International STEM graduate student survey
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:
Survey sent to international graduate students.
Survey results are posted in another file.