From the Editor: Undergraduate Degrees in English and the Jobs That Follow

Transcription

1 From the Editor: Undergraduate Degrees in English and the Jobs That Follow David Laurence ADE Bulletin (Winter-Spring 2007), pp. 3 7 ISSN: CrossRef DOI: /ade Copyright 2007 by The Association of Departments of English All material published by the The Association of Departments of English in any medium is protected by copyright. Users may link to the ADE Web page freely and may quote from ADE publications as allowed by the doctrine of fair use. Written permission is required for any other reproduction of material from any ADE publication. Send requests for permission to reprint material to the ADE permissions manager by mail (26 Broadway, New York, NY ), (permissions@mla.org), or fax ( ).

2 F R O M T H E E D I T O R Undergraduate Degrees in English and the Jobs That Follow In DECEMBER 2006 the United States Department of Education released data about degree awards for the academic year In ,320 Title IV participating institutions awarded a total of 55,265 bachelor s degrees in English. The 55,265 total continues the trend of very slight increases in the number of degrees awarded coupled with a slow decline in the number of bachelor s degrees in English per 100 bachelor s degrees in all fields. Figure 1 shows the trend lines from 1987 to 2005 for both the number of bachelor s degree awards in English and the number of bachelor s degrees in English Table 1 Number of BA Degrees in English and BA Degrees in English per 100 Bachelor s Degrees in All Fields, 1987 to 2005 Year* Number of Degrees Number per 100 Degrees , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , *No data are available for per 100 bachelor s degrees in all fields. Table 1 provides the numbers on which the figure is based.1 After declining each of the four years from 1994 to 1997, the number of bachelor s degree awards in English increased each of the seven years for which data are available from 1998 to 2005 (no data were released for 1999). However, the number of bachelor s degrees in English per 100 bachelor s degrees in all fields has declined, slowly, every year but one over the years 1993 to (The exception is 2001, when the 4.08 English bachelor s degrees per 100 bachelor s degrees awarded in all fields remained basically unchanged from the 4.06 figure for 2000.) As of 2005 the figure stands at 3.79, just above the 3.62 figure for 1987, the initial year of the current degree completions series in the Integrated Postsecondary Data System, or IPEDS. The problem for interpretation concerns how much significance to assign to these two numbers. The absolute number of bachelor s degrees awarded has risen to a level within hailing distance of the highwater mark of the early 1970s, when more than 60,000 bachelor s degrees were awarded annually, but the number of English bachelor s degrees per 100 bachelor s degree awards has declined toward the low point of the early 1980s, when the number of bachelor s degrees in English per 100 stood at 3.28 and the number of bachelor s degrees the field awarded annually had fallen to just over 30,000. The data for English come into better focus when considered in the context of overall trends in bachelor s degree awards. Since 1987 bachelor s degree awards have increased by 45.1%. The increase was not steady but happened in two waves. The first wave occurred between 1987 and 1993, when the number of degrees grew by 17.5%, and the ADE Bulletin, Nos , Winter-Spring by the association of departments of english

3 From the Editor second between 1998 and 2005, when the number grew by 22.5%. Between the two waves from 1993 to 1998 the number of bachelor s degrees increased by only 1.7%, and the slight increase was entirely due to degrees awarded to women (bachelor s degree awards to men actually fell by 2.4% between 1993 and 1998, whereas awards to women increased by 5.0%).2 During the 17.5% increase in bachelor s degree awards in the first wave, the number of bachelor s degree awards in English grew much more rapidly by 54.5%. Consequently, the number of bachelor s degrees in English per 100 degree awards also increased, by 32.0%, to 4.78 from Then, in the 1990s, the number of bachelor s degrees awarded leveled off, and both the number of bachelor s degrees in English and the number of bachelor s degrees in English per 100 bachelor s degrees in all fields began a slow decline. When the number of bachelor s degree awards began to increase again, after 1998, the number of bachelor s degree awards in English likewise began to grow, but this time at a rate only about half that for bachelor s degrees overall. Between 1997 and 2005, the number of bachelor s degree awards in English grew 11.9%, but the number of bachelor s degrees in all fields grew 22.6%. Thus even as the absolute number of bachelor s degree awards in English has grown, the number of bachelor s degrees in English per 100 bachelor s degrees in all fields has continued the slow decline that began in The figures for 2004 and 2005 show even the recent growth in the absolute number of English degrees slowing to less than 1.0% each year. In addition, in 2005 the increase in bachelor s degrees in English was greater for men than for women 371 (2.2%) for men as compared with a negligible 43 (0.1%) for women. The IPEDS employs a system of two-, four-, and six-digit codes (for classification of instructional programs, or CIP codes) to classify degree completions by degree-granting program, allowing broader and more detailed accounting of the areas of study in which graduates are earning degrees. Table 2 presents numbers of degree completions reported in selected years from 1987 to 2005 in each of the nine six-digit subfields of CIP code 23, which aggregates degrees in English. This detailed view documents the emergence of three ar- Fig. 1 Number of BA Degrees in English and BA Degrees in English per 100 Bachelor s Degrees in All Fields, 1987 to ,000 50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 Number of Degrees 36, ,180 49, BA degrees in English BA degrees in English per 100 bachelor s degrees in all fields 55, Percentage (English Relative to All Fields) No data were reported in

4 From the Editor eas of writing: creative writing, composition, and technical and business writing. It also shows the continued dominance of the general English major, which accounted for 71.0% of all degrees in English in 1987 and 74.5% in The data for the English subfields present some ambiguity as to whether ups and downs directly reflect changes in student interests or only changes in the way institutions account for and report degrees, but it seems reasonable to suppose that changes in institutional accounting procedures offer some testimony, albeit indirect, to changes in student interests. What happens to recipients of bachelor s degrees in English once they enter the workforce? The 2003 National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG) provides systematic information in answer to this question. Conducted for Congress by the National Science Foundation as a sequel to the decennial census, the NSCG surveys a sample of 100,000 individuals, representing a total population of more than 40 million college graduates. Of the 40,000,000 graduates, 3.7% (or almost 1,500,000 in the weighted count that estimates the total number on the basis of the sample of graduates surveyed) received their first bachelor s degree in English. Asked about their employment status as of November 2003, 75.1% of graduates with bachelor s degrees in English reported they were employed; 11.5% were retired, and 7.2% were not working for family reasons. Only 3.2% of graduates reported they were not working because they had been laid off or no job was available. Almost half of English graduates earn a degree beyond the bachelor s: 33.1% of the weighted count of those surveyed held a master s, 5.0% a doctorate, and 8.4% a professional degree (see fig. 2). The NSCG data provide systematic evidence to support the claim that graduates with degrees in English go on to careers in a wide variety of professional fields. Elementary and secondary school teaching is the occupation of 14.7% of graduates whose first bachelor s degree is in English, the largest occupational group. Employment in publishing and the media Fig National Survey of College Graduates, Highest Degree Attained by Graduates Whose First Bachelor s Degree Is in English Doctoral Degree 5% Master's Degree 33% Professional Degree 8% Bachelor's Degree 53% Table 2 Number of BA Degrees in English (Six-Digit CIP Code), in Selected Years Degree Program (CIP6) English language and literature, general 25,795 41,595 37,598 40,375 41, American literature (United States) English literature (British and Commonwealth) 1,319 1,494 1, English composition English technical and business writing English creative writing ,044 1,800 1, Comparative literature Speech and rhetorical studies 6,817 9,605 7,164 8,829 8, English language and literature/letters, other 1,031 1,215 1,201 1,015 1,012 Total 36,353 56,180 49,399 54,851 55,265 Data for 1987 to 2004 downloaded from the NSF WebCASPAR Data System, 25 April Data for 2005 computed directly from the 2005 completions file, downloaded 8 January 2007.

5 From the Editor the occupational category NSCG defines as including artists, broadcasters, editors, entertainers, public relations specialists, writers ranks second at 12.1%. Those working as lawyers and judges account for 7.3% of graduates whose first bachelor s degree is in English, postsecondary teachers for 6.8%. Perhaps now we can put that Waiter! joke to rest: only 0.8% work in food preparation and services. The full list of occupations, loosely grouped by category, is presented in table 3. Notes David Laurence 1. The totals presented here are taken from the Integrated Science and Engineering Resources Data System (nicknamed WebCASPAR), an online data analysis system maintained by the National Science Foundation. Web- CASPAR provides easy access to time-series data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) IPEDS degree completions survey series, 1987 through Information for was calculated directly from the data file, as downloaded from the NCES Web site and matched to the procedure WebCASPAR uses to generate its totals. The current six-digit classification system that the IPEDS uses to count and categorize degree completions in different instructional programs dates to The WebCASPAR numbers for English aggregate all degree completions reported with one of nine subfields for CIP code 23. In 2002 comparative literature, which had been CIP code (categorized with English), became part of foreign languages and literatures as CIP code To preserve comparability, WebCASPAR continues to aggregate degree completions in comparative literature with degrees in English. 2. Undergraduate enrollments show a parallel pattern. Undergraduate enrollments in institutions offering bachelor s or higher degrees increased 9.2% between 1987 and 1992, flattened to a 1.6% increase between 1992 and 1998 a 4.6% increase in undergraduate women and a 1.7% decrease in undergraduate men then increased again, by 15.1%, between 1998 and 2004, the last year for which enrollment data are available.

6 From the Editor Table 3 Job Category of Graduates Whose First Bachelor s Degree Is in English* Job Category Percentage Weighted Count Elementary and secondary school teachers ,650 Postsecondary teachers: English ,798 Postsecondary teachers: foreign languages 0.4 4,088 Postsecondary teachers: other subjects ,552 Education administrators (e.g., registrar, dean, principal) ,143 Artists, broadcasters, editors, entertainers, public relations ,918 Marketing and sales ,048 Lawyers and judges ,820 Medical and health practitioners, nurses, psychologists, and technologists ,890 Top-level managers, executives, and administrators ,982 Other managers ,733 Administrative and secretarial ,901 Computer and information science occupations ,855 Insurance, securities, real estate, and business services ,650 Other service occupations ,491 Librarians, archivists, and curators ,468 Accountants, auditors, and other financial specialists ,566 Accounting clerks and bookkeepers 0.6 6,330 Personnel, training, and labor relations specialists ,214 Engineers and scientists ,510 Social workers ,719 Clergy and other religious workers 0.8 8,718 Teachers and instructors in noneducational institutions ,658 Food preparation and services 0.8 9,284 Social scientists (outside academia) 0.7 7,289 Architects 0.2 1,923 Farmers, foresters, and fishermen 0.2 1,772 Other occupations ,090 Total ,116,060 Source: 2003 National Survey of College Graduates *As of November 2003