Ten-year trends in college majors

A few weeks ago in this column we made note of the fact that PwC, like their competitors KPMG, were no long requiring a 2:I degree (or the equivalent) for interns or future employees.

While this is part of a trend that has also seen an increase in the number of employers no longer demanding a university degree for entry-level positions most labor market projections still envision an economy where the demand for college-educated workers will continue to grow.

Our column also noted that recent studies in the UK still indicate that success is based not only on having a degree, but what you studied, where you studied it and how well you performed.

In the United States, these projections focus not only on the number of graduates needed but also the fields of study most in demand.

This week, we use data from the United States to consider the degree to which students are responding to industry demands.

The most complete data on the majors of college graduates are reported by the National Centre for Education Statistics,which charts the number of bachelor's degrees awarded by US colleges and universities in 32 degree fields.

Its most striking finding is that the number of undergraduates earning a bachelor's degree has increased substantially, and that the demographic background of those recipients is changing, regardless of major.

Between 2009/10 and 2019/20, the total number of bachelor's degrees conferred increased by 24 percent, from about 1.6 million to about two million degrees. The increase occurred during the same time period that saw a 9 percent decrease in the total number of undergraduates enrolled in college, which would account for some of the shift in raw numbers.

Women have earned the majority of bachelor's degrees for many years, and the proportion of female graduates has changed little over the past decade.

In 2019/20, females earned 58 percent (1,177,168 million degrees) and males earned 42 percent (861,263 degrees) of all bachelor's degrees conferred.

Ten years earlier, females earned 57 percent (943,259 degrees) and males earned 706,660 (43 percent).

So what did these new graduates study?

Of those 2.0 million bachelor's degrees conferred in 2019/20, 58 percent were concentrated in just six fields of study: business (387,900); health professions and related programs (257,300); social sciences and history (161,200); engineering (128,300); biological and biomedical sciences (126,600); and psychology (120,000).

The next largest percentages of bachelor's degrees conferred in 2019/20 were in the following fields: computer and information sciences and support services (5 percent); visual and performing arts (5 percent); communication, journalism, and related programs (5 percent), and education (4 percent).

These might just be the most popular but the limited range indicates that students might be increasingly responding to market demands.

If you have any questions about our column, please e-mail them to us: enquiry@brightentestprep.edu.hk