SCIENCE & EDUCATION

The Obama administration puts its stamp Tuesday on a strategy to boost the nation's numbers of science and engineering graduates by working harder to retain those already in the college pipeline.

Increasing the retention of students majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to 50 percent, from current levels below 40 percent, would create three-fourths of the one million additional degrees in those disciplines, known as the STEM fields, that the administration sees as necessary over the next decade, a White House panel said in a report to President Obama.

"Retaining more STEM majors is the lowest-cost, fastest policy option to provide the STEM professionals that the nation needs for economic and societal well-being," the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology said in the report.

The council's chief recommendations include giving students greater hands-on research experience at the undergraduate level, and creating new paths to a science degree through both two-year and four-year institutions.

Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education