The University of Houston's Cullen College of Engineering is in the Top 15 for several metrics measuring diversity in the field of engineering, including a pair of No. 12 rankings for degrees awarded to Hispanic students and underrepresented minorities, the former of which was highlighted by a graph in the May 2021 issue of Connections from the American Society for Engineering Education.
The information comes from the latest edition of the American Society for Engineering Education's Engineering and Engineering Technology by the Numbers report. The report on data from 2019 was released in October 2020, and updated in January 2021.
According to that report, UH is 12th in Bachelor's degrees awarded to Hispanic students, with 257. The university was also 12th overall in Bachelor's degrees awarded to underrepresented minorities, with 315. An “underrepresented minority” is defined by the ASEE as the three groups “that have representation in the science and engineering workforce far below their representation in the adult U.S. population. This includes individuals who are Hispanic, Black/African American and American Indian/Alaskan Native.”
Overall, the University of Houston is 44th out of 422 institutions in Bachelor's engineering degrees awarded, with 949. UH was also 44th in Bachelor's Mechanical Engineering degrees awarded (204).
The university was 45th in awarding Master's degrees (350). UH ranked 42nd out of 422 institutions in doctorates awarded (96), and 27th in doctorates awarded to foreign nationals, highlighting the international reach the university has.
Of the 301 institutions ranked, UH was 49th when it came to the number of tenured or tenure-track employees (164).
Founded in 1893, the ASEE is a global society of individual, institutional and corporate members. ASEE’s vision is excellent and broadly accessible education empowering students and engineering professionals to create a better world. Their annual report is an important benchmark for institutions to compare themselves to one another.