|
Major
Countries/Economies of Origin
Stay
Rates
Foreign recipients of U.S. doctoral degrees are an important part
of the internationally mobile high-skilled labor force. When they
return to their home countries or otherwise leave the United States
after completing their degrees, they add to the stock of potential
leaders in research and education, making those countries more
competitive in S&E. Those who remain in the United States
enhance the capability of U.S. S&E enterprise. In many cases,
regardless of where they settle, their career trajectories foster
ties between their countries of origin and the United States.
This section includes data on the places of origin of foreign
doctorate recipients and on their stay rates in the United States
after completing their degrees. The data are derived from the NSF
Survey of Earned Doctorates, with special tabulations from 1985 to
2000.
Major Countries/Economies of Origin 
Students from 11 major foreign countries/economies and three
regional groupings together accounted for nearly 70 percent of all
foreign recipients of U.S. S&E doctorates from 1985 to 2000. The
major Asian countries/economies sending doctoral students to the
United States have been China, Taiwan, India, and South Korea, in
that order. Major European countries of origin have been Germany,
Greece, the United Kingdom, Italy, and France. Data on regional
groupings of other Western European, Scandinavian, and Eastern
European countries are also given, as are data for Mexico and
Canada. Because students from Asia represent such a large proportion
of foreign S&E doctoral degree recipients at U.S. universities,
trends in their earned degrees are examined separately.
Asia
U.S. S&E doctorates earned by Asian students increased from
the mid-1980s to the mid- to late 1990s, followed by a decline. Most
of the degrees were in engineering and biological and physical
sciences. From 1985 to 2000, students from the four Asian
countries/economies (China, Taiwan, India, and South Korea) earned
more than 50 percent of S&E doctoral degrees awarded to foreign
students in the United States (68,500 of 138,000), four times more
than students from Europe (16,000).
From 1985 to 2000, students from the People's Republic of China
earned, cumulatively, more than 26,500 S&E doctoral degrees at
U.S. universities, mainly in biological and physical sciences and
engineering (table 2-9  ). The
number of S&E doctorates earned by Chinese students increased
from 138 in 1985 to almost 3,000 in 1996. After this peak year,
their number of doctorates from U.S. institutions declined and
leveled off until 1999 and then increased slightly in 2000 and
2001.
Students from Taiwan received the second-largest number of
S&E doctorates at U.S. universities. Between 1985 and 2000,
Taiwanese students earned almost 15,500 S&E doctoral degrees,
mainly in engineering and biological and physical sciences (table 2-9 ).
Taiwan was an early user of U.S. doctoral education. In 1985,
students from Taiwan earned more U.S. S&E doctoral degrees than
students from India and China combined. The Taiwanese number of
degrees increased rapidly for almost a decade, from 746 in 1985 to
1,300 at their peak in 1994. However, as Taiwanese universities
increased their capacity for advanced S&E education in the
1990s, S&E doctorates earned from U.S. universities by Taiwanese
students declined from 1,300 in 1994 to 669 in 2000.
Indian students earned more than 13,000 S&E doctoral degrees
at U.S. universities over the period, mainly in engineering and
physical and biological sciences. They also earned by far the
largest number of U.S. doctoral degrees awarded to any foreign group
in computer and information sciences (table 2-9 ). The
decade-long increase in U.S. S&E doctorates earned by Indian
students ended in 1996, followed by 4 years of decline. The decline
was particularly marked in engineering (57 percent) and computer
sciences (50 percent).
South Korean students earned more than 13,000 U.S. S&E
doctorates, mainly in engineering, physical sciences, and psychology
and social sciences (table 2-9 ).
Their number of S&E doctoral degrees increased from 300 in 1985
to more than 1,000 in 1990, fluctuated around 1,000 for the first
half of the 1990s, and then declined and leveled off at about 700 by
the end of the decade.
Europe
European students earned less than one-fourth the number of
S&E doctorates earned by Asian students and tended to focus more
on social sciences and psychology than their Asian counterparts (table 2-10 ).
Western European countries whose students earned the most U.S.
S&E doctorates from 1985 to 2000 were Germany, Greece, the
United Kingdom, Italy, and France, in that order. From 1985 to 1993,
Greece and the United Kingdom were the primary European countries of
origin; thereafter, their numbers of doctoral degree recipients
declined and leveled off. Germany was the only major Western
European country whose students earned an increasing number of U.S.
S&E doctorates throughout the 1990s (figure 2-27  ).
Scandinavians received fewer U.S. doctorates than students from the
other European regions, with a field distribution roughly similar to
that for other Western Europeans.
The number of Eastern European students earning S&E
doctorates at U.S. universities increased from fewer than 100 in
1990 to more than 600 in 2000 (figure 2-28 ). A
higher proportion of Eastern European (89 percent) than Western
European (71 percent) recipients of U.S. doctorates were in S&E
fields. Within S&E, Western Europeans were more likely to study
psychology and social sciences and engineering, and Eastern
Europeans tended to study physical sciences, engineering, and
mathematics (table 2-10 ).
North America
The Canadian and Mexican shares of U.S. S&E doctoral degrees
were small compared with those from Asia and Europe The number of
degrees earned by Canadian students increased rapidly in the second
half of the 1980s, from about 150 in 1985 to more than 300 in 1991,
and then remained relatively stable in the 1990s. Fifty-eight
percent of Canadian doctoral degree students in U.S. universities
earned S&E doctorates, mainly in psychology and social and
biological sciences (figure 2-29 and
table 2-10 ).
Mexican doctoral students in U.S. universities are more concentrated
in S&E fields than are Canadian students. Eighty-three percent
of the doctoral degrees earned by Mexican students at U.S.
universities were in S&E fields, mainly engineering, psychology
and social sciences, and biological and agricultural sciences. The
number of doctoral degree recipients from Mexico fluctuated and
increased slowly throughout the period, from 100 degrees earned in
1985 to more than 200 in 2000.
Stay Rates
Almost 30 percent of the actively employed S&E doctorate
holders in the United States are foreign born, as are many postdocs.
Most of those working in the United States (excluding postdocs)
obtained their doctorates from U.S. universities. Stay rates, based
on stated plans at receipt of doctorate, indicate how much the
United States relies on inflow of doctorate holders from different
countries and whether working in the United States remains an
attractive option for foreign students who obtain U.S. doctorates.
In
chapter 3, we report an analysis using a stay-rate measure based
on examination of Social Security records several years after the
doctorate.
Historically, approximately 50 percent of foreign students who
earned S&E degrees at universities in the United States reported
that they planned to stay in the United States, and a smaller
proportion said they had firm offers to do so (NSF/SRS
1998). However, these percentages increased significantly in the
1990s. In the 1990–93 period, for example, of the foreign S&E
doctoral degree recipients who reported their plans, 63 percent
planned to remain in the United States after receiving their degree,
and 41 percent had firm offers. By the 1998–2001 period, 76 percent
of foreign doctoral degree recipients in S&E fields with known
plans intended to stay in the United States, and 54 percent accepted
firm offers to do so (appendix table 2-31  ).
Although the number of S&E doctoral degrees earned by foreign
students declined after 1996, the number of students who had firm
plans to remain in the United States declined only slightly from its
1996 peak. Each year from 1996 to 2000, around 4,500 foreign
doctoral degree recipients had firm offers to remain in the United
States at the time of degree conferral, with a slight increase in
2001 (figure 2-30 ).
Stay rates vary by place of origin. From 1985 to 2000, most U.S.
S&E doctoral degree recipients from China and India planned to
remain in the United States for further study and employment. In
2001, 70 and 77 percent, respectively, reported accepting firm
offers for employment or postdoctoral research in the United States
(figure 2-31 ).
Recipients from South Korea and Taiwan are less likely to stay in
the United States. Over the 1985–2000 period, only 26 percent of
South Koreans and 31 percent of Taiwanese reported accepting firm
offers to remain in the United States. Both the number of S&E
students from these Asian economies and the number who intended to
stay in the United States after receipt of their doctoral degree
fell in the 1990s. This decline may be because Taiwan and South
Korea have expanded and improved their advanced S&E programs and
created R&D institutions that offer more attractive S&T
careers for their expatriate scientists and engineers. Still, by
2001, about 50 percent of their new U.S. doctorate holders reported
accepting U.S. appointments.
Historically, a relatively high percentage of U.S. S&E
doctoral degree recipients from the United Kingdom planned to stay
in the United States, whereas France and Italy had small percentages
compared with other Western European countries (NSF/SRS
1998). However, by 2001, 50 percent or more of the doctoral
degree students from these countries had firm plans to stay, as did
those from Germany (figure 2-31 ).
Stay rates for Eastern European doctoral degree recipients were
high, exceeded only by those for India (appendix table 2-31 ).
The percentage of doctoral degree students who had firm plans to
stay in the United States in 2001 was higher for Canada (58 percent)
than for Mexico (38 percent), which has one of the lowest stay rates
of all the major countries of origin of foreign U.S. doctoral degree
recipients (figure 2-31 ).
A study of U.S. doctoral degree recipients from foreign countries
explored the factors affecting the decision to stay in the United
States (Gupta,
Nerad, and Cerny 2003). The study cited numerous factors,
stressing the strength of preexisting ties to the recipients' home
countries. Among the doctorate holders studied, the principal source
of funding was related to their likelihood of staying in the United
States: those who stayed were more likely to have been funded
primarily by RAs and TAs, and those who returned to their home
countries were more likely to have relied on funding from their
national government or their employer.
| 
Print this
chapter
E-mail this
page
