Comparing major declaration, attrition, migration, and completion in physics with other STEM disciplines

TL;DR

This study analyzes 10 years of university data to compare physics with other STEM fields, revealing its low student numbers, high attrition, predominantly outflow migration, and gender disparities, highlighting issues of inequity and inclusivity.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of physics undergraduate major trends and identifies cultural and structural factors affecting student retention and diversity.

Findings

Physics has the lowest number of undergraduates among STEM fields.

Physics exhibits the highest attrition rates among declared majors.

Physics has the lowest percentage of women undergraduates.

Abstract

This research uses 10 years of institutional data at a large public university in the USA to investigate trends in the undergraduate majors students declare, drop, and earn degrees, especially comparing physics to other disciplines. We find that physics has the lowest number of students of all science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines and it also has the highest rates of attrition of students who declare a major. While many STEM disciplines have students migrating both in and out of those majors, physics primarily has a uni-directional migration of students out of the major. Furthermore, physics has the lowest percentage of women undergraduate majors. Using an equity framework, we view these findings as signatures of inequitable and non-inclusive culture. We suggest that important roles may be played by stereotypes such as the incorrect belief that physics is accessible only to brilliant men, the issue of first-year college physics courses failing to energize students, and apathy in large physics departments toward improving intentional recruitment and retention of physics majors.