Physics and Astronomy Department Undergraduate Program Size Tool

The interactive tool below benchmarks physics and astronomy programs nationwide by faculty size and the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded. This allows departments and administrators to see where they fit in the national landscape of undergraduate physics and astronomy programs.

The tool displays departments by the average number of bachelor’s degrees granted by the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) faculty members at the department. For combined physics and astronomy departments, the number of astronomy bachelor’s degrees awarded, and their astronomy faculty, are presented with the physics department data for that institution.Department’s missions are not homogeneous, so the relationship between the number of degrees awarded and the number of full-time equivalent (FTE) faculty should not be used as a direct measure of productivity. FTE faculty counts do not consider teaching loads. Most departments with physics graduate programs will have non-teaching faculty included in their total FTE counts.

Several filters are available, allowing users to customize the types of departments displayed. Hovering over the points on the plots will display various characteristics of the department the point represents. For additional insights on this topic view the full report associated with the interactive tool here: https://www.aip.org/statistics/size-of-undergraduate-physics-and-astronomy-programs-2024