Table 272.

Master's degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by field of study: Selected years, 1970-71 through 2007-08

Field of study	1970-71	1975-76	1980-81	1985-86	1990-91	1995-96	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Total	230,509	311,771	295,739	288,567	337,168	406,301	430,164	439,986	457,056	468,476	482,118	513,339	558,940	574,618	594,065	604,607	625,023
Agriculture and natural resources	2,457	3,340	4,003	3,801	3,295	4,551	4,464	4,404	4,360	4,272	4,503	4,492	4,783	4,746	4,640	4,623	4,684
Architecture and related services	1,705	3,215	3,153	3,260	3,490	3,993	4,347	4,172	4,268	4,302	4,566	4,925	5,424	5,674	5,743	5,951	6,065
Area, ethnic, cultural, and gender studies	1,032	993	802	915	1,233	1,652	1,528	1,438	1,544	1,555	1,541	1,509	1,683	1,755	2,080	1,699	1,778
Biological and biomedical sciences	5,623	6,453	5,759	5,043	4,796	6,544	6,788	6,913	6,781	6,955	6,937	6,990	7,657	8,199	8,681	8,747	9,565
Business	26,490	42,592	57,888	66,676	78,255	93,554	101,652	107,477	111,532	115,602	119,725	127,685	139,347	142,617	146,406	150,211	155,637
Communication, journalism, and related programs	1,770	2,961	2,896	3,500	4,123	5,080	5,611	5,293	5,169	5,218	5,510	6,053	6,535	6,762	7,244	6,773	6,915
Communications technologies	86	165	209	308	204	481	486	263	356	427	470	442	365	433	501	499	631
Computer and information sciences	1,588	2,603	4,218	8,070	9,324	10,579	11,765	12,858	14,990	16,911	17,173	19,509	20,143	18,416	17,055	16,232	17,087
Education	87,666	126,061	96,713	74,816	87,352	104,936	113,374	118,048	123,045	127,829	135,189	147,883	162,345	167,490	174,620	176,572	175,880
Engineering	16,813	16,472	16,893	21,529	24,454	26,892	25,146	24,734	24,850	25,259	24,908	28,338	32,698	32,633	30,989	29,472	31,719
Engineering technologies	134	328	323	617	996	2,054	2,181	2,004	1,876	2,013	2,149	2,332	2,499	2,500	2,541	2,690	2,873
English language and literature/letters	10,441	8,599	5,742	5,335	6,784	7,657	7,587	7,288	7,022	6,763	7,097	7,428	7,956	8,468	8,845	8,742	9,161
Family and consumer sciences/human sciences	1,452	2,179	2,570	2,011	1,541	1,712	1,838	1,736	1,882	1,838	1,683	1,607	1,794	1,827	1,983	2,080	2,199
Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics	5,480	4,432	2,934	2,690	3,049	3,443	3,181	3,106	3,037	3,035	3,075	3,049	3,124	3,407	3,539	3,443	3,565
Health professions and related clinical sciences	5,330	12,164	16,176	18,603	21,354	33,920	39,567	40,707	42,593	43,623	43,560	42,748	44,939	46,703	51,380	54,531	58,120
Legal professions and studies	955	1,442	1,832	1,924	2,057	2,751	3,228	3,308	3,750	3,829	4,053	4,141	4,243	4,170	4,453	4,486	4,754
Liberal arts and sciences, general studies,    and humanities	885	2,633	2,375	1,586	2,213	2,778	2,801	3,101	3,256	3,193	2,754	3,314	3,697	3,680	3,702	3,634	3,797
Library science	7,001	8,037	4,859	3,564	4,763	5,099	4,871	4,752	4,577	4,727	5,113	5,295	6,015	6,213	6,448	6,767	7,162
Mathematics and statistics	5,191	3,857	2,567	3,131	3,549	3,651	3,409	3,286	3,208	3,209	3,350	3,620	4,191	4,477	4,730	4,884	4,980
Military technologies	2	0	43	83	0	136	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	202	0
Multi/interdisciplinary studies	926	1,287	2,363	2,890	2,117	2,762	3,067	3,073	3,487	3,475	3,708	3,781	4,047	4,252	4,491	4,762	5,289
Parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies	218	571	643	570	483	1,684	1,917	2,011	2,322	2,354	2,580	2,978	3,199	3,740	3,992	4,110	4,440
Philosophy and religious studies	1,326	1,358	1,231	1,193	1,471	1,363	1,396	1,357	1,376	1,386	1,371	1,578	1,578	1,647	1,739	1,716	1,879
Physical sciences and science technologies	6,336	5,428	5,246	5,860	5,281	5,807	5,328	5,124	4,810	5,049	5,012	5,109	5,570	5,678	5,922	5,839	5,899
Precision production	0	0	0	0	0	8	10	7	5	2	2	3	13	6	9	5	3
Psychology	5,717	10,167	10,223	9,845	11,349	15,152	15,142	15,688	15,740	16,539	16,357	17,161	17,898	18,830	19,770	21,037	21,431
Public administration and social services	7,785	15,209	17,803	15,692	17,905	24,229	25,144	24,925	25,594	25,268	25,448	25,903	28,250	29,552	30,510	31,131	33,029
Security and protective services	194	1,197	1,538	1,074	1,108	1,812	2,000	2,249	2,609	2,514	2,935	2,956	3,717	3,991	4,277	4,906	5,760
Social sciences and history	16,539	15,953	11,945	10,564	12,233	15,012	14,938	14,431	14,066	13,791	14,112	14,630	16,110	16,952	17,369	17,665	18,495
Theology and religious vocations	2,692	3,258	4,163	4,543	4,803	5,030	4,649	4,679	5,534	4,850	4,909	5,133	5,486	5,815	6,092	6,446	6,996
Transportation and materials moving	0	0	0	454	406	919	736	713	697	756	709	765	728	802	784	985	982
Visual and performing arts	6,675	8,817	8,629	8,420	8,657	10,280	11,145	10,753	10,918	11,404	11,595	11,982	12,906	13,183	13,530	13,767	14,164
Not classified by field of study	0	0	0	0	8,523	780	868	88	1,802	528	24	0	0	0	0	0	84

NOTE: Degree-granting institutions grant associate’s or higher degrees and participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs. The new Classification of Instructional Programs was initiated in 2002-03. The figures for earlier years have been reclassified when necessary to make them conform to the new taxonomy. To facilitate trend comparisons, certain aggregations have been made of the degree fields as reported in the IPEDS "Completions Survey": "Agriculture and natural resources" includes Agriculture, agriculture operations, and related sciences and Natural resources and conservation; "Business" includes Business, management, marketing, and related support services and Personal and culinary services; and "Engineering technologies" includes Engineering technologies/technicians, Construction trades, and Mechanic and repair technologies/technicians.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), "Degrees and Other Formal Awards Conferred" surveys, 1970-71 through 1985-86; and 1990-91 through 2007-08 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, "Completions Survey" (IPEDS-C:91-99), and Fall 2000 through Fall 2008. (This table was prepared July 2009.)