Undergraduate Neuroscience Education in the U.S.: An Analysis using Data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Abstract

Despite an apparent increase in undergraduate neuroscience programs offered by colleges and universities, there has been little effort to document this growth. In the present report we describe our analysis of the expansion of undergraduate neuroscience programs of study over more than 20 years and detail a number of institutional characteristics of colleges and universities that offer undergraduate neuroscience programs. These data reveal more than 100 institutions with undergraduate neuroscience programs as well as over 2000 college graduates that majored in neuroscience in 2008-2009. Understanding the current number as well as growth trends of undergraduate neuroscience programs found in U.S. colleges and universities has implications for neuroscience educators as well as for the funding of neuroscience research and educational activities.