Most efforts to increase the number of black and other underrepresented minority doctoral recipients in science and engineering have fallen flat. For example, the share of engineering doctorates earned by black students remained unchanged, at 4 percent, from 2004 to 2014, according to the most recent Survey of Earned Doctorates. The problem has many causes — including that most minority-group members enroll in graduate programs at lower rates than white students do — but many observers say a lack of good mentoring is a key factor. Having better mentors, the thinking goes, would help minority students in the sciences and engineering navigate obstacles during their programs, reducing attrition. And if more of them earned doctorates, it also could help diversify faculties, which are under growing pressure to hire more black and other minority professors.

January 17, 2016 ・ From Chronicle of Higher Education