Table 282.

Bachelor's degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by field of study: Selected years, 1970-71 through 2008-09

Field of study	1970-71	1975-76	1980-81	1985-86	1990-91	1995-96	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Total	839,730	925,746	935,140	987,823	1,094,538	1,164,792	1,200,303	1,237,875	1,244,171	1,291,900	1,348,811	1,399,542	1,439,264	1,485,242	1,524,092	1,563,069	1,601,368
Agriculture and natural resources	12,672	19,402	21,886	16,823	13,124	21,425	23,916	24,238	23,370	23,331	23,348	22,835	23,002	23,053	23,133	24,113	24,988
Architecture and related services	5,570	9,146	9,455	9,119	9,781	8,352	8,246	8,462	8,480	8,808	9,056	8,838	9,237	9,515	9,717	9,805	10,119
Area, ethnic, cultural, and gender studies	2,579	3,577	2,887	3,021	4,776	5,633	6,009	6,212	6,160	6,390	6,634	7,181	7,569	7,879	8,194	8,454	8,772
Biological and biomedical sciences	35,683	54,085	43,003	38,320	39,377	60,750	64,608	63,005	59,865	59,415	60,104	61,509	64,611	69,178	75,151	77,854	80,756
Business	115,396	143,171	200,521	236,700	249,165	226,623	240,947	256,070	263,515	278,217	293,391	307,149	311,574	318,042	327,531	335,254	347,985
Communication, journalism, and related programs	10,324	20,045	29,428	41,666	51,650	47,320	51,384	55,760	58,013	62,791	67,895	70,968	72,715	73,955	74,783	76,382	78,009
Communications technologies	478	1,237	1,854	1,479	1,397	853	1,076	1,298	1,178	1,245	1,933	2,034	2,523	2,981	3,637	4,666	5,100
Computer and information sciences	2,388	5,652	15,121	42,337	25,159	24,506	30,574	37,788	44,142	50,365	57,433	59,488	54,111	47,480	42,170	38,476	37,994
Education	176,307	154,437	108,074	87,147	110,807	105,384	107,086	108,034	105,458	106,295	105,845	106,278	105,451	107,238	105,641	102,582	101,708
Engineering	45,034	38,733	63,642	77,391	62,448	62,257	58,260	58,822	58,315	59,627	62,655	63,558	64,906	67,045	67,092	68,676	69,133
Engineering technologies	5,148	7,943	11,713	19,731	17,303	15,829	14,405	14,597	14,660	15,052	14,664	14,669	14,837	14,565	14,980	15,177	15,503
English language and literature/letters	63,914	41,452	31,922	34,083	51,064	49,928	49,800	50,106	50,569	52,375	53,699	53,984	54,379	55,096	55,122	55,038	55,462
Family and consumer sciences/human sciences	11,167	17,409	18,370	13,847	13,920	14,353	16,059	16,321	16,421	16,938	17,929	19,172	20,074	20,775	21,400	21,870	21,905
Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics	20,988	17,068	11,638	11,550	13,937	14,832	15,821	15,886	16,128	16,258	16,912	17,754	18,386	19,410	20,275	20,977	21,158
Health professions and related clinical sciences	25,223	53,885	63,665	65,309	59,875	86,087	85,214	80,863	75,933	72,887	71,261	73,934	80,685	91,973	101,810	111,478	120,488
Legal professions and studies	545	531	776	1,223	1,827	2,123	1,960	1,969	1,991	2,003	2,474	2,841	3,161	3,302	3,596	3,771	3,822
Liberal arts and sciences, general studies,    and humanities	7,481	18,855	21,643	21,336	30,526	33,997	34,772	36,104	37,962	39,333	40,480	42,106	43,751	44,898	44,255	46,940	47,096
Library science	1,013	843	375	155	90	58	78	154	52	74	99	72	76	76	82	68	78
Mathematics and statistics	24,801	15,984	11,078	16,122	14,393	12,713	11,966	11,418	11,171	11,950	12,505	13,327	14,351	14,770	14,954	15,192	15,496
Military technologies	357	952	42	255	183	7	2	7	21	3	6	10	40	33	168	39	55
Multi/interdisciplinary studies	6,346	13,778	13,061	13,829	17,879	27,149	27,545	28,561	27,189	28,943	28,639	29,162	30,243	32,012	33,792	36,149	37,444
Parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies	1,621	5,182	5,729	4,623	4,315	12,974	16,532	17,571	17,948	18,885	21,432	22,164	22,888	25,490	27,430	29,931	31,667
Philosophy and religious studies	8,149	8,447	6,776	6,396	7,423	7,541	8,506	8,535	8,717	9,473	10,344	11,152	11,584	11,985	11,969	12,257	12,444
Physical sciences and science technologies	21,410	21,458	23,936	21,711	16,334	19,627	18,285	18,331	17,919	17,799	17,950	17,983	18,905	20,318	21,073	21,934	22,466
Precision production	0	0	0	2	2	12	43	33	31	47	42	61	64	55	23	33	29
Psychology	38,187	50,278	41,068	40,628	58,655	73,416	73,636	74,194	73,645	76,775	78,650	82,098	85,614	88,134	90,039	92,587	94,271
Public administration and social services	5,466	15,440	16,707	11,887	14,350	19,849	20,287	20,185	19,447	19,392	19,900	20,552	21,769	21,986	23,147	23,493	23,851
Security and protective services	2,045	12,507	13,707	12,704	16,806	24,810	24,601	24,877	25,211	25,536	26,200	28,175	30,723	35,319	39,206	40,235	41,800
Social sciences and history	155,324	126,396	100,513	93,840	125,107	126,479	124,658	127,101	128,036	132,874	143,256	150,357	156,892	161,485	164,183	167,363	168,500
Theology and religious vocations	3,720	5,490	5,808	5,510	4,799	5,292	6,235	6,789	6,945	7,762	7,962	8,126	9,284	8,548	8,696	8,992	8,940
Transportation and materials moving	0	225	263	1,838	2,622	3,561	3,383	3,395	3,748	4,020	4,631	4,824	4,904	5,349	5,657	5,203	5,189
Visual and performing arts	30,394	42,138	40,479	37,241	42,186	49,296	54,404	58,791	61,148	66,773	71,482	77,181	80,955	83,297	85,186	87,703	89,140
Not classified by field of study	0	0	0	0	13,258	1,756	5	2,398	783	264	0	0	0	0	0	377	0

NOTE: Data through 1990-91 are for institutions of higher education, while later data are for degree-granting institutions. Degree-granting institutions grant associate’s or higher degrees and participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs. The degree-granting classification is very similar to the earlier higher education classification, but it includes more 2-year colleges and excludes a few higher education institutions that did not grant degrees. (See Appendix A: Guide to Sources for details.) 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 2008-09 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, "Completions Survey" (IPEDS-C:91-99), and Fall 2000 through Fall 2009. (This table was prepared August 2010.)