| Major
Countries/Economies of Origin
Stay Rates
Foreign recipients of U.S. doctoral degrees are an important part
of the internationally mobile high-skilled labor force. When they
return to their home countries or otherwise leave the United States
after completing their degrees, they add to the stock of potential
leaders in research and education, making those countries more competitive
in S&E. Those who remain in the United States enhance the capability
of U.S. S&E enterprise. In many cases, regardless of where they
settle, their career trajectories foster ties between their countries
of origin and the United States.
This section includes data on the places of origin of foreign doctorate
recipients and on their stay rates in the United States after completing
their degrees. The data are derived from the NSF Survey of Earned
Doctorates, with special tabulations from 1985 to 2000.
Major Countries/Economies of Origin 
Students from 11 major foreign countries/economies and three regional
groupings together accounted for nearly 70 percent of all foreign
recipients of U.S. S&E doctorates from 1985 to 2000. The major
Asian countries/economies sending doctoral students to the United
States have been China, Taiwan, India, and South Korea, in that
order. Major European countries of origin have been Germany, Greece,
the United Kingdom, Italy, and France. Data on regional groupings
of other Western European, Scandinavian, and Eastern European countries
are also given, as are data for Mexico and Canada. Because students
from Asia represent such a large proportion of foreign S&E doctoral
degree recipients at U.S. universities, trends in their earned degrees
are examined separately.
Asia
U.S. S&E doctorates earned by Asian students increased from
the mid-1980s to the mid- to late 1990s, followed by a decline.
Most of the degrees were in engineering and biological and physical
sciences. From 1985 to 2000, students from the four Asian countries/economies
(China, Taiwan, India, and South Korea) earned more than 50 percent
of S&E doctoral degrees awarded to foreign students in the United
States (68,500 of 138,000), four times more than students from Europe
(16,000).
From 1985 to 2000, students from the People's Republic of China
earned, cumulatively, more than 26,500 S&E doctoral degrees
at U.S. universities, mainly in biological and physical sciences
and engineering (table 2-9
 ).
The number of S&E doctorates earned by Chinese students increased
from 138 in 1985 to almost 3,000 in 1996. After this peak year,
their number of doctorates from U.S. institutions declined and leveled
off until 1999 and then increased slightly in 2000 and 2001.
Students from Taiwan received the second-largest number of S&E
doctorates at U.S. universities. Between 1985 and 2000, Taiwanese
students earned almost 15,500 S&E doctoral degrees, mainly in
engineering and biological and physical sciences (table
2-9 ).
Taiwan was an early user of U.S. doctoral education. In 1985, students
from Taiwan earned more U.S. S&E doctoral degrees than students
from India and China combined. The Taiwanese number of degrees increased
rapidly for almost a decade, from 746 in 1985 to 1,300 at their
peak in 1994. However, as Taiwanese universities increased their
capacity for advanced S&E education in the 1990s, S&E doctorates
earned from U.S. universities by Taiwanese students declined from
1,300 in 1994 to 669 in 2000.
Indian students earned more than 13,000 S&E doctoral degrees
at U.S. universities over the period, mainly in engineering and
physical and biological sciences. They also earned by far the largest
number of U.S. doctoral degrees awarded to any foreign group in
computer and information sciences (table
2-9 ).
The decade-long increase in U.S. S&E doctorates earned by Indian
students ended in 1996, followed by 4 years of decline. The decline
was particularly marked in engineering (57 percent) and computer
sciences (50 percent).
South Korean students earned more than 13,000 U.S. S&E doctorates,
mainly in engineering, physical sciences, and psychology and social
sciences (table 2-9
).
Their number of S&E doctoral degrees increased from 300 in 1985
to more than 1,000 in 1990, fluctuated around 1,000 for the first
half of the 1990s, and then declined and leveled off at about 700
by the end of the decade.
Europe
European students earned less than one-fourth the number of S&E
doctorates earned by Asian students and tended to focus more on
social sciences and psychology than their Asian counterparts (table
2-10 ).
Western European countries whose students earned the most U.S.
S&E doctorates from 1985 to 2000 were Germany, Greece, the United
Kingdom, Italy, and France, in that order. From 1985 to 1993, Greece
and the United Kingdom were the primary European countries of origin;
thereafter, their numbers of doctoral degree recipients declined
and leveled off. Germany was the only major Western European country
whose students earned an increasing number of U.S. S&E doctorates
throughout the 1990s (figure
2-27  ).
Scandinavians received fewer U.S. doctorates than students from
the other European regions, with a field distribution roughly similar
to that for other Western Europeans.
The number of Eastern European students earning S&E doctorates
at U.S. universities increased from fewer than 100 in 1990 to more
than 600 in 2000 (figure
2-28 ).
A higher proportion of Eastern European (89 percent) than Western
European (71 percent) recipients of U.S. doctorates were in S&E
fields. Within S&E, Western Europeans were more likely to study
psychology and social sciences and engineering, and Eastern Europeans
tended to study physical sciences, engineering, and mathematics
(table 2-10
).
North America
The Canadian and Mexican shares of U.S. S&E doctoral degrees
were small compared with those from Asia and Europe The number of
degrees earned by Canadian students increased rapidly in the second
half of the 1980s, from about 150 in 1985 to more than 300 in 1991,
and then remained relatively stable in the 1990s. Fifty-eight percent
of Canadian doctoral degree students in U.S. universities earned
S&E doctorates, mainly in psychology and social and biological
sciences (figure 2-29
and table 2-10
).
Mexican doctoral students in U.S. universities are more concentrated
in S&E fields than are Canadian students. Eighty-three percent
of the doctoral degrees earned by Mexican students at U.S. universities
were in S&E fields, mainly engineering, psychology and social
sciences, and biological and agricultural sciences. The number of
doctoral degree recipients from Mexico fluctuated and increased
slowly throughout the period, from 100 degrees earned in 1985 to
more than 200 in 2000.
Stay Rates
Almost 30 percent of the actively employed S&E doctorate holders
in the United States are foreign born, as are many postdocs. Most
of those working in the United States (excluding postdocs) obtained
their doctorates from U.S. universities. Stay rates, based on stated
plans at receipt of doctorate, indicate how much the United States
relies on inflow of doctorate holders from different countries and
whether working in the United States remains an attractive option
for foreign students who obtain U.S. doctorates. In chapter 3, we
report an analysis using a stay-rate measure based on examination
of Social Security records several years after the doctorate.
Historically, approximately 50 percent of foreign students who
earned S&E degrees at universities in the United States reported
that they planned to stay in the United States, and a smaller proportion
said they had firm offers to do so (NSF/SRS
1998). However, these percentages increased significantly in
the 1990s. In the 1990–93 period, for example, of the foreign
S&E doctoral degree recipients who reported their plans, 63
percent planned to remain in the United States after receiving their
degree, and 41 percent had firm offers. By the 1998–2001 period,
76 percent of foreign doctoral degree recipients in S&E fields
with known plans intended to stay in the United States, and 54 percent
accepted firm offers to do so (appendix
table 2-31  ).
Although the number of S&E doctoral degrees earned by foreign
students declined after 1996, the number of students who had firm
plans to remain in the United States declined only slightly from
its 1996 peak. Each year from 1996 to 2000, around 4,500 foreign
doctoral degree recipients had firm offers to remain in the United
States at the time of degree conferral, with a slight increase in
2001 (figure 2-30
).
Stay rates vary by place of origin. From 1985 to 2000, most U.S.
S&E doctoral degree recipients from China and India planned
to remain in the United States for further study and employment.
In 2001, 70 and 77 percent, respectively, reported accepting firm
offers for employment or postdoctoral research in the United States
(figure 2-31
).
Recipients from South Korea and Taiwan are less likely to stay
in the United States. Over the 1985–2000 period, only 26 percent
of South Koreans and 31 percent of Taiwanese reported accepting
firm offers to remain in the United States. Both the number of S&E
students from these Asian economies and the number who intended
to stay in the United States after receipt of their doctoral degree
fell in the 1990s. This decline may be because Taiwan and South
Korea have expanded and improved their advanced S&E programs
and created R&D institutions that offer more attractive S&T
careers for their expatriate scientists and engineers. Still, by
2001, about 50 percent of their new U.S. doctorate holders reported
accepting U.S. appointments.
Historically, a relatively high percentage of U.S. S&E doctoral
degree recipients from the United Kingdom planned to stay in the
United States, whereas France and Italy had small percentages compared
with other Western European countries (NSF/SRS
1998). However, by 2001, 50 percent or more of the doctoral
degree students from these countries had firm plans to stay, as
did those from Germany (figure
2-31 ).
Stay rates for Eastern European doctoral degree recipients were
high, exceeded only by those for India (appendix
table 2-31 ).
The percentage of doctoral degree students who had firm plans to
stay in the United States in 2001 was higher for Canada (58 percent)
than for Mexico (38 percent), which has one of the lowest stay rates
of all the major countries of origin of foreign U.S. doctoral degree
recipients (figure 2-31
).
A study of U.S. doctoral degree recipients from foreign countries explored
the factors affecting the decision to stay in the United States (Gupta, Nerad,
and Cerny 2003). The study cited numerous factors, stressing the strength of
preexisting ties to the recipients' home countries. Among the doctorate holders
studied, the principal source of funding was related to their likelihood of
staying in the United States: those who stayed were more likely to have been funded
primarily by RAs and TAs, and those who returned to their home countries were
more likely to have relied on funding from their national government or their employer.
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