The number of degrees conferred by postsecondary institutions in an academic field reflects institutional priorities, public interest in a domain of human knowledge, and overall societal and economic demand for certain skills and abilities. Public postsecondary institutions, which are obligated to serve the public interest, and professional…

Using Academic Plans in Sociocultural Context as a framework, this study examined university personnel's perspectives of the Bachelor of Applied Science degrees. Through quantitative techniques, the findings from this study show university faculty and administrators associated with liberal arts education view Bachelor of Applied Science degrees…

We examine 15 skills of graduating management majors as measured by self-rated perceptions of change during their college tenure. The sample includes 520,052 students from 697 higher education institutions in the United States. The research questions are: (1) As judged by management majors themselves, how much have their skills changed as a result…

The undergraduate economics curricula for most of the 793 U.S. colleges and universities that conferred an economics bachelor's degree in 2019 are described in this article. Besides updating the prevalence of the economics major core requirements and their differences by institution type, the authors record new information on requirement…

With growing demand for workers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) and health care, it is important to assess not only whether education interventions impact educational attainment, but also students' majors. This study examines the impact of Early College High Schools (ECHSs) on bachelor's degree attainment by field of study…

There is substantial variation in the returns to a college degree. One determinant is whether a worker's employment is "matched" with their education. With a novel education-industry crosswalk and panel data on 295,000 graduates, we provide the first estimates of an education-industry match premium leveraging within-person variation in…

Despite the growing popularity of computing bachelor's programs, women remain vastly underrepresented in these fields. Using Social Cognitive Career Theory and intersectionality as guiding theories, this qualitative study explores how postsecondary institutions shape women's experiences choosing and entering computing bachelor's programs.…

We use data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study and propensity score weighting methods to estimate the effect of a double major on bachelor's degree recipients' earnings within four years after college graduation. We classify each of a student's two majors in a double major combination as either "higher- or…

How do college students and postsecondary institutions react to changes in skill demand in the U.S. labor market? We quantify the magnitude and nature of response in the 4-year sector using a new measure of labor demand at the institution-major level that combines online job ads with geographic locations of alumni from a professional networking…

Curriculum mapping is the process of creating a visual representation of the teaching and assessment of learning outcomes in a degree, program or major. Best practice recommendations about curriculum mapping typically focus on mapping individual programs. Therefore, many recommendations, such as meeting individually with faculty as they map their…

Education-job match is often associated with enhanced well-being and career satisfaction, although existing research suggests that arts college graduates are less likely to experience education-job match than graduates of other disciplines. As research also increasingly suggests that student loan debt may influence college graduates' access to…

Baccalaureate education plays a key role in the educational pathways of research doctorate recipients. Most doctoral students earning research doctorates in the United States received their baccalaureate from institutions in the Carnegie Classification group R1: doctoral universities (very high research activity) or from foreign academic…

Background and Context: Women are severely underrepresented in computer science (CS). Understanding varied entry points into CS may promote women's participation in the field. Objective: This study identifies experiences that influenced women's matriculation into CS majors, and pathways into CS based on participants' enrollment in bachelor of arts…

While new physics bachelor's degree holders have a breadth of possibilities open to them, the initial post-degree outcomes for physics bachelors generally fall into two main categories: entering the workforce or continuing their education at the graduate or professional level. About two-thirds of those continuing with their studies are enrolled in…

Underemployment, which occurs when baccalaureate degree holders are employed in occupations that do not require or fully use a college-level degree (Lederman, 2018), challenges the notion that a college degree alone adequately prepares a student for a satisfactory level of employment based on education level. During 2018 and 2019, the higher-ed…