This report details information on the number of degrees conferred by the nation's postsecondary education institutions. The data are from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) 1988-89 Completions Survey. Among the findings are the following: (1) the rate of growth in degrees conferred to females between 1986-87 and 1988-89 exceeded that for males at all levels of awards; (2) women accounted for a higher proportion of associate degrees (57.5% of 429,946) than their share of any other award level; (3) education and business management, with 82,238 and 73,154 awards respectively, accounted for about 50% of the total master's degrees awarded in 1988-89; (4) the number of doctoral degrees awarded in 1988-89 increased 2.4% annually from 1986-87 to 35,692, with over half the increase attributed to nonresident aliens; (5) in 1988-89, the number of bachelor's degrees awarded (1,015,000) by higher education institutions exceeded the 1 million mark for the first time in the nation's history and represented a 2.4% increase over 1986-87; and (6) the most prevalent fields of study among bachelor's degree recipients in 1988-89 were business and management (246,659), social sciences (107,714), education (96,988), engineering (85,273), and health professions (59,111). No other field of study exceeded 50,000 bachelor's degrees in 1988-89. (GLR)