Research looks at pandemic’s effects on U.S. STEM students, faculty

As a new semester starts for many college students around the U.S., a new national study, funded by the National Science Foundation, is identifying how the COVID-19 pandemic affected student learning and faculty work in in STEM fields.

The Challenges and Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic, a collaborative study between UTSA, University of Kansas and Claremont Graduate University, surveyed about 1,087 STEM faculty and 4,603 STEM students in June from around the U.S about the effects COVID-19 has had on their mentorships, research, academic careers and mental health.

The projects’ first report, released in July, which focused on fall enrollment and delayed graduation, found that nearly 10% of STEM students had not decided or would not enroll in fall 2020 due to the pandemic, while 35.5% of doctoral STEM students, 18% of master’s students and 7.6% of undergraduate students delayed their graduation.

Read the full story from UTSA today here.