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Percentage of Foreign Doctoral-Degree Recipients at U.S. Institutions, by Field, 2011

August 19, 2013
International

Percentage of Foreign Doctoral-Degree Recipients at U.S. Institutions, by Field, 2011

Nearly 30 percent of all students who received doctorates in the United States in 2011 were neither U.S. citizens nor permanent residents. Engineering was the only field in which foreign degree-earners predominated.
Field of study Total Number foreign Share foreign
Life sciences 11,467 3,005 26.2%
Physical sciences 8,678 3,438 39.6%
Social sciences 8,120 1,580 19.5%
Engineering 8,004 4,161 52.0%
Education 4,691 499 10.6%
Humanities 5,214 750 14.4%
Other 2,836 812 28.6%
All fields 49,010 14,245 29.1%

Note: Life sciences include agricultural sciences/natural resources, biological/biomedical sciences, and health sciences. Physical sciences include mathematics and computer and information sciences. Social sciences include psychology. The “other” category includes all the nonscience and nonengineering fields that are not shown separately. Foreign students are defined as those who hold temporary visas and are neither U.S. citizens nor permanent residents. The citizenship status of a small percentage of the total number of doctoral recipients was unknown.

Source: Survey of Earned Doctorates by the National Science Foundation and five other federal agencies

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International

Percentage of Foreign Doctoral-Degree Recipients at U.S. Institutions, by Field, 2011

Nearly 30 percent of all students who received doctorates in the United States in 2011 were neither U.S. citizens nor permanent residents. Engineering was the only field in which foreign degree-earners predominated.
Field of study Total Number foreign Share foreign
Life sciences 11,467 3,005 26.2%
Physical sciences 8,678 3,438 39.6%
Social sciences 8,120 1,580 19.5%
Engineering 8,004 4,161 52.0%
Education 4,691 499 10.6%
Humanities 5,214 750 14.4%
Other 2,836 812 28.6%
All fields 49,010 14,245 29.1%

Note: Life sciences include agricultural sciences/natural resources, biological/biomedical sciences, and health sciences. Physical sciences include mathematics and computer and information sciences. Social sciences include psychology. The “other” category includes all the nonscience and nonengineering fields that are not shown separately. Foreign students are defined as those who hold temporary visas and are neither U.S. citizens nor permanent residents. The citizenship status of a small percentage of the total number of doctoral recipients was unknown.

Source: Survey of Earned Doctorates by the National Science Foundation and five other federal agencies
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
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