Overseas graduate recruitment slowing
The number of Chinese and Middle Eastern students applying for fall admission to U.S. graduate programs surged, while applications from India and South Korea fell, according to a survey to be released Tuesday by the Council of Graduate Schools.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the council, which represents more than 500 higher-education institutions in the U.S. and Canada, said foreigners’ applications for 2009 graduate-school admissions rose 4% from the year before.
That compares with increases of 6% in 2008, 9% in 2007 and 12% in 2006. Foreigners’ applications to universities that offer doctoral programs rose 5%, but foreigners’ applications declined 17% at universities that offer master’s as their highest degree.
The mixed results point to a meeting of new realities in the global economy:
On the one hand, some countries have improved their educational systems to keep students closer to home or woo those from other countries who might have otherwise chosen the U.S. On the other, the global recession — and some signs of resistance to employing immigrants in the U.S. — means U.S. tuitions are increasingly out of reach for some, while others fear jobs won’t be waiting for them upon graduation.