Physics at two-year colleges

Some 26% of college students taking physics courses in the US did so at two-year institutions in 2011–12, up from 20% 14 years earlier. And in 2011–12, 3300 faculty taught physics at 1063 two-year campuses. These are among the findings in Physics Enrollments in Two-Year Colleges and Number of Physics Faculty in Two-Year Colleges, a pair of recent reports by the Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics. Some 26% of college students taking physics courses in the US did so at two-year institutions in 2011–12, up from 20% 14 years earlier. And in 2011–12, 3300 faculty taught physics at 1063 two-year campuses. These are among the findings in Physics Enrollments in Two-Year Colleges and Number of Physics Faculty in Two-Year Colleges, a pair of recent reports by the Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics.

An estimated 215 000 students took a physics or physical sciences class at a two-year college in 2011–12, up from 120 000 in 1995–96; that amounts to annual growth of 3.7% and matches the overall expanding enrollment at two-year colleges.

Among the two-year colleges that offer physics courses, 60% have one or no full-time physics faculty members, and 6% have four or more (see pie chart). The physics faculty are split roughly equally between full-time and part-time positions. About 45% of faculty at two-year campuses teach nonphysics courses in addition to physics. About 71% of campuses that offer physics also offer astronomy.

For more details about enrollment and teaching at two-year colleges, visit http://www.aip.org/statistics/trends/undergradtrends.html .