Business Leaders Seek to Double College Graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

By ANNE K. WALTERS, Chronicle of Higher Education - July 28, 2005

Business leaders issued a report on Wednesday that decried the declining prominence of the United States in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and called for the number of college graduates in those fields to double by 2015.

The report, "Tapping America's Potential: The Education for Innovation Initiative," was released by 15 business groups led by the Business Roundtable, an association of corporate chief executives.

The document urges federal and state governments, private industry, and people in higher education to:

1. Build public support to make those fields a national priority.
2. Offer incentives for students to major in the fields.
3. Improve elementary- and secondary-school curricula in science and math.
4. Reform visa and immigration policies to allow more foreigners to study and work in the United States.
5. Increase funds for basic research in the physical sciences and engineering.

The report cites increasing foreign competition, especially from Asian nations, and decreasing interest in the fields among American students as reasons to place a renewed emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and math.

In order to draw more students into the fields, more scholarship and loan-forgiveness programs should be established, the report says. It also calls for efforts, like the National Science Foundation's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program, to be used to increase undergraduate retention rates. And it suggests including in the Higher Education Act incentives for colleges and universities to produce more math, science, and engineering majors.

"Together, we must ensure that U.S. students and workers have the grounding in math and science that they need to succeed and that mathematicians, scientists, and engineers do not become an endangered species in the United States," the report states.

Nils Hasselmo, president of the Association of American Universities, praised the report for drawing attention to those issues. "The action plan these groups have put forward," he said in a written statement, "recognizes that there is no higher priority for strengthening our economy and sustaining our living standards than to maintain our nation's leadership in research and innovation."