Graduate Enrollment and Postdoctoral Appointments in Science, Engineering, and Health Rise, Driven Largely by Increases in the Number of Women and Temporary Visa Holders

Much of the increases in the overall SEH graduate student enrollment noted above were driven by students with temporary visas. The enrollment of temporary visa holders in SEH full-time master’s and doctoral programs increased between 2022 and 2023 (figure 1 and table 1). Among temporary visa holders enrolled full time, there was a 14,994 (9.9%) increase in master’s students and a 6,473 (5.9%) increase in doctoral students during this period. First-time, full-time enrollment of students with temporary visas increased 3,396 (4.5%) for master’s students and 2,546 (12.3%) for doctoral students between 2022 and 2023.

Among temporary visa holders in SEH, female graduate enrollment at both the master’s and doctoral levels grew slightly faster than male graduate enrollment. Specifically, part-time master’s enrollment for temporary visa holders between 2022 and 2023 increased by 1,681 (9.6%) for men, compared with 1,276 (11.8%) for women (table 1). Similarly, full-time enrollment in master’s programs for temporary visa holders increased by 8,705 (9.4%) for men, compared with 6,289 (10.8%) for women. For doctoral enrollments of temporary visa holders between 2022 and 2023, part-time enrollment decreased by 43 (1.2%) for women and by 329 (5.5%) for men; however, full-time enrollment increased by 3,055 (7.4%) for women and 3,418 (5.0%) for men.

Year-over-year enrollment patterns varied by sex, race, and ethnicity (table 1). Among female full-time graduate students who were U.S. citizens and permanent residents, master’s-level enrollment decreased by 3,394 (3.3%); doctoral-level enrollment increased by 2,539 (3.3%). Meanwhile, among a comparable group of men, enrollment of full-time master’s students decreased by 1,247 (1.9%), and full-time doctoral enrollment saw a very modest decline of 78 (0.1%). However, first-time, full-time doctoral enrollment for U.S. citizens and permanent residents increased by 162 (1.3%) for males and increased by 129 (0.9%) for females.

Enrollment trends by race and ethnicity for U.S. citizens and permanent residents also varied (table 1). Among Hispanic and Latino students enrolled full time, master’s enrollment dipped slightly by 78 (0.3%) between 2022 and 2023 and doctoral enrollment increased by 925 (5.0%). Among Asian students enrolled full time, master’s enrollment increased by 229 (1.1%), and doctoral enrollment increased by 938 (5.2%). 

Five-year enrollment trends also show consistent growth for several racial and ethnic groups. Between 2019 and 2023, full-time enrollment in master’s programs increased by 5,430 (26.4%) for Hispanic and Latino students, by 4,680 (27.7%) for Asian students, by 1,842 (13.2%) for Black and African American students, and by 1,360 (24.5%) for those of more than one race. For all other racial and ethnic groups, full-time master’s enrollment either declined or remained stable.

Full-time doctoral enrollment for each of these groups followed similar patterns of increase over the past 5 years, with Black or African American enrollment increasing by 2,783 (34.9%). Full-time doctoral enrollment increased for all racial and ethnic groups except for American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and White; these three groups saw slight decreases. Among part-time SEH graduate enrollment, almost every racial and ethnic group saw increases over the past 5 years, although the growth tended to be larger among master’s students than among doctoral students (table 1).

Master’s enrollment in SEH fields reached a record high of 510,866 in 2023, an increase of 1.9% over 2022 and of 25.1% over 2019 (table 2). As noted above, these gains were primarily the result of increases in science enrollment, although numbers of both engineering and health graduate students decreased during this period. However, all three fields have grown over the past 5 years. Since 2019, master’s enrollment in science fields increased by 34.2%, and the gains in engineering (9.4%) and health (9.4%) were notable though more modest.

For master’s students, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary sciences had the largest percentage increases in enrollment between 2022 and 2023 (29.5%, or 4,997 students), based on the increase in students in data science and analytics (table 2 and full set of data tables: table 1-11a). However, the computer and information sciences field had the largest numeric increase (rising by 13,558 to a total of 143,530 students, an increase of 10.4% from 2022). At the master’s level, this is the largest broad field in the GSS, enrolling over a quarter of master’s students.^{​For more information, see the full set of data tables: table 4-3.} Among engineering broad fields, only two areas of study saw increased enrollment between 2022 and 2023: other engineering^{​Other engineering includes agricultural engineering; engineering mechanics; physics; and science, nuclear engineering, and engineering not elsewhere classified.} increased by 1,001 (7.4%), and aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering increased by 117 (2.2%). All of the remaining engineering and health subfields either decreased or remained stable.

These declines in engineering and health fields diverge from a pattern of year-to-year increases in most of these areas of study over the previous 5 years. Over a 5-year time span, the 2 health subfields and all but 1 of the 9 engineering subfields had either stable or increasing master’s enrollment (chemical, petroleum, and chemical-related engineering enrollment declined 18.8%, down from 3,274 students in 2019 to 2,658 students in 2023; table 2). Master’s enrollment in 3 of the 10 science subfields have also declined over the past 5 years: geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences (10.0%), physical sciences (5.7%), and social sciences (4.6%).

As with master’s enrollment, doctoral enrollment also rose to a record high in 2023 of 307,229 (table 2). From 2022 to 2023, health fields (6.7%) grew the most percentagewise, followed by science (3.3%) and engineering (2.8%). Similarly, over the past 5 years, health fields (21.0%) had the largest growth, followed by science (9.8%) and engineering (4.1%).

Growth from 2022 to 2023 shows psychology (15.3%), multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary sciences (12.1%), computer and information sciences (9.2%), and other health (8.3%) were the top four fastest-growing doctoral fields percentagewise.^{​For more information, see the full set of data tables: table 1-11b.}

The rise in postdoctoral appointments resulted mainly from an increase in postdocs with temporary visas (table 3). Between 2022 and 2023, there was an increase of 2,688 (7.6%) in temporary visa–holding postdocs, and between 2019 and 2023, there was an increase of 1,354 (3.7%). There were also notable sex differences in these trends. Although male postdocs holding temporary visas increased by 1,342 (6.2%) between 2022 and 2023, there were 466 (2%) fewer male temporary visa–holding postdocs in 2023 than there were in 2019. In contrast, the number of female postdocs with temporary visas increased by 1,346 (9.8%) since 2022 and by 1,820 (13.8%) since 2019. In 2023, there were more female postdocs on temporary visas than male U.S. citizens and permanent residents or female U.S. citizens and permanent residents (figure 2).

The number of U.S. citizen and permanent resident postdocs increased slightly by 412 (1.5%) from 2022 to 2023 but declined by 1,751 (5.9%) since 2019 (table 3). Proportionally, there were more postdocs who held temporary visas in 2019 (55.5%) and in 2023 (57.9%) than U.S. citizens and permanent residents in the same years (45.5% and 42.1%, respectively).

From 2022 to 2023, postdoctoral appointments increased by 1,309 (3.6%) in science, 716 (8.6%) in engineering, and 1,075 (6.1%) in health (table 4). Several broad fields had notable 1-year changes. In science fields, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary sciences postdocs increased by 148 (17.6%), agricultural and veterinary sciences postdocs increased by 288 (16.9%), and computer and information sciences postdocs increased by 128 (14.9%). In engineering fields, chemical, petroleum, and chemical-related engineering saw a 262 (21.1%) increase in postdocs, whereas industrial, manufacturing, systems engineering, and operations research saw a 27 postdoc (18.9%) increase. All other broad fields either rose as well or remained stable, including both health fields.

In 2023, the two largest fields for postdocs were biological and biomedical sciences with 19,520 postdocs and clinical medicine with 16,393. These are the only two fields employing more than 10,000 postdocs; together, they accounted for 54.5% of all postdoctoral employment. Between 2019 and 2023, biological and biomedical sciences declined by 2,327 postdocs (10.7%), and clinical medicine fell by 257 (1.5%). However, in the most recent year, from 2022 and 2023, biological and biomedical sciences postdocs remained stable, whereas clinical medicine postdoc counts increased by 763 postdocs (4.9%).

Over the period from 2019 to 2023, NFR employment increased by 3,993 (13.2%), and between 2022 and 2023, it rose by 2,063 (6.4%) (table 4). Between 2022 and 2023, computer and information sciences experienced the largest 1-year percentage increase at 24.5%, or 124 NFRs. Additionally, clinical medicine had the largest numeric increase rising by 447 NFRs (6.1%). Similar to postdoc appointments, biological and biomedical sciences remain the largest field for NFR employment, with 8,589 NFRs reported. This is followed closely by clinical health NFRs, which totaled 7,798 in 2023. Together, these two fields comprise 47.7% of all SEH NFR employment.

Conducted since 1966, the GSS is an annual survey of all academic institutions in the United States that grant research-based master’s or doctoral degrees in SEH fields. The 2023 GSS collected data from 22,802 organizational units (departments, programs, affiliated research centers, and health care facilities) at 687 eligible institutions and their affiliates in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Guam. The unit response rate was 97.8%. An overview of the survey is available at the survey homepage.

In 2020, the GSS amended its taxonomy to align with a revised NCSES Taxonomy of Disciplines (TOD) and 2020 National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP). As such, these changes did not lead to a large shift in overall reported GSS counts, and data remain comparable to data from 2017 to 2019. Additionally, new CIP codes, such as data science and medical clinical sciences, were added, along with other codes in GSS-eligible series; although these CIP codes are newly eligible, a review of unit names from prior years indicates that many of them were being reported prior to 2020. Some additional adjustments to allow for additional detail in some fields were made to the GSS taxonomy based on the 2020 CIP codes reported to GSS. Finally, similar to science and health, broad fields were added to engineering.

At the field level, some notable changes may impact trends. First, consistent with the 2020 CIP and TOD, veterinary biomedical and clinical sciences moved from the health sciences to agricultural sciences (which was then renamed agricultural and veterinary sciences). Human development is now reported under psychology rather than under social sciences, to align with the 2020 TOD. Finally, 22 new 2020 CIP codes were added to multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary sciences; the addition of these CIP codes likely moved units that were already reported (i.e., many units named data science are now reported with new CIP codes that map to the new data science and data analytics GSS code). For more information about the 2020 GSS taxonomy change, see the technical tables: tables A-17, A-18a, and A-18b (https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf22319).

GSS health fields are collected under the advisement of NIH. These GSS fields are about a third of all health fields in the Department of Education’s CIP taxonomy. NIH information on trends seen within these selected health fields can be found at https://report.nih.gov/nihdatabook/.

The full set of data tables from the 2023 survey is available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/surveys/graduate-students-postdoctorates-s-e/. Data are also available in NCSES’s interactive data tool (https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/ids/gss). For more information about the survey, contact the Survey Manager, Michael I. Yamaner.

NCSES has reviewed this product for unauthorized disclosure of confidential information and approved its release (NCSES-DRN24-043).

Smith B, Arbeit CA, Thompson H, Yamaner MI; National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES). 2024. Graduate Enrollment and Postdoctoral Appointments in Science, Engineering, and Health Rise, Driven Largely by Increases in the Number of Women and Temporary Visa Holders. NSF 25-316. Alexandria, VA: U.S. National Science Foundation. Available at https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf25316.

Bethany Smith
KEN Consulting, Inc., under subcontract to RTI International

Caren A. Arbeit
RTI International, under contract to NCSES

Herbert Thompson
KEN Consulting, Inc., under subcontract to RTI International

Michael I. Yamaner
Survey Manager
NCSES
Tel: (703) 292-7815
E-mail: myamaner@nsf.gov

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics
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