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3 The Globalization of Science and Engineering
Pages 88-113

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From page 88...
... graduate students and postdoctoral scholars choosing to study abroad. This nation of about 6 percent of the world's population has been producing over 20 percent of the S&E PhD degrees (see Figure 3-1)
From page 89...
... 4 Because the United States has far more postdoctoral opportunities than any other country and because postdoctoral training is now expected in many biomedical, physical-science, and other fields, the United States automatically attracts some of the world's brightest young people, many of whom choose to stay permanently. Derek Scholes, chair, International Postdoctoral Committee, National Postdoctoral Association, presentation to committee, November 11, 2004.
From page 90...
... The United States heads the list of nations in the volume of articles published and in citations,7 accounting for about one-third of all articles in 2001.8 However, its premier position has eroded over the last 15 years as other countries' publications and citations have grown. From 1988 to 2001, world article output increased by almost 40 percent.9 Most of the increase can be attributed to growth in article output from Western Europe, Japan, and several emerging East Asian S&T centers (South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and China)
From page 91...
... 2004. Science and Engineering Indicators 2004 (NSB 04-1)
From page 92...
... A recent study14 argues that collaborative networks have self-organizing features, a system steered more by individual scientists linking together for enhanced knowledge creation than by structural or policy-related factors. The advantages of collaborations leading to highly cited research articles motivate the urge to collaborate.
From page 93...
... 2000. International Mobility of the Highly Skilled: Brain Gain, Brain Drain, or Brain Exchange?
From page 94...
... Ottawa, ON: Canadian Bureau for International Education. Using Québec as a case study, Jewsiewicki considers the individual's right to choose his or her own career path and the rights of communities to protect their collective investment.
From page 95...
... in 2000.26 Not only are international researchers contributing to the US S&E enterprise, there is also knowledge diffusion through ethnic channels, with positive economic effects on the sending country.27 RISING GLOBAL CAPACITY FOR HIGHER EDUCATION In concert with increased international mobility is an increased capacity on the part of countries other than the United States to provide higher education. As countries develop knowledge-based economies, they seek to reap more of the benefits of international educational activities, including strong positive effects on GDP growth.28 One strategy used by emerging economies, such as India and China, is to couple education-abroad programs with strategic investments in S&E infrastructure -- in essence pushing students away to gain skills and creating jobs to draw them back.29 Other countries, particularly in Europe, are trying to retain their best students and also to increase quality and open international access to their own higher educational institutions.
From page 96...
... Available at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/simon404.pdf. 33 Jin Xiaoming, Minister, Science and Technology Office, Embassy of the People's Republic of China, comments to committee, November 12, 2004; Executive Summary, DTI Global Watch Stem Cell Mission, September 2004.
From page 97...
... The DTI Global Watch Mission visited China, Singapore, and South Korea in September 2004 to evaluate scientific excellence and evaluate opportunities for scientific and commercial collaboration. 34 Hicks.
From page 98...
... .41 · Asian countries have designed policies and incentives intended to retain their highly trained personnel, bring them home after training, and otherwise benefit from the skills they acquire in other nations, chiefly the United States.42 37 "Focus on Asia-Pacific." DTI Global Watch Magazine, November 2004; Executive Summary, DTI Global Watch Stem Cell Mission, September 2004. Available at http:// www.globalwatchonline.com/mission/tmsmrep.aspx#life.
From page 99...
... . · Asian countries -- led by Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan -- accounted for over 25 percent of high-technology exports in 2001, up from about 15 percent in 1990.44 Europe The number of young Europeans attracted to careers in S&E is decreasing, and many of the students and researchers who do specialize in S&E emigrate to the United States.45 To counter that trend and build their S&E workforces, European nations have been working together to internationalize policies and enhance student mobility to "facilitate the creation of a genuine European scientific community." In 1999, the Bologna Declaration laid out a system to harmonize undergraduate- and graduate-degree requirements among EU member countries.
From page 100...
... 2000. International Mobility of the Highly Skilled: Brain Gain, Brain Drain, or Brain Exchange (HWWA Discussion Paper 88)
From page 101...
... Likewise, the efforts of France to recruit highly skilled S&E talent are said to be held back by a "discouraging landscape of administrative convolution, heavy taxes, and inflexible labor legislation".57 A recent report indicates that the EU is working to improve its procedures for the admission of third-country nationals to perform scientific research.58 GLOBAL COMPETITION FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS AND POSTDOCTORAL SCHOLARS The United States is still by far the leading host country for international students, enrolling some 586,000 foreign-born graduate and under 52 Expert Group on Future Skill Needs.
From page 102...
... stipend holders, 72 percent used their award to do postdoctoral training abroad, and of these 66.3 percent went to the United States. Reasons given for choosing the United States included funding, access to equipment, ability to pursue cutting-edge research, research independence, career opportunities in academe and industry, and collaborative opportunities.
From page 103...
... :42-61. Similar factors are correlated with stay rates of international graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
From page 104...
... It is difficult to measure economic rewards in careers that require a long training period, but one study indicates that the lost earnings for those students who undergo graduate training in life sciences are about $25,000 per year of working life compared with other S&E fields and $62,000 per year of working life compared with professions that do not require as long a training period, such as law.71 Such professions are not easily accessible to international students. Most postdoctoral scholars, regardless of residence, would prefer to stay in the United States after their training (see Figure 1-21)
From page 105...
... The return rate is higher among postdoctoral scholars who had been awarded prestigious fellowships.73 Also affecting the return rate are the social ties that a student or scholar has with his or her home country; in many cases, students return home to rejoin family and renew social ties. Those who married while in the United States had a very low return rate.74 Declining Domestic Student Interest in Science and Engineering The committee heard considerable discussion about an apparent decline in interest in S&E careers among US-born students.
From page 106...
... · Relatively low stipends during years of graduate and postdoctoral work compared with salaries available in the private sector or in other professions. The scarcity of permanent positions can be a large disincentive for undergraduates considering a research career and is cited as a major factor for domestic students choosing other fields of study.79 This issue is especially acute in fields where postdoctoral work is a job prerequisite and where academe is the predominant career choice of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars,80 although it is also an issue in fields such as nuclear physics where the predominant career choice is a research position at a 77See Howard Garrison, Susan Gerbi, and Paul Kincade.
From page 107...
... The present committee was not charged with examining this issue in detail other than to determine whether large numbers of international graduate students and postdoctoral scholars discourage participation of US citizens, either by crowding out (see discussion in Chapter 1) or by creating a noninclusive environment.
From page 108...
... For example, two recent publications examining the impact of ITAs on undergraduate economics instruction came to opposite conclusions.86 In the study that found students were less likely to drop sections led by ITAs, all ITAs had undergone substantive teacher training. Researchers who surveyed talented undergraduates who started out in S&E majors but switched to other fields found no evidence to support the idea that undergraduate attrition from S&E fields was significantly affected by alleged poor tutorial abilities of teaching assistants or linguistic, pedagogic, or social skills of foreign faculty or teaching assistants.87 Demographic Challenges Demographic trends in the United States indicate challenges in maintaining excellence in the S&E workforce.
From page 109...
... There is some evidence that at least some groups of first-generation Americans may be more likely to enter S&E and this may ease the demographic shift.91 Levels of Public Funding With the increase in international graduate-student enrollment has come a shift in how that research is funded. R&D funding has risen over the years, but the sectors providing the funding are altering their relative contributions.
From page 110...
... That means that public universities have less funding to support graduate students. One might expect decreased state support for R&D to have an adverse effect on international enrollments at public universities, especially when such funding supports teaching-assistant positions.
From page 111...
... The enrollment and appropriations include both graduate and undergraduate education, but exclude medical education. forms in Australia, the government reduced its per-student support of higher-education institutions.
From page 112...
... For that reason, Australia's international students are almost all in undergraduate or professional programs, and few of them do research; by one calculation, only about 3 percent were in the OECD "research" category in 2004.95 The entrepreneurial approach has also been criticized for failing to improve the research quality of faculty, and thus for causing an apparent decline in the quality of published research, and for placing proportionately less emphasis on teaching than on such activities as recruitment.96 INTEGRATING SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING POLICY WITH FOREIGN POLICY An aspect of S&E strength deserving brief mention is the challenge in integrating scientific research and educational policies with foreign policy. A familiar, if only occasional, overlap between scientific and foreign policy has been seen in the realm of "big science" such as the multinational particle accelerators and detectors at CERN, large telescopes, and international ocean and geophysical projects.
From page 113...
... In general, they have invested heavily in the practice of staffing their laboratories and classrooms with graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, about half of whom are temporary residents. As seen in Chapter 2, some of the current policies that most directly influence international flows of scientists and engineers are shaped by concerns over national security and stability considerations rather than by scientific issues: Will this student visitor cause any harm while in the United States?


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