Natural Science & Engineering Higher Education = China Graduation Rates Rising Rapidly per National Science Foundation Annual Natural Science & Engineering Degrees (Agricultural Sciences / Biological Sciences / Computer Sciences / Earth, Atmospheric & Ocean Sciences / Mathematics / Engineering) First University Doctoral (Bachelor’s Equivalent) es 1.5MM 60K omies mi on no c E co / E s / ie r es nt ri t n 1.0MM 40K ou d Cou C e t c le e S ected , el s S e 0.5MM 20K gre rees, De eg ity D s r e orate t Univ t 0 oc 0 s D 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 Fir China USA EU –Top 8 Japan Source: USA National Science Foundation analysis of National Bureau of Statistics (China), Government of Japan, UNESCO, OECD, National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS, & National Center for Science / Engineering data. Note: Data for the majority of the countries were collected under same OECD, EU, and UIS guidelines & field groupings in the ISCED-F are similar to fields used in China, a major degree producer. Natural sciences include agricultural sciences; biological sciences; computer sciences; earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences; & mathematics. EU-Top 8 for doctoral degrees includes UK / Germany / France / Spain / Italy / Portugal / Romania / Sweden. EU-Top 8 for first university degrees includes UK / Germany / France / Poland / Italy / Spain / Romania / The Netherlands. The # of S&E doctorates awarded rose from about 8K in 2000 to more than 34K in 2014. Despite the growth in the quantity of doctorate recipients, some question the quality of the doctoral programs in China (Cyranoski et al. 2011). The rate of growth in doctoral degrees in 227 S&E and in all fields has considerably slowed starting in 2010, after an announcement by the Chinese Ministry of Education indicating that China would begin to limit admissions to doctoral programs & focus on quality of graduate education (Mooney 2007). Also in China, first university degrees increased greatly in all fields, with a larger increase in non-S&E than in S&E fields. China experienced an increase of almost 1.2MM degrees and up more than 400% from 2000 to 2014. China has traditionally awarded a large proportion of its first university degrees in engineering, but the percentage declined from 43% in 2000 to 33% in 2014.