Critical industries · NCES IPEDS, 2015–2022
Aerospace
Airframes, propulsion and spacecraft. The field where the gap between who earns the degree and who the rules admit to the work is widest.
42.6%
of research doctorates in this field go to non-residents
+15.6 points against the 27.0% national figure
2,911
doctorates awarded in the window
1,239 of them to non-residents
49
institutions award this doctorate at all
the whole national capacity
38.0%
the share in 2025, the most recent year published
federal access rules apply to some of this work; see the note below
Export control
Much of this work is export-controlled. ITAR (22 CFR 120-130) limits access to defence articles and technical data to a 'U.S. person' as defined at 22 CFR 120.62: a citizen, a lawful permanent resident, or a protected individual. This is not a security clearance and it does not require citizenship: a permanent resident qualifies. Someone on a temporary visa is outside that definition, and a licence or agreement is then needed to give them access. That temporary-visa population is exactly who IPEDS counts as a non-resident alien.
The American share, by award level
The same field at three levels, in 2025. The subject does not change. Only the level does.
| Level | Awarded to Americans | Share American | Awarded to non-residents | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor's | 6,410 | 94.5% | 376 | 6,786 |
| Master's | 2,152 | 80.6% | 517 | 2,669 |
| Doctorate | 286 | 62.0% | 175 | 461 |
Americans take 94.5% of the 6,786 bachelor’s degrees in this field and 80.6% of the 2,669 master’s degrees. The American share falls 13.9 points between the two, a smaller gap than most fields on this site show. See the master’s expansion for the same comparison across every field. A row resting on a few dozen awards moves on one student, so read the small ones with the award count beside them.
The programmes behind the number
Every CIP code this page counts, and what each contributes. Disagree with the mapping and you can see exactly which rows to drop.
| Programme | Non-resident share | Doctorates | Non-residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering, General CIP 14.0201 | 42.6% | 2,911 | 1,239 |
Where it is taught
The institutions awarding these doctorates, largest first. Ten or more over the window.
| Institution | Non-resident share | Doctorates | Non-residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus | 44.4% | 302 | 134 |
| Purdue University-Main Campus | 55.3% | 264 | 146 |
| University of Colorado Boulder | 23.6% | 195 | 46 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 43.5% | 193 | 84 |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | 43.8% | 162 | 71 |
| Stanford University | 30.7% | 150 | 46 |
| University of Maryland-College Park | 23.3% | 116 | 27 |
| Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | 50.5% | 111 | 56 |
| Texas A&M University-College Station | 49.1% | 110 | 54 |
| California Institute of Technology | 52.3% | 86 | 45 |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | 57.0% | 86 | 49 |
| University of Minnesota-Twin Cities | 60.0% | 85 | 51 |
| The University of Texas at Austin | 45.8% | 72 | 33 |
| University of Washington-Seattle Campus | 33.8% | 68 | 23 |
| The University of Texas at Arlington | 62.3% | 61 | 38 |
| Iowa State University | 72.4% | 58 | 42 |
| University of Florida | 22.8% | 57 | 13 |
| Air Force Institute of Technology-Graduate School of Engineering & Management | 0.0% | 56 | 0 |
| University of Cincinnati-Main Campus | 58.5% | 53 | 31 |
| University of Southern California | 42.9% | 49 | 21 |
| Ohio State University-Main Campus | 30.6% | 49 | 15 |
| Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus | 42.9% | 49 | 21 |
| North Carolina State University at Raleigh | 41.7% | 48 | 20 |
| University of California-Los Angeles | 10.5% | 38 | 4 |
| Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | 26.3% | 38 | 10 |
The share since 1995
Non-resident share of the doctorates awarded each year, against the national figure for all fields.
The line runs the full published history. The headline 42.6% above is pooled over 2015–2022. That is the window this site uses everywhere. The two figures answer different questions and will not match. Years with fewer than 20 doctorates nationally are omitted: a share computed on a dozen degrees moves on one student.
Method and limits
- A CIP code is a field of study. Nobody in this data is observed working in the industry it is matched to.
- The battery entry is a proxy built from materials programmes, because IPEDS publishes no battery category.
- Shares are of degrees awarded, not of the current workforce. A doctorate awarded in 2016 may have left the country or the field.
- 'Non-resident alien' is the IPEDS reporting category: a student on a temporary visa. Permanent residents are counted as domestic.
- The restriction note states the law as written. It is not an observed hiring outcome. This data cannot show who was employed, under what authorisation, or whether they stayed.
- Export control, access authorisation and a security clearance are three different things. Only a DOE L or Q access authorisation requires US citizenship.
Built by scripts/build_critical_industries.py from
NCES IPEDS Completions, research doctorates, 2015-2022.
Compare the others on the hub.