Future Now
The IFTF Blog
Chinese universities now top the NSF list of institutions sending students to American graduate schools
For decades, American graduate schools have attracted students from all over the world. Over time, of course, the origins of international graduate students has shifted. For years, the NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates has been following where Ph.D. recipients received their undergraduate degrees, and each year it publishes a list showing what universities and colleges graduate the largest number of students going on to get Ph.D.s in the U.S.
The latest survey shows that in 2006, two Chinese universities contributed more Ph.D. students to American graduate programs. This is notable because until now, American universities have dominated (but not monopolized) the top five slots. The top fifty schools, and the number of Ph.D.s their graduates received in 2006, are below.
1. Tsinghau University 571
2. Beijing University 507
3. UC Berkeley 427
4. Seoul National University 393
5. Cornell University 308
6. University of Michigan 272
7. University of Texas Austin 267
8. Brigham Young University 259
9. UCLA 248
10. University of Florida 243
10. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 243
12. Harvard University 241
12. University of Wisconsin-Madison 241
14. Penn State University 236
15. National Taiwan University 226
16. MIT 197
17. Yonsei University (Korea) 193
18. Rutgers University 190
19. Ohio State University 182
20. University of Virginia 180
21. UC Davis 177
22. Texas A&M 175
23. University of Minnesoa-Twin Cities 169
24. University of Maryland College Park 167
25. Stanford University 166
26. Yale University 164
27. Fuda Universityn University (China) 163
27. University of Science & Technology (China) 163
29. UC San Diego 162
30. Brown University 161
31. Princeton University 160
32. Michigan State University 159
33. Nanking University (China) 155
34. University of Mumbai (India) 153
34. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 153
36. Virginia Tech 151
37. Indiana University - Bloomington 150
38. University of Arizona 148
38. UC Santa Cruz 148
40. Nankai University (China) 147
40. University of Washington - Seattle 147
42. Shanghai Jiaotong University (China) 144
43. Middle East Technical University (Turkey) 134
44. University of Pennsylvania 133
45. UC Santa Barbara 127
46. Duke University 122
47. China University of Science & Technology Anhwei 120
48. Korea University 119
48. North Carolina State University 119
48. University of Colorado - Boulder 119
48. Zhejiang University (China) 119
(copied from Universities Weblog)
Fifteen of the top 50 universities in this list are outside the United States; nine are in China, three are in South Korea, and India, Taiwan, and Turkey each have one. The one thing that I find surprising is that more Indian universities aren't in this list. Given the number of graduate students I meet who are from one or another IIT, I would have expected at least one of the campuses to have been in the top 50.
Another way to into the data is to look at what countries overall send the largest number of Ph.D. recipients.
1. China 4,323
2. India 1,524
3. Korea 1,219
4. Taiwan 431
5. Canada 363
6. Turkey 357
7. Russia 223
8. Japan 222
9. Thailand 199
10. Romania 187
Here, India shows up in the #2 spot, which indicates that its American-bound graduates are spread across a large number of institutions. Compare this with China, where fully a quarter of its American Ph.D.s come from Tsinghau and Beijing.
This list can't be read just as a sign of the decline of American competitiveness, as a couple reports have; rather, it reflects some of the peculiarities of the global education market. There are no European universities in the list, because there are world class graduate institutions there: a brilliant undergrad from Cambridge or Helsinki can get a great education-- and, depending on their field, build equally useful or better professional connections-- staying closer to home. (Notice that the only European country in that top 10 list is Romania.)
It's also worth noting that, as the Mercury News observes, "Many who come for doctoral study decide to stay - and contribute to the nation's innovation. One recent survey found that 93 percent of all new doctorate recipients holding permanent visas and 65 percent of temporary visa holders said they would remain in the United States after graduation."