The Complexities of 21st Century Brain Exchange

Philip Altbach

doi:10.6017/ihe.2012.68.8625

Abstract

Research by Dongbin Kim, Charles A. S. Bankart, and Laura Isdell ("International doctorates: Trends analysis on their decision to stay in US," Higher Education 62 (August 2011) shows that the large majority of international doctoral recipients from American universities remain in the United States after graduation. Even more surprisingly, the proportion of those choosing to stay in the United States has in- creased over the past three decades, seemingly regardless of growth and academic expansion. There is strong evidence that we live in a worldwide era of global mobility of highly skilled talent in general and of the academic profession in particular, but this mobility flows largely in one direction from developing and emerging economies to the wealthier nations, especially to the English-speaking countries.

Highlights

The emerging economies of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) will, it is assumed, lure both home students who go abroad to study when they finish their degrees and some graduates who have settled in the West—because of their dramatic economic growth and expanding higher education systems
Laura Isdell (“International doctorates: Trends analysis on their decision to stay in US,” Higher Education 62 (August 2011) shows that the large majority of international doctoral recipients from American universities remain in the United States after graduation
WHO GOES AND WHO STAYS? The countries with the most impressive economic and educational expansion seem to be those with the largest “stay” rates, according to the National Academy of Science’s Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), which tracks all international doctoral students studying in the United States

Summary

Introduction

The emerging economies of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) will, it is assumed, lure both home students who go abroad to study when they finish their degrees and some graduates who have settled in the West—because of their dramatic economic growth and expanding higher education systems. S. Bankart, and Laura Isdell (“International doctorates: Trends analysis on their decision to stay in US,” Higher Education 62 (August 2011) shows that the large majority of international doctoral recipients from American universities remain in the United States after graduation. There is strong evidence that we live in a worldwide era of global mobility of highly skilled talent in general and of the academic profession in particular, but this mobility flows largely in one direction—from developing and emerging economies to the wealthier nations, especially to the Englishspeaking countries.

Results

Conclusion