The number of research doctorates awarded by American universities in 2010 fell for the first time since 2002, according to data published last month by the National Science Foundation. The drop was driven in large part by a decision to reclassify numerous categories of education doctorates as pre-professional rather than research doctorates, but the number of science and engineering doctorates awarded dipped slightly, too. The NSF data are a first glance at the 2010 cohort of the annual Survey of Earned Doctorates, an annual survey sponsored by the science foundation and five other federal agencies and conducted by the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. The survey provides data on who the doctorate recipients are and the fields they are in, among other information.
