[IP] Re: worth reqading demed export -- Security clearances, lie detectors, etc.

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

________________________________________
From: Eugene H. Spafford [spaf@mac.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 04, 2008 5:22 PM
To: steve.goldstein@cox.net
Cc: ip; David Farber
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:   demed export --    Security clearances, lie detectors, etc.

> At any rate, the  bigger issue seems to be that too many U.S.-borns
> seek the lucrative careers in business or law, and not the rigorous
> roads to science and engineering.  For those of you in academia,
> what is the composition of your graduate pool as regards citizenship?

NSF compiles figures for all Science & Engineering.  The 2008 report
is here: <http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind08/>.  Data lags because
of reporting and analysis delays, but for the 2005 academic year, 25%
of all graduate students enrolled in the US were on student visas.
More specifically, only 4% of undergrads earning degrees, 28% of all
MS degrees, and 36% of doctorate degrees were earned by students on
temporary visas.  74% of the foreign students receive doctorates had
plans to stay in the US, with 49% already accepting positions.  90% of
students from the PRC and 88% from India indicated that they wanted to
stay in the US for employment.

The Computing Research Association does an annual survey of member
institutions (those in North America that are research-oriented,
mostly PhD-granting institutions) and the latest results are here: <http://www.cra.org/statistics/
 >.   From the 2005-2006 survey we see that in computing (computer
science, computer engineering, and similar) 57% of the doctorate
recipients are non-residents.  The same data shows that only 13% took
their first jobs outside Canada/US, 50% went to domestic industry, and
31% went into domestic faculty positions.

There's a wealth of other data at both places, including trending
data.  This graph (http://www.cra.org/info/education/us/index.html),
with the links in the upper-right corner, might also be interesting.
Engineering has even more non-US citizens than S&E total, for instance.

Our local data is consistent with those numbers, moved forward a year
or so.   Enrollment in CS at the undergrad level has continued to
drop, and many of us are hoping this was the low-water mark.


The declining enrollment of domestic students in S&E programs and
careers has been an on-going matter of concern to many.  If you're new
to this topic, you might start here: <http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/429/1
 >.  The CRA Blog has had on-going coverage of this (and I know
articles have been posted to IP, too).

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