DefenseOne: To Compete with China in STEM, Pentagon Should Invest in HBCUs
From Defense One
As a part of the great-power race for technological superiority, the Pentagon should use existing law and new metrics for defense-research capacity to advance eligible historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to the top tier of U.S. research universities.
HBCUs, which enroll over 200,000 Black students in the United States annually, already excel at producing STEM talent from historically underrepresented demographic groups. They represent only 3 percent of U.S. colleges and universities in the United States, but they graduate 25 percent of Black students with bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields and produce almost 30 percent of Black graduates of science and engineering PhD programs.
But they could do even more, and the Pentagon cannot leave this potential untapped. The United States is lagging behind China in STEM higher education. In 2019, China produced roughly 1.6 million STEM bachelor’s graduates, while the United States produced just under 450,000. And within two years, China could be producing more than 77,000 STEM Ph.D. graduates per year while U.S. institutions produce around 40,000, according to a 2021 assessment by Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
Congress has long sought to strengthen engagement between DOD and HBCUs, beginning in the 1987 NDAA and again in the 2010, 2016, and 2020 versions. These laws have fostered multiple efforts at the Defense Department, often in coordination with the military services, but the investment in defense-research capacity at HBCUs has been meager. In 2021, this totaled roughly $20M for all HBCUs, less than one-third of 1% of the $7.4B