Insight Web Extra
Rising Enrollments Need More Faculty, Research Funding, They Say
August 2009—For fifteen years they’ve been coming to Washington—not to see the sights but to lobby their representatives in Congress. These dedicated young nuclear engineering students from some of the nation’s most prestigious universities have come to talk to lawmakers, to appeal for support for the field they love.
This year was no different—except for the topic.
These young people of the Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation, as they call themselves, are excited and proud to be at the forefront of the nuclear renaissance, and are looking ahead to playing their part in it.
Fifteen years ago, the major concern was to try to get federal support to keep the universities’ nuclear research reactors open in the face of declining student enrollments in the field. This year, they were asking for much more. Jacob DeWitte, graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said, “We’re now moving forward from saving research reactors to helping nuclear academics to thrive.”
As a sign that things are looking up in the nuclear field, the delegation reported that rising student enrollments in nuclear engineering are now bringing classroom sizes to near capacity. With student numbers rising more quickly than faculty hires, and as the more experienced professors reach retirement age, the delegation stressed the need to continue funding faculty development programs such as the new one by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The latest Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Engineering (ORISE) survey showed undergraduate nuclear engineering enrollments up in 2008 tripled the numbers from 2000. Graduate enrollments have increased each year since 2001. More than 450 bachelor’s degrees in nuclear engineering were awarded in 2008, the highest number in 20 years. Master’s and doctorate degrees in the field showed similar increases, and the Ph.D. degrees awarded in 2008 increased by 43 percent from the year before, and 70 percent above 2000.
There are some 26 university research reactors in operation today, down from 65 in 1980. These reactors are in high demand. To raise operating costs, these reactors are increasingly being used for industrial and applied research. The students recognize the usefulness of this work, but asked that Congress remember the original educational and basic research uses of these resources. They also recommended increased funding to upgrade and modernize the reactors’ instruments and controls so they remain viable teaching and testing tools for the nuclear industry.
The passion these students feel for their field is beyond doubt. Denia Djokic, pursuing her graduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley said, summed it up. “One reason this field is so exciting is that it’s so interdisciplinary, with opportunities for related study in everything from the “hard” sciences to mathematical modeling and from health physics to energy policy.” Added MIT’s Jacob DeWitte, “You are handing the nation’s energy future to us, and we’re ready to accept that challenge.”
Photo: The Nuclear Engineering Student Delegation at the United States Senate, July 13, 2009. [Image credit: Anna Gomez]
—Read more articles in Nuclear Energy Insight and Insight Web Extra.