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Report: US needs to further increase science grads

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-07-15 15:40

A high-profile push by American business groups to double the number of US bachelor's degrees awarded in science, math and engineering by 2015 is falling way behind target, according to business groups as quoted by media reports Tuesday.

In 2005, 15 prominent business groups warned that a lack of expert workers and teachers posed a threat to US competitiveness, and said the country would need 400,000 new graduates in the so-called STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields by 2015.

The groups said in a report that the number of degrees in those fields rose slightly earlier in the decade, citing figures from the years after 2001 that have become available since the first report was published.

The number of degrees has since flattened out at around 225,000 per year. The coalition, representing groups such as the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Defense Industrial Association, said there has been substantial bipartisan support in Washington for boosting science training, including passage last year of the "America Competes Act," which promotes math and science.

But Susan Traiman, director of education and work force policy for the Business Roundtable, an organization of corporate CEOs, said there's been insufficient follow-through with funding to support the programs. Other countries, she said, are doing more to shift incentives toward science training.

Last week, the National Research Council -- a group that provides policy advice under a Congressional charter -- issued a report calling for more support for professional master's degrees programs. The idea would be to provide advanced training to more people in fields like chemistry and biology, which require less time and money than doctoral degrees.