engineering

Last update: Thursday 10/9/14 @ 4:19 pm

In June 2013 I posted a note on this blog titled, "HBCUs Produce the Most Black Alums Who Receive Doctorates in Science and Engineering." My note analyzed data presented in a March 2013 NSF report, Baccalaureate Origins of U.S.-trained S&E Doctorate Recipients. The NSF data identified the number of black alums of all accredited colleges and universities who subsequently received research-oriented doctoral degrees. My analysis showed that 21 HBCUs were surprisingly more productive than most non-HBCU colleges and universities. (Note: S&E is roughly equivalent to STEM)

The NSF report indicated that 9,202 U.S. recipients of research S&E doctoral degrees between 2002 and 2011 were black. The NSF report also noted that the 85 accredited HBCUs that offered bachelors degrees produced 2,435 black alums who subsequently earned S&E doctorates -- which is 26% of the 9,202 doctorates earned by alums of all colleges and universities. Table 1 (below) is a modified version of Table 5 in my June 2013 note. 

Note: Table 1 refers to the number black alums who receive S&E doctorates as "Yields" ... and it refers to the number of doctoral recipients per 100 black alums as "Yield Ratios"

• Given that all of the nation's 106 HBCUs enrolled less than 13 percent of all black undergraduates who were enrolled in all U.S. colleges and universities during this ten year period, HBCUs as a whole were twice as productive as might have been expected.
   
• What's even more remarkable is that the 21 most productive HBCUs -- i.e., 25 percent of the 85 HBCUS that offered bachelors degrees -- accounted for 1,819 of these black doctoral S&E recipients. This represented 75% of the 2,435 HBCU alums and 20 percent of the total 9,202 black alums.

The NSF report also tabulated the number of black alums who received S&E doctorates in four subfields -- Life Sciences, Social Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Engineering.  My June 2013 note analyzed and graphed the dominance of the HBCUs listed in Table 1 as the largest suppliers of doctoral recipients in each of these subfields. I refer readers to my previous note for details. However, I conclude this overview by quoting a few of that note's most telling conclusions:

• All HBCUs are not the same. They come in a variety of types and sizes, and their performance varies widely on some important metrics.
   
• The HBCUs in the top 21 were not the 21 largest HBCUs.
   
• Many non-HBCUs are more efficient sources of black alums who subsequently received S&E doctorates; their yield-ratios are higher, i.e., more S&E doctorates per 100 black alums ... Only one HBCU, Spelman College, made it into the top ten on the NSF list of the 50 U.S. colleges and universities of all kinds that had the highest yield-ratios
   
• HBCUs can't learn from each other's experience until they acknowledge that some HBCUs are performing much better than others with regards to some important metrics, e.g., yields and yield-ratios. 

Table 1. HBCUs on NSF's List of Top 50 Undergrad Sources of Black S&E Doctorates    

Yield Rank	HBCUs (2)	Yield = Black S&E  Doctorates (3)	Fall 2011 Black Undergrad Enrollment (4)
1	Howard University.	220	6808
2	Spelman College	175	1760
3	Florida A&M University	154	10443
4	Hampton University	150	3849
5	Xavier University of Louisiana	126	2101
6	Morehouse College	106	2320
7	Morgan State University	102	5784
7	North Carolina A&T State University	102	7934
9	Southern Univesity and A&M College	100	5414
10	Tuskegee University	80	2327
16	Jackson State University	69	6380
20	Tennessee State University	61	5333
26	Alabama A&M University	50	3936
34	Clark Atlanta University	45	2848
34	Prairie View A&M University	45	5922
37	Tougaloo College	44	917
41	Norfolk State University	41	5568
42	North Carolina Central University	40	5148
45	Grambling State University	39	3857
50	Dillard University	35	1200
50	Fisk University	35	372
	Number Top HBCUs	21
	Total Black from Top HBCUs	1819