The National Science Foundation has released a report that surveys the history and trends of doctoral education in the United States during the 20th century. The report, “U.S. Doctorates in the 20th Century,” describes a host of changes over the last century, particularly over the last 25 years, that will be familiar to many people in higher education.

Among those changes are the extraordinary growth in the number of doctorates conferred, the shift away from East Coast universities as the sources of most Ph.D.’s, the increasing role of American universities in providing doctoral training for students from around the world, and the rising number of Ph.D. recipients who have found work outside academe.

The report also notes the dominance of men among recipients of Ph.D.’s, but the growing number of women earning doctorates; the increasing indebtedness of graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees; and the rising share of Ph.D. recipients who got their undergraduate training at a community college or historically black college or university.