Undergrad Enrollments Level Off, Graduate Education Declines

Abstract

Undergraduate enrollments in journalism and mass communication programs in the United States increased slightly in the autumn of 1999 in comparison with a year earlier. At the beginning of the 1999-2000 academic year, an estimated 150,250 students were studying journalism across the country, up 0.7 percent from a year earlier. The small growth in undergraduate enrollment followed three years of very dramatic growth. In 1998, enrollments were 5.8 percent higher than a year earlier. The data suggest a softening of enrollment, consistent with the national projections for the next several years. The number of students studying for a master's degree in journalism and mass communication programs across the country dropped a dramatic 9.7 percent in the autumn of 1999 compared with a year earlier. Enrollments in journalism and mass communication master's programs had declined a year earlier by 1.7 percent. The number of students studying for a doctorate in journalism and mass communication programs in the autumn of 1999 also declined from a year earlier. The number, an estimated 1,123, is the smallest recorded since 1995. The enrollment patterns continue to make journalism and mass communication education an increasingly undergraduate curriculum; the ratio of graduate to undergraduate students is the lowest it has been since 1990. Consistent with the pattern of enrollment growth in recent years, the number of bachelor's degrees granted in academic year 1998-99 increased by 5.8 percent over a year earlier, while the number of graduate degrees declined 16.9 percent. The percentages of female students remained relatively consistent in 1999 compared with a year earlier; the percentages classified as members of racial or ethnic minorities also held relatively constant. These are some of the key findings of the 1999 Annual Survey of Journalism &Mass Communication Enrollments, conducted in the James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research, a unit of the Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.1 Important findings * The number of programs reporting the race/ethnicity and gender characteristics of students continued to decline. Only 38 percent of the programs reported enrollments by race and ethnicity in 1999, and only 51 percent reported enrollments by gender. * Faculty hiring and faculty size have stabilized. Only 60 new positions opened in the field for academic year 1999-2000. * Only about half of all those hired on the faculty have a doctorate. At the same time, most hiring is done at the assistant professor level, and nearly two-thirds of those hired at the assistant professor level have a doctorate. * About one in four of those hired come directly from graduate school, and most of those come from doctoral programs. * Administrators anticipate hiring faculty predominantly in print and broadcast journalism and public relations in the next three years. Method The methods used in the Annual Survey of Journalism Fr Mass Communication Enrollments have remained unchanged since 1988. Schools listed in either the Journalism Fr Mass Communication Directory published by the AEJMC or The Journalist's Road to Success, A Career and Scholarship Guide, published by The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Inc., are included in the population of surveyed schools. A combination of these two directories produced 464 listings in 1999. In October 1999, a questionnaire was mailed to the administrator of each of these programs. A second mailing of this same questionnaire was sent to the non-responding schools in December, a third mailing was sent in January, and a fourth mailing was sent in February. The administrators of the programs that had not responded by the beginning of April were contacted by telephone. The questionnaire asked the administrators to provide information on total enrollments in the autumn of 1999, enrollment by year in school, enrollment by sequence of study, enrollment by gender, and enrollment by racial or ethnic group. …