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5.3.1 PhD’s
The bottom part of the table summarises the shares within science. The total number of science
graduates was 1.980 in 1992/’93, and 1.640 in 2001/’02, which was in both cases 8 % of the
student population. Especially in science, the shares are relatively stable, apart from a shift
away from chemistry to pharmaceutics. The ‘hard fields’ in which one would have expected a
decline (mathematics and physics) are not subject to large changes. In engineering, the
‘winners’ are the construction related fields (civil engineering and architecture), at the expense
of electrical and mechanical engineering.
We constructed a similar table for higher vocational education. The picture there is comparable.
The total number of HBO graduates in engineering was relatively stable at about 9.500 students.
Construction related fields became more popular, as did information science. The share of
technical physics declined by a small 1 %-point, which seems minor but it signifies a decline in
the number of students of 40 % (from 180 in 1992 to 110 in 2002). One change stands out
particularly: electrical engineering declined in share from about 20 % to about 10 %.
The in- and outflow figures above include university and HBO students, but not students with
an advanced degree. For the last decade, the total number of PhD’s increased somewhat , from
about 2.360 in 1992 to nearly 2.600 in 2002. As can be seen in Figure 5.6, the relative
preferences of students was fairly stable as well. The already high share of medical PhD’s
increased slightly, as did the remarkably small share of economics students obtaining a
Figure 5.6 Shares per degree category of PhD graduates (male and female)
0,35
0,30
0,25
0,20
0,15
0,10
0,05
0,00
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
science engineering health economics behaviour and society
Source: CBS, 1992, 1994, Statline
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