Between 2003 and 2007, according to NSF, 4,881 African-Americans received science and engineering doctorates. Of that number, 1,449 received bachelor’s degrees from the 48 universities that produced the most eventual doctorates.
Among the 48 schools, the 19 HBCUs produced 802 eventual doctorates compared to 647 at the 29 predominately white campuses.
HBCUs got a total of $420 million in research funding in 2007, the last year for which statistics are available, $353.8 million from the federal government--1.1% of the total $31 billion. That was an absolute decrease from 2003, when they received a total of $422 million from all research funding sources and $360 million from the federal government.
The three HBCU campuses which produced the most graduates who eventually received doctorates all had sharp declines in research funding from the federal government.
Table 1. Top ten universities whose bachelor’s graduates received science and engineering doctorates 2003-2007 Source: National Science Foundation as cited in Silicon Ceiling 9: Equal Opportunity and High Technology
Howard University
105
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
76
Hampton University
69
Spelman College
68
Morehouse College
63
Morgan State University
50
Southern University and A & M College
48
Xavier University of Louisiana
45
North Carolina A & T State University
42
Tuskegee University
41
Howard’s federally-funded research declined from $40 million in 2004 to $33.9 million in 2007. Florida A&M’s declined almost by half from $24.5 million to $14.5 million Hampton’s declined from $31.4 million to $23.8 million from 2004 to 2007.
Spelman, whose Spelbots team has competed internationally, received just over $3 million in federal research money in 2007 and Winston-Salem State got just over $2 million.