Argentina

Government to Boost R&D Spending Significantly

Argentina’s government has launched a research and development strategy that could result in research and development (R&D) investment rising from 0.65 percent to 1.65 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020, with significant input from the private sector.

The document, Innovative Argentina 2020, was presented by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Minister of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation Lino Barañao in March. It includes plans and projections for R&D in six strategic sectors: energy, industry, health, agribusiness, social development, and environment and sustainable development.

To increase research spending to 1.65 percent of GDP, private sector investment will have to be boosted from 26 percent to 50 percent, according to the plan. To facilitate this, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation has created several funding instruments to finance public-private projects. One is the Argentine Scholar Fund, or Fondo Argentino Sectorial (FONARSEC), which aims to finance projects designed to use knowledge for social and economic benefit.

The National Scientific and Technical Research Council plans to create 720 new positions for science and technology researchers, and 3,900 new fellowships for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.

– SciDev
March 28, 2013

Brazil

British Universities Look at Setting Up Offices in Brazil as Market Importance Increases

Three “important” UK universities are said to be in talks with the British Council about opening offices in Brazil as interest in expanding into the market rises.

Times Higher Education reports that until now British universities have been slow to develop links with Brazil, with British institutions put off by the challenges of working in a highly bureaucratic culture. The University of Edinburgh opened an office in São Paulo in March, and there have been signs that a growing number of universities hope to work around the notoriously red-tape laden academic culture in Brazil.

“It’s about being here before the other guy. There’s a lot of competition among them,” said Rodrigo Gaspar, education promotion manager at the British Council in Brazil, in an interview with Times Higher Education.

While few UK institutions have recruitment or development offices in Brazil, Harvard University has an office in São Paulo to support its U.S.- based David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and in March Columbia University opened an office in Rio de Janeiro aimed at developing research initiatives across a number of faculties as part of its broader Columbia Global Centers program. Later this year, the University of Southern California is expected to open a São Paulo office focused on recruiting Brazilian students and organizing programs for U.S. students in Brazil.

Even though few of its universities have bases in Brazil, the UK is seen as one of the biggest players in terms of student recruitment and partnerships with Brazilian institutions, alongside the U.S. and ahead of France, Germany and Portugal.

– Times Higher Education
March 28, 2013

Canada

University of British Columbia Considers 12-Month Bridge College for International Students

The University of British Columbia (UBC) is considering the introduction of a 12-month program, taught at a special college that would cater to those international students who need help with English and who are unfamiliar with Western learning styles. The move is designed to attract many more fee-paying foreigners to the university’s Vancouver campus starting next year.

Although it has not yet received final approval, the proposal envisions a 12-month program for first-year students who did not graduate from an English-speaking high school and need extra help adjusting to Western learning styles. During that time, the students would complete their first year of studies while benefiting from language instruction, small classes and extra assistance. At the conclusion of the program, successful students would transfer to UBC for their second year as undergraduates.

The university senate has already given its approval. If the governors follow suit, the college would accept 300 students in August 2014 with a planned expansion to 1,000 students in three years. This year, there are 4,417 international students enrolled in programs on the Vancouver campus – roughly 14 percent of the total undergraduate enrollment of 30,857.

Based on experiences in other countries with similar programs, UBC expects that 80 percent of students attending the international college will transition successfully into the second year.

– Vancouver Sun
March 30, 2013

World Education Services Designated as Credential Evaluation Provider Under Federal Skilled Worker Program

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has designated World Education Services Canada (WES Canada) as one of three agencies that will provide foreign credential evaluations for prospective immigrants under the new Federal Skilled Workers Program.

A WES credential assessment verifies the authenticity of academic documents and provides a statement of equivalency for each degree. WES also offers a free interactive degree equivalency tool that shows how university degrees earned in other countries compare to Canadian degrees. This information helps the user determine eligibility for immigration, employment or higher education.

“We are very happy to have been selected by CIC to provide assessments for prospective immigrants under the new Federal Skilled Worker Program,” said Mariam Assefa, executive director of World Education Services. “We look forward to helping newcomers get recognition for their education prior to arrival in Canada so that they have better access to professional opportunities that match their background when they land,” she continued.

– WES News Release
April 18, 2013

United States

Foreign Ph.D. Graduates Stay in Country if Economic Conditions are Good

A new working paper finds that one of the most important factors governing whether or not foreign-born science and engineering Ph.D. students remain in the United States after they graduate is the economy. Students are most likely to stay if the U.S. has experienced strong growth in gross domestic product in recent years or if their home country has had weak growth. Students who come from countries that have recently democratized or have higher average income levels are less likely to remain in the U.S.

The study, based on an analysis of the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Earned Doctorates data from 1960 to 2008, also found that those foreign students who do, or plan to stay in the U.S. are more academically talented, as determined by the educational attainment of their parents and their own success in earning fellowships and other sources of graduate funding. Foreign-born students made up 56 percent of all science and engineering Ph.D. recipients in the U.S. in 2007.

– Inside Higher Ed
April 3, 2013

U.S. Accrediting Agencies Expand Overseas Activities

A recent report from Inside Higher Ed looks at the activities of American accrediting agencies abroad, and finds that they are increasingly evaluating foreign colleges and programs that are unattached to U.S. institutions.

The article states that proponents of the exportation of U.S. accreditation argue that it has a role to play in improving the quality of universities and professional programs worldwide and in promoting the mobility of students and faculty; critics contend that, without care, the accreditors could find themselves in a compromising position.

Today, AACSB International, a Florida-based accreditor of business programs, is among the most internationally active of the U.S.-based accreditors: 176 of its 672 accredited programs are based outside the U.S., in 43 countries. The vast majority of the nearly 200 programs that are in the process of accreditation are based abroad. The engineering accreditor, ABET, currently accredits 324 programs at 64 institutions in 23 countries outside the U.S.

The most recent data from the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, an association of colleges that recognizes institutional and programmatic accreditors, from 2011, show that U.S.-based accrediting agencies approved a total of 857 foreign institutions or programs in 70 countries. This is in addition to the 720 branch campuses or other overseas programs that accreditors then reviewed as part of the scope of U.S.-based institutions’ accreditation. Between 2007 and 2011, the total number of international programs approved by U.S. accreditors more than doubled.

– Inside Higher Ed
April 3, 2013

International Applications to U.S. Graduate Schools Flatline

The latest data from the Council of Graduate Schools show an abrupt end to the Chinese double-digit growth story in applications to U.S. graduate schools. After seven consecutive years of double-digit growth, the number of Chinese applications to graduate programs in the United States this spring fell by 5 percent, contrary to most expectations of continued growth.

Despite the China decline, overall application numbers rose slightly, by 1 percent, the smallest growth in eight years and significantly lower than the 9- and 11-percent increases that took place in 2012 and 2011, respectively. Most of the growth in applications was attributable to a 20 percent increase in applications from India – rebounding from a few years of no growth – and a 24 percent increase from Brazil.

The China numbers are particularly perplexing when one considers that the number of Chinese students who took the GRE skyrocketed 30 percent in 2012. Additionally, nearly 60,000 Chinese citizens took the Graduate Management Admission Test in the 2011-2012 testing year, about triple the number in 2007-2008. In the latest year, 78 percent of those score reports were sent to U.S. programs, while 64 percent went to specialized master’s degree programs worldwide.

The Council surveyed its 507 American members from late January to March; the responding institutions account for some 64 percent of the 103,000 graduate degrees awarded to international students. The application report is just Phase I of the 2013 CGS International Graduate Admissions Survey. Phases II and III will deal with admissions and enrollment respectively, and may help shed more light on the factors behind the China decline.

Including China, four of the top five sending countries saw declines in applications. Only institutions focused on master’s degrees received significantly more applications, up 18 percent.

– The Council of Graduate School
April 8, 2013

Foreign Student Visa Status and Immigration Reform

There is bipartisan consensus in Washington that retaining foreign students studying at U.S. universities in America after graduation is favorable in terms of making America economically competitive. However, Congress continues to struggle with the details.

Most agree – and many recent legislative proposals have suggested – that the creation of a green card for foreign students receiving graduate degrees in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields so they can work in the United States immediately post-graduation makes sense. Yet, some fear that a rapid increase in skilled foreign workers could depress wages and lead to higher domestic unemployment.

Under a plan unveiled by a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators in April, the government would drop limits on the number of employment-based green cards granted to individuals with doctoral degrees in STEM fields, as well as “outstanding professors and researchers” and “aliens of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, professions, or business.” The plan would raise the cap on H-1B temporary work visas, from 65,000 to 110,000, and set aside 40 percent of that total for workers with advanced degrees and individuals who had earned advanced degrees in STEM fields from American institutions within the previous five years. An additional 25,000 visas would go to individuals with advanced degrees in the STEM fields—an increase from the current 20,000 exemption for all advanced-degree holders.

While border security issues remain a sticking point, some version of a comprehensive immigration reform bill is expected to make its way through Congress, and to help understand the potential impact of this legislation, the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program has compiled some facts about America’s foreign student population.

According to the Brookings data, if legislation is passed to create an easier pathway for retaining foreign students that obtain advanced STEM degrees at U.S. universities, the impact could be large: about 96,200 incoming foreign students on F-1 visas in 2010 could have become eligible for a green card upon graduation. Currently, only a fraction of these students attain a temporary skilled-worker visa after graduating. The H-1B visa program has been one of the main pathways for retaining American-trained foreign students, though only 19,922 H-1B recipients in 2010 (26 percent of all H-1B visas) were foreigners with advanced degrees from U.S. universities.

The reforms could disproportionately impact particular nationalities and localities. The large majority of America’s foreign master’s and doctoral STEM degree students hail from India and China, comprising 54 and 22 percent respectively of all such students. Under the current visa system, citizens from these two countries face waiting times that exceed 10 years for a green card due to country caps backlogs.

– Brookings Institute
April 2013

Study: No Shortage of STEM Professionals

Despite constant concerns to the contrary among educators and politicians, there appears to be no shortage of STEM workers in the U.S. labor force, according to a study released in April.

The study, by the Economic Policy Institute, finds that enough students have responded to past shortages by majoring in science and technology fields to meet workforce demands. Furthermore, just one of every two STEM graduates finds a job in a related field, while in computer and information science and in engineering, colleges in the United States are graduating 50 percent more students each year than there are jobs in those fields.

Of computer science graduates who do not enter the IT workforce, 32 percent say it is because they could not find an IT job, and 53 percent say they found better jobs outside of IT.

– Economic Policy Institute
April 24, 2013