Jennifer Wheary is a senior fellow at Demos, a public policy organization in New York City and writes about the disparity between the United States and China.
30 yearsago, 30% of the world’s college students were from the United States. Today, that figure is just 14%.
The United States produces 70,000 engineers a year.
China allegedly produces 650,000. Even a revised figure of 350,000 shows a huge difference.
China will have more engineers and scientists with doctorates than the United States by 2010.
90% of all scientists and engineers with doctorates in the world will be Asians living in Asia.
In recent years, China has revamped its higher education strategy to focus on getting more people from poor families into college and graduate school.
The Chinese government has prioritized keeping university fees and housing costs low. It also encourages master’s and doctorate programs to drop the fees associated with postgraduate study.
The article goes on from there to explain what the US should do about what it sees as the problem. But, at the same time, the article makes a strong case that China is going very much in the right direction.
Source: NewsDay.com
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