1

March 2005

Participation in postsecondary education has increased in recent years (U.S. Department of Education 2004, indicator 6).

However, since students’ postsecondary curricular choices are

based in part on labor market demand (Fiorito and

Dauffenbach 1982) and this demand typically varies across

occupations, not all areas of postsecondary education are likely

to increase at the same rate. This Issue Brief examines trends

in awarded credentials in career-related areas of study at the

subbaccalaureate and baccalaureate levels over a 16-year time

period, from 1984–85 to 2000–01.1

The data used in this Issue Brief are from the Completions

Survey of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and

its predecessor, the Higher Education General Information

Survey (HEGIS). Both IPEDS and HEGIS are annual universe

data collections of postsecondary institutions.2 The credential counts in these completions files are categorized here by

level, as subbaccalaureate (postsecondary certificates and

associate’s degrees) and baccalaureate (bachelor’s degrees),

and by curricular area, based on whether the credential is in

an academic field (the traditional liberal arts and sciences) or

a career field (occupationally related areas such as engineering, education, and health care).3

Overall Trends

Consistent with trends in enrollments, the number of undergraduate credential awards increased from about 1,600,000

in 1984–85 to about 2,100,000 in 2000–01. Awards increased

in number in both academic and career areas, at both the

subbaccalaureate and baccalaureate levels (figure 1). These

increases occurred in spite of a decline in the young adult

Trends in Undergraduate Career Education U.S. Department of Education

Institute of Education Sciences

NCES 2005–012

IssueBrief

1

 Completions data prior to 1984–85 were not used because those

data are not comparable to more recent years. At the time of analysis,

2000–01 data were the most recent available.

2

 The statistics reported here were derived from published IPEDS

and HEGIS data in 15 editions (1988 to 2002) of the NCES annual

publication, Digest of Education Statistics. Although IPEDS includes

less-than-4-year institutions that are excluded from HEGIS, a

separate analysis (not reported here) of certificate awards showed

no appreciable effect of the change from HEGIS to IPEDS.

3

 These program areas are discussed in more detail in a previous

Issue Brief (Hudson and Shafer 2004). Due to low counts in some

career areas at the baccalaureate level, some recategorizations were

made here. First, “law and legal studies” was merged into the “public,

social, and human services” category. Second, “consumer and

personal services” were included in the published baccalaureate data

under “business.” Similarly, “mechanics and repair” and

“construction” were included in the published baccalaureate data

under “engineering-related technologies,” rather than under “trade

and industry.”

4

 The resident population ages 18–24 declined from 29 million in

1984 to 27 million in 2000 (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1985, 2003).

5

 From here on, the Issue Brief compares findings for 1984–85 and

2000–01. These findings are substantiated by annual data over the

entire time period. For figures showing the annual trends from

1984–85 to 2000–01, see http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/

pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005012.

population over the same time period.4 Thus, both academic

and career areas appear to be attracting more students in

2000–01 than they did in 1984–85.

Although career education grew in size over this time period,

it grew at a slower pace than academic education, so that

career education produced a smaller, but still a majority, proportion of undergraduate credentials in 2000–01 than in

1984–85; at the baccalaureate level, the decline was from 66

to 60 percent, and at the subbaccalaureate level from 78 to

71 percent (table 1).5

 The fact that this decline occurred at

both credential levels suggests that these shifts may in part

reflect larger trends in labor market demand that affect both

levels of education. Trends in specific areas of study, discussed

below, further support this notion.

Trends in Specific Career Areas

In spite of career education’s declining share of

subbaccalaureate credentials from 1984–85 to 2000–01, 6 of

the 11 career areas of study increased as a proportion of

subbaccalaureate credentials over this period: computer science, protective services, health care, consumer and personal

services, trade and industry, and public, social, and human

services (table 1). Two additional areas—communications/

design and education—held relatively steady at about 1 percent of subbaccalaureate awards in each year. Three areas of

career education declined as a proportion of subbaccalaureate

credentials—agriculture/natural resources, engineering/architectural sciences, and business/marketing—with most of the

decline coming from the latter two career areas. As a result of

these shifts, health care replaced business/marketing as the

most common career credential at the subbaccalaurate level

by 2000–01.

Some career areas of study also became a larger part of the

baccalaureate credential pool from 1984–85 to 2000–01 (table

1). These career areas are communications/design; consumer

and personal services; protective services; and public, social,

and human services. Declines at this level were also largest in

business/marketing and engineering/architectural sciences.

However, business/marketing remained the predominant baccalaureate career credential, accounting for over 20 percent

of bachelor’s degrees in both 1984–85 and 2000–01.
2

Figure 1. Number of undergraduate credentials awarded, by level and curricular focus: 1984–85 to 2000–01

SOURCE: Digest of Education Statistics, 1988–2002 editions; Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), 1984–85 and 1985–86; 1986 to 1999

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, “Completions Survey” (IPEDS-C:86–87 through IPEDS-C:98–99); and 2000 Integrated Postsecondary

Education Data System (IPEDS), Spring 2001, U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.

Table 1. Percentage of credentials awarded in each career area, by education level: 1984–85 and 2000–01

NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: Digest of Education Statistics 2002, 2000 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), Spring 2001, and Digest of Education Statistics

1988, Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), 1984–85, U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.

0

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

700,000

800,000

Subbaccalaureate academic fields

Baccalaureate academic fields

Subbaccalaureate career fields

Baccalaureate career fields

2000– 

01

1999– 

2000

1998– 

99

1997– 

98

1996– 

97

1995– 

96

1994– 

95

1993– 

94

1992– 

93

1991– 

92

1990– 

91

1989– 

90

1988– 

89

1987– 

88

1986– 

87

1985– 

86

1984– 

85

Number of credentials

Academic year

Trends in Career Areas Across Education Levels

This section compares the direction of change in specific career areas across education levels. Specifically, the section examines whether each career area decreased as a proportion of

credentials, increased, or had negligible change, with the latter including change of less than ±1 percentage point. As seen

in table 2, using this 1-percentage-point cutoff, the direction

of change was similar at both the subbaccalaureate and baccalaureate levels in agriculture/natural resources; business/

marketing; communications/design; consumer and personal

services; education; engineering/architectural sciences; and

public, social, and human services. These parallel changes suggest similar labor market trends at both levels in these career

areas. But differing trends occurred in other career areas. For

example, computer science, health care, protective services,

and trade and industry increased more at the subbaccalaureate

level than at the baccalaureate level. In these career areas, the

trend in credentials suggests a more rapidly growing market

for skills at the subbaccalaureate rather than baccalaureate

level.

Career area 1984–85 2000–01 1984–85 2000–01

Total, all career areas 78.1 71.3 65.7 59.9

Agriculture/natural resources 1.7 1.3 1.8 1.9

Business/marketing 26.6 17.3 23.8 21.4

Computer science 2.6 5.1 4.0 3.4

Communications/design 0.7 0.8 4.3 4.7

Consumer and personal services 3.7 5.1 2.0 3.0

Education 1.4 1.4 9.0 8.5

Engineering/architectural sciences 11.3 5.5 10.7 6.5

Health care 17.4 18.9 6.6 5.9

Protective services 2.6 4.2 1.3 2.0

Public, social, and human services 1.2 1.7 2.0 2.3

Trade and industry 8.9 10.2 0.3 0.3

Percentage of subbaccalaureate

credentials awarded in:

Percentage of baccalaureate

credentials awarded in:
3

The Issue Brief series presents information on education topics of current interest. All estimates shown are based on universe surveys and are thus not subject to

sampling variability. In the design, conduct, and data processing of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) surveys, efforts are made to minimize the

effects of nonsampling errors, such as item nonresponse, measurement error, data processing error, or other systematic error.

This Issue Brief was authored by Lisa Hudson of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and Ellen Carey of the Education Statistics Services Institute

(ESSI), and was formatted by Carol Rohr of Pinkerton Computer Consultants, Inc. Supplementary graphs for this Issue Brief can be found on the web at http://

nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005012. For further information, contact Lisa Hudson, NCES, at 202-502-7358 or Lisa.Hudson@ed.gov. To order

additional copies of this Issue Brief or other NCES publications, call 1-877-4ED-Pubs or visit http://www.edpubs.org. NCES publications are also available on the

Internet at http://nces.ed.gov.

Table 2. Percentage point change and direction of change in percentage of credentials awarded in each career area , by education

level, from 1984–85 to 2000–01

# Rounds to zero.

1 “-” indicates a decrease of 1 percentage point or more; “+” indicates an increase of 1 percentage point or more, and “0” indicates change between –1 and

+1 percentage points.

NOTE: The percentages in this table may differ from percentages calculated from table 1 because this table was constructed using unrounded percentages,

rather than the rounded percentages in table 1.

SOURCE: Digest of Education Statistics 2002, 2000 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), Spring 2001, and Digest of Education Statistics

1988, Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), 1984–85, U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics.

Summary

The number of students receiving undergraduate credentials

increased from 1984–85 to 2000–01 in both career education

and academic education. Although career education became a

smaller share of undergraduate credentials over this period,

most of this shift was due to relatively large declines in two of

the more common areas of study (business/marketing and engineering/architectural sciences). Other career areas (e.g., protective services, consumer and personal services) became a

larger proportion of undergraduate credentials. Finally, the

direction of change at the subbaccalaureate and baccalaureate levels was sometimes similar (e.g., agriculture/natural resources, engineering/architectural science), suggesting parallel changes in skill demands in some areas of the labor market

at the subbaccalaureate and baccalaureate levels, while in other

areas trends differed (e.g., computer science, health care), suggesting different subbaccalaureate and baccalaureate labor

markets.

References

Fiorito, J., and Dauffenbach, R.C. (1982). Market and Nonmarket

Influences on Curriculum Choice by College Students.

Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 36(1), 88–101.

Hudson, L., and Shafer, L. (2004). Undergraduate Enrollments in

Academic, Career, and Vocational Education (NCES 2004–

018). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC:

National Center for Education Statistics.

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education

Statistics (2004). The Condition of Education 2004 (NCES

2004–077). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

U.S. Bureau of the Census (1985). Statistical Abstract of the United

States: 1986. Washington, DC: U.S. Commerce Department.

U.S. Bureau of the Census (2003). Statistical Abstract of the United

States: 2003. Washington, DC: U.S. Commerce Department.

Subbacalaureate Baccalaureate Subbacalaureate Baccalaureate

Career area level level level level

Agriculture/natural resources -0.4 # 0 0

Business/marketing -9.3 -2.4 - -

Computer science 2.5 -0.6 + 0

Communications/design # 0.5 0 0

Consumer and personal services 1.4 1.0 + +

Education # -0.5 0 0

Engineering/architectural sciences -5.8 -4.2 - -

Health care 1.4 -0.7 + 0

Protective services 1.5 0.7 + 0

Public, social, and human services 0.5 0.3 0 0

Trade and industry 1.3 0.1 + 0

Percentage point change Direction of change1
Trends in Undergraduate Career Education NCES 2005–012

The Issue Brief series presents information on education topics of current interest.

Brief Issue

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