The Central Florida Chapter Awards and Installation Luncheon was held this past September. A highlight of the event was the poignant comments by Dr. Neal Gallagher, Dean of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Central Florida. He spoke about the continuing decline in the number of United States students pursuing degrees in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. He began by noting that after World War II, the GI Bill produced the largest educated middle class population the world had ever seen. In many ways, this was the foundation for the United States becoming the world leader in technology. That edge is quickly slipping. Currently, China, for example, graduates 50% of their college students with engineering degrees. China’s 11-person ruling committee, which sets national policy, has for several years been composed entirely of engineering graduates. The US, by contrast, only graduates 4% of our students with engineering degrees. It takes no research to determine how many of the senior US policy makers are engineers. Dr. Gallagher pointed out many schools, from K-university levels, have programs, often in conjunction with industry partners, emphasizing STEM and encouraging students to pursue these careers. The results are there continues to be a decline in students seeking STEM careers. Dr. Gallagher felt it can probably be attributed to cultural attitudes which do not promote nor positively portray STEM careers by adult role models.

Return to the Table of Contents or go to the Next Article

The Air Force Association (AFA) is an independent, nonprofit IRS 501(c)(3) organization. This newsletter is published monthly via e-mail. Submissions or comments should be sent to AENewsletter@afa.org.

Return to AFA Field Resources