Despite Fears of a Post-9/11 Drop, Most Science, Engineering Post-Grads Have Stayed

The situation apparently is not as bad as I had thought, if the data and conclusions in the Wall Street Journal article I have linked to below are correct. The U.S. competitive position is not as at-risk as I had concluded from so many articles in the popular and industry press, as well as from anecdotal encounters. I had thought that, especially since 9/11, the United States had made it much harder for foreign students with degrees in science and engineering to stay here, with very detrimental consequences for U.S. industry, competitiveness, and the future.

This is also good news even for those of you who require your hires to obtain security clearances in order to work in the government or for government contractors. If the total pool of science and engineering PhDs is larger it means that the competition for finding and hiring qualified graduates for all positions is not as intense, relatively speaking. At least some of the positions that don’t require clearances will be filled by people who can’t or won’t get clearances, instead of by people who are eligible to obtain clearances. That isn't to say that they would be interested in jobs that do require clearances, but that's a different issue.

Nevertheless, the United States doesn't graduate enough students in the sciences and engineering. (Full disclosure and mea culpa: I started out back in my undergraduate days as an engineering major — but didn't finish. Frankly, I would not have made a good engineer. But, as many of you know, I have still retained a deep passion for science and engineering.) Yes, it's hard — or harder. But the way science is taught in K-12 leaves a lot to be desired. And when they graduate, science and engineering majors aren't paid enough. All in all, not the best incentives.


U.S. Keeps Foreign Ph.D.s
Despite Fears of a Post-9/11 Drop, Most Science, Engineering Post-Grads Have Stayed.

By David Wessel

The Wall Street Journal
January 26, 2010

Most foreigners who came to the U.S. to earn doctorate degrees in science and engineering stayed on after graduation—at least until the recession began—refuting predictions that post-9/11 restrictions on immigrants or expanding opportunities in China and India would send more of them home.

Newly released data revealed that 62% of foreigners holding temporary visas who earned Ph.D.s in science and engineering at U.S. universities in 2002 were still in the U.S. in 2007, the latest year for which figures are available. Of those who graduated in 1997, 60% were still in the U.S. in 2007, according to the data compiled by the U.S. Energy Department's Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the National Science Foundation.

Foreigners account for about 40% of all science and engineering Ph.D. holders working in the U.S., and ...