Saturday, May 28, 2005
An observation at graduation
The Ph.D. graduation ceremony at Columbia was an interesting affair held at the beautiful St. Paul's chapel. The ceremony itself was split into two days and I graduated mostly with students from the sciences. At the procession and the ceremony, I noticed something I have written about several times on this blog -- the low numbers of Americans in the advanced science programs. It's one thing to write about it and another to actually observe it upfront. I'd say that over 75% of the graduates were non-American, and that may well be an underestimate.
America has always been a great magnet for the best talent from around the world. Traditionally, any drop-off in the numbers of Americans in the sciences have been compensated by importing talent, a very large part of which come from India and China. However, as both countries begin to grow dramatically and increase their R&D spend to retain and regain talent, it's anyone's guess whether the U.S. can continue to depend on imports to make up for the lack of interest in the sciences within the country (bizarre debates over evolution do not help the cause of U.S. science either). As it is, the IIT's are claiming that there has been upto a 40% drop-off in the number of graduates taking off for the United States.
To make things worse for itself, the United States has undertaken measures in the wake of 9/11 that are the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot with great care and precision. Sanjay and Slashdot both pointed me to a bizarre new law that is supposed to take effect soon, which makes things even worse for foreign scholars in the sciences.
New federal rules proposed by the Department of Commerce in March could impede Gupta's access to educational equipment and force him to apply for government licenses to use specific technology in the classroom, each of which could take months to acquire. In fact, hundreds of thousands of international students and scientists working and studying in the U.S. could lose access to equipment and technology that they have had routine use of until now. Because Gupta is studying chemical engineering, he will eventually encounter what the government calls "dual-use technology" -- technology that has both civilian and military applications. Under the new Commerce Department proposal, the use of everything from basic computer systems, semiconductors, and training manuals to microscopes and telescopes will require some international students to apply for government licenses before they can legally have access to or study the technology.
According to changes recommended by the Department of Commerce, universities could soon be forced to apply for individual licenses from the federal government before they can "export" knowledge to specific students about the operation, installation, maintenance, or repair of certain equipment. But thousands of academic subjects fit into the dual-use category, including computer science; mathematics; civil, mechanical, and nuclear engineering; and biological and chemical studies. The proposed regulations would make universities apply to the Bureau of Industry and Security, an arm of the Commerce Department, for deemed export licenses for students who hail from 12 so-called countries of concern (China, Cuba, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, and Syria) and who intend to do research in dual-use areas. The new regulations seem likely to create huge bureaucratic obstacles to foreign students' attendance at U.S. universities. In 2003, the Commerce Department reviewed fewer than 1,000 deemed export license applications for foreign nationals. If the new regulations are adopted as proposed, that number could shoot as high as 350,000.
Note how Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the hijackers, is not in that list, but China, India and Russia (home to a great deal of scientific talent) are.
To get a license for a student from a country of concern, a university would have to go through a long application process for each student and for each piece of technology that student might potentially use. The application requires a detailed history of a student's citizenship(s); the student's résumé; a letter of explanation of the student's course of study; specific descriptions of the process, product, size, and output capacity for all technology and software to be used; a dollar value for the technology transfer; a description of the availability of the specified technology abroad; and a detailed description of measures that will be taken to prevent unauthorized access to the technology. There is a fee of approximately $1 per student, per application.
In a situation like you can always depend on politicians to jump in with completely ill-advised remarks.
"I would suggest the standard we should use is that Chinese students are free to come here as long as they're studying poetry and [free] enterprise, and not high-tech systems that could have dual use," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) said at an April 14 joint hearing of the House Armed Services and the International Relations committees.
Where does all of this leave U.S. science?
Claus warns that rules like these have been dangerous in the past. "When the Third Reich was emerging, they said that only Germans of pure Aryan descent could attend German universities. Significant numbers of German scholars departed," she says. "That was detrimental for Germany, but was glorious for the U.S.
That might be exaggerating things a bit much. What's more, I am yet to see this story appear anywhere but the SF Weekly (if you've heard of others, please let me know) and maybe the Weekly is pulling off a Times of India. Nevertheless, as least one ZS reader with a Ph.D., who plans to return to India in the next few months, told me this new law helped him make up his mind quicker about returning. What's very good news for India can't be that great news from America.
America has always been a great magnet for the best talent from around the world. Traditionally, any drop-off in the numbers of Americans in the sciences have been compensated by importing talent, a very large part of which come from India and China. However, as both countries begin to grow dramatically and increase their R&D spend to retain and regain talent, it's anyone's guess whether the U.S. can continue to depend on imports to make up for the lack of interest in the sciences within the country (bizarre debates over evolution do not help the cause of U.S. science either). As it is, the IIT's are claiming that there has been upto a 40% drop-off in the number of graduates taking off for the United States.
To make things worse for itself, the United States has undertaken measures in the wake of 9/11 that are the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot with great care and precision. Sanjay and Slashdot both pointed me to a bizarre new law that is supposed to take effect soon, which makes things even worse for foreign scholars in the sciences.
New federal rules proposed by the Department of Commerce in March could impede Gupta's access to educational equipment and force him to apply for government licenses to use specific technology in the classroom, each of which could take months to acquire. In fact, hundreds of thousands of international students and scientists working and studying in the U.S. could lose access to equipment and technology that they have had routine use of until now. Because Gupta is studying chemical engineering, he will eventually encounter what the government calls "dual-use technology" -- technology that has both civilian and military applications. Under the new Commerce Department proposal, the use of everything from basic computer systems, semiconductors, and training manuals to microscopes and telescopes will require some international students to apply for government licenses before they can legally have access to or study the technology.
According to changes recommended by the Department of Commerce, universities could soon be forced to apply for individual licenses from the federal government before they can "export" knowledge to specific students about the operation, installation, maintenance, or repair of certain equipment. But thousands of academic subjects fit into the dual-use category, including computer science; mathematics; civil, mechanical, and nuclear engineering; and biological and chemical studies. The proposed regulations would make universities apply to the Bureau of Industry and Security, an arm of the Commerce Department, for deemed export licenses for students who hail from 12 so-called countries of concern (China, Cuba, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Sudan, and Syria) and who intend to do research in dual-use areas. The new regulations seem likely to create huge bureaucratic obstacles to foreign students' attendance at U.S. universities. In 2003, the Commerce Department reviewed fewer than 1,000 deemed export license applications for foreign nationals. If the new regulations are adopted as proposed, that number could shoot as high as 350,000.
Note how Saudi Arabia, home to 15 of the hijackers, is not in that list, but China, India and Russia (home to a great deal of scientific talent) are.
To get a license for a student from a country of concern, a university would have to go through a long application process for each student and for each piece of technology that student might potentially use. The application requires a detailed history of a student's citizenship(s); the student's résumé; a letter of explanation of the student's course of study; specific descriptions of the process, product, size, and output capacity for all technology and software to be used; a dollar value for the technology transfer; a description of the availability of the specified technology abroad; and a detailed description of measures that will be taken to prevent unauthorized access to the technology. There is a fee of approximately $1 per student, per application.
In a situation like you can always depend on politicians to jump in with completely ill-advised remarks.
"I would suggest the standard we should use is that Chinese students are free to come here as long as they're studying poetry and [free] enterprise, and not high-tech systems that could have dual use," Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-California) said at an April 14 joint hearing of the House Armed Services and the International Relations committees.
Where does all of this leave U.S. science?
Claus warns that rules like these have been dangerous in the past. "When the Third Reich was emerging, they said that only Germans of pure Aryan descent could attend German universities. Significant numbers of German scholars departed," she says. "That was detrimental for Germany, but was glorious for the U.S.
That might be exaggerating things a bit much. What's more, I am yet to see this story appear anywhere but the SF Weekly (if you've heard of others, please let me know) and maybe the Weekly is pulling off a Times of India. Nevertheless, as least one ZS reader with a Ph.D., who plans to return to India in the next few months, told me this new law helped him make up his mind quicker about returning. What's very good news for India can't be that great news from America.
