International STEM graduate student survey results

Abstract:

While the U.S. currently enjoys a position among the world’s foremost innovative and scientifically advanced economies, the emergence of new economic powerhouses like China and India threatens to disrupt the global distribution of innovation and economic competitiveness. Among U.S. policy makers, the promotion of advanced education, particularly in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields, has become a key strategy for ensuring the U.S.’s position as an innovative economic leader. Since approximately one third of science and engineering post-graduate students in the U.S. are foreign born, the fate of the U.S. STEM educational system is intimately tied to issues of global competitiveness and American immigration policy. This study utilizes a combination of national education data, a survey of foreign-born STEM graduate students, and in-depth interviews of a sub-set of those students to explain how a combination of scientists’ and engineers’ educational decisions, as well as their experience in school, can predict a students’ career path and geographical location, which can affect the long-term innovation environment in their home and destination country. This study highlights the fact that the increasing global competitiveness in STEM education and the complex, restrictive nature of U.S. immigration policies are contributing to an environment where the American STEM system may no longer be able to comfortably remain the premier destination for the world’s top international students.

Methods:

Survey design and implementation

The primary goals of our study were threefold: to determine which factors influenced foreign STEM students to pursue their education in the United States; their plans to remain or return home after graduation; and their decision to pursue academic or business-oriented careers. To accomplish this, we emailed international graduate students in STEM fields at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) with an introduction to the study and a survey link, assuring anonymity for their responses. UCSB is a public research university with a total enrollment of approximately 22,000 students, of which about 3,000 students are those at the graduate level. The survey consisted of four categories of questions: (1) basic background information (e.g., age, gender, major, year of study); (2) reasons for studying in the U.S.; (3) perceptions of their graduate education in the U.S.; and (4) plans after graduation. The online survey was active from May 2-24, 2013, and resulted in a 42% completion rate.[1] Students were given an option at the end of the survey to specify their interest in conducting any follow-up interviews. A total of 12 follow-up interviews were conducted between January 27 and February 21, 2014.

Data:

Complete survey results (N=166) are provided in this dataset along with metadata.