Debunking an Engineering Education Urban Legend

[petek]

Over at Ars Technica, Hannibal has written another gem, Sizing up the competition: what can Duke tell us about America's high-tech future? about how a Duke study debunks the "India and China graduate more engineers" myth.

In a nutshell, their study found that " America generates a much higher number of engineers per capita than either of these two countries" - a somewhat different story than we're used to hearing these days! The study discusses some of the sources of this discrepancy (types of degrees and fields included in the statistics, etc.), but I wouldn't call it a "definitive" study as it is narrowly-focused and the authors admit to difficulty in obtaining comparable statistics from China and the US. Still, their conclusions seem well-supported by their research. They also provide a definition of "engineer" which should draw a few comments on these fora.

The Ars article goes on to discuss some other "metrics" used to show how America is losing it's edge and an interesting economic analysis on foreign workers in the US. Worth a read.

[ChuckDickerson]

This study has been discussed here before: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=40884

I have read the entire paper and still feel that all of these studies miss one very important point. They all assume that all graduates from United States schools are U.S. Citizens and go on to contribute to the U.S. workforce. Have you seen the student makeup at U.S. Universities in the past 10-20 years? The number of foreign nationals attending U.S. universities seems (to me) to be very high. Even when I was in school 20 years ago the number of foreign nationals in my classes was alarming. Most of these foreign nationals are here paid for by either a company or their government to study here and return to their country to work. I am trying to put this delicately without offending anyone here. I don't know of many American students that are filling up the universities in India and China but the reverse seems to be common. While it is true that the U.S. may graduate as many or more engineers and scientists per capita as India and China are they all staying here and contributing to the U.S. workforce? That is the study I would like to read.

[petek]

Originally Posted by DeepWater

This study has been discussed here before: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=40884

Note to self: search before you post

Originally Posted by DeepWater

I have read the entire paper and still feel that all of these studies miss one very important point. They all assume that all graduates from United States schools are U.S. Citizens and go on to contribute to the U.S. workforce. Have you seen the student makeup at U.S. Universities in the past 10-20 years? The number of foreign nationals attending U.S. universities seems (to me) to be very high. Even when I was in school 20 years ago the number of foreign nationals in my classes was alarming. Most of these foreign nationals are here paid for by either a company or their government to study here and return to their country to work. I am trying to put this delicately without offending anyone here. I don't know of many American students that are filling up the universities in India and China but the reverse seems to be common. While it is true that the U.S. may graduate as many or more engineers and scientists per capita as India and China are they all staying here and contributing to the U.S. workforce? That is the study I would like to read.

Hannibal's article does (superficially) address the issue of foreign nationals working in the US, but your point about foreign national students is well-taken.