Tag: graduate degree

Benchmarking

I am just starting the second week of HIST 701 Historical Professions, and I am already finding the class interesting and challenging. This post will cover the interesting, I will do a second post on the challenging part shortly. One of this week’s assignments is a benchmarking assignment. I opted to look at graduate history programs here in Oregon, offered by institutions that report having graduate programs in history. Below is the paper submitted.

By: Jonathan Wanzer ORCiD 0009-0004-9275-7410
Submitted on: March 23, 2025
Submitted to: Dr. Schultz – Liberty University
Course: HIST 701 Historical Professions
Chicago Citation:
Wanzer, Jonathan. “Benchmarking Programs: History Programs at Universities in Oregon That Offer Graduate Degrees.” Paper. Historical Interpretations. Jonathan Wanzer, December 2, 2024. http://wanzer.org/2025/03/benchmarking/.

Benchmarking Programs: History Programs at Universities in Oregon That Offer Graduate Degrees

by Jonathan Wanzer
March 23, 2025
ORCID.org/0009-0004-9275-7410

This analysis focuses on degrees offered by colleges and universities with graduate programs in history in Oregon, the number of history degrees awarded in the 2022-2023 program year, and the percentage history degrees represent in the institution’s total degrees awarded. Data was collected from the National Center for Education Statistics, College Navigator website using the search parameters: Oregon, advanced degrees with the following Programs/Majors selected American History, General History, Public/Applied History.[1] The search results indicate that four Oregon universities offer advanced degrees in history. The Institutions indicated are; Oregon State University[2], Portland State University[3], University of Oregon[4], and Western Oregon University[5].

Oregon State University offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in history. In the program year, OSU awarded a total of 7,389 degrees, 5,829 bachelor’s, 1,140 master’s, and 420 doctorates. Of these, OSU awarded 59 bachelor’s and 4 master’s degrees in history, slightly over 1% and 0.35% respectively. A doctoral program in history is not available at OSU.

Portland State University offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in history. In the program year, PSU awarded a total of 5,621 degrees, 3,839 bachelor’s, 1,717 master’s, and 65 doctorates. Of these, PSU awarded 46 bachelor’s, and 4 master’s degrees in history, just under 1.2% and 0.23% respectively. A doctoral program is not available in history at PSU.

University of Oregon offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs in history. In the program year, UO awarded a total of 5,441 degrees, 4,089 bachelor’s, 968 master’s, and 65 doctorates. Of these, UO awarded 59 bachelor’s, 1 master’s, and 1 doctorate in history, just over 1.4%, 0.10%, and 0.26%, respectively. UO is the only institution offering a doctorate in history in Oregon.

Western Oregon University only offers a bachelor’s degree program in history. In the program year, WOU awarded a total of 1,031 degrees, 855 bachelor’s and 176 master’s degrees. WOU does not offer doctorates in any field. Of the degrees WOU awarded, only 8 bachelor’s degrees were awarded in history, slightly over 0.93% of bachelor’s degrees.

The cumulative total of degrees awarded, bachelor and above, awarded in Oregon by institutions offering advanced degrees in the program year was 19,482 of those, 182 were in history, 172 bachelor’s degrees, 9 master’s degrees, and 1 doctorate, less than 0.01% of degrees awarded by Oregon institutions that offer advanced degrees. Just 10 of the 19,482 degrees were graduate or doctoral degrees.[6]

Oregon universities offer many graduate programs in business, medicine, and physical sciences, both residential and online. When it comes to the history or public history fields for history majors, particularly graduate degree programs the state’s universities do not provide much of an offering. Furthermore, all the programs in this study are residential, there are no graduate-level programs in history available online from Oregon’s universities. This is surprising in one sense considering the state’s many active historical societies and important museums. While this is disappointing for anyone seeking a graduate degree in Oregon, it is not that surprising. Anecdotally, a prior nationwide search for online graduate programs in history provided limited results, and only one online doctoral program was located in the United States, Liberty University’s online doctorate.[7]

APPENDIX

History Program Completions & Program Percentage of Institutional Total Awards[8]

UniversityDegree Level Degrees AwardedHistory % of Total
Oregon State UniversityUndergradHistory591.0122%
Univ. Total5829 
GraduateHistory40.3509%
Univ. Total1140 
DoctoralHistory *00.0000%
Univ. Total420 
 
Portland State UniversityUndergradHistory461.1982%
Univ. Total3839 
GraduateHistory40.2330%
Univ. Total1717 
DoctoralHistory *00.0000%
Univ. Total65 
 
University of OregonUndergradHistory591.4429%
Univ. Total4089 
GraduateHistory10.1033%
Univ. Total968 
DoctoralHistory10.2604%
Univ. Total384 
 
Western Oregon UniversityUndergraduateHistory80.9357%
Univ. Total855 
GraduateHistory *00.0000%
Univ. Total176 
Doctoral †History00.0000%
Univ. Total0 

Table 1. Data from College Navigator

* No history degree is offered at this level
† No doctoral programs available

[1] “College Navigator,” accessed March 23, 2025,  https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?s=OR&p=54.0102+54.0105+54.0101&l=94.

[2] “Oregon State University,” accessed March 23, 2025, https://oregonstate.edu/.

[3] “Portland State University,” accessed March 23, 2025, https://www.pdx.edu/.

[4] “University of Oregon,” accessed March 23, 2025, https://www.uoregon.edu/.

[5] “Western Oregon University,” accessed March 23, 2025, https://wou.edu/

[6] See Table 1 in the appendix

[7] Author conducted a search of U.S. colleges and universities in the summer of 2024 looking for online doctoral history programs.

[8] “College Navigator”