CBMS Releases 2005 Survey of Undergraduate Mathematics

Every five years since 1965, the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS) has compiled a report that examines the status of undergraduate mathematics and statistics in U.S. colleges and universities.  The report contains detailed data on timely topics such as enrollments, bachelors degrees granted, available academic resources, and faculty demographics.  Now available for download, the 2005 report is filled with valuable information:

• Between fall 1995 and fall 2005, total enrollment in U.S. four-year colleges and universities grew by 21%, while enrollment in those schools' mathematics and statistics departments grew by only about 8%.
• Between fall 2000 and fall 2005, enrollments in the mathematics and statistics departments of the nation's four-year colleges and universities declined slightly and lagged far behind total enrollment growth.
• The total number of bachelors degrees awarded through the nation's mathematics and statistics departments (including some computer science degrees) declined by about 5% between the 1999–2000 and 2004–2005 academic years, and about 6% fewer bachelors degrees were awarded in 2004–2005 than were awarded in 1994–1995 by mathematics and statistics departments.
• The percentage of undergraduate mathematics and statistics sections in four-year colleges and universities taught by tenured and tenure-eligible (TTE) faculty declined between fall 2000 and fall 2005. In two-year colleges, the percentage of mathematics and statistics sections taught by permanent fulltime faculty rose marginally from the levels of fall 2000.

The report, titled Statistical Abstract of Undergraduate Programs in the Mathematical Sciences in the United States: Fall 2005 CBMS Survey, was prepared by David J. Lutzer of The College of William and Mary, Stephen B. Rodi of Austin Community College, Ellen E. Kirkman of Wake Forest University, and James W. Maxwell of the American Mathematical Society.

The complete CBMS 2005 report can be downloaded by clicking here.