The Phenomena Of Declining Graduate Applications And Admissions Of International Students In Us Engineering Colleges: An Insight From Sabbatical In India (At Indian Institute Of Technology)

Traditionally, for a long time, India and China had been, by far, the largest supplier of well prepared scientists and engineers for the graduate research and degree programs in US and other developed countries. US universities and colleges had been the most popular and attractive destination for graduate studies and research for students and scholars around the world. Currently, India and China have caught attention of the world as being fastest growing nations in technology, industry, economy, and science & engineering education. That combined with the deplorable September 11 terrorist episode has set in motion a new phenomenon that relates to demand, supply, recruitment, and hiring of international graduate students in USA and in other developed countries. This paper is based on a case study to understand the cause of both (a) nation-wide decline in the number of high quality international applicants in engineering graduate programs, and (b) decline in numbers of those who actually end up joining after offers are made. The author conducted this study when he was on sabbatical from University of Wyoming in fall 2004. He worked at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT, Kanpur campus) in India. IITs in India are known for graduating the best and the brightest engineers and scientists in India and have been a prominent source of excellent quality graduate students and research scholars in American, European and Australian universities. I spent some time on doing recruiting for our graduate programs (for most part I was interacting with the engineering faculty on research projects). I gave seminars and conducted interviews with students focused on the recruitment of graduate students for the Engineering College. I also had interviews with administrators, professors, and research scholars with a focus on the topic of recruitment of graduate students for US engineering colleges. Interestingly, during that period several other recruitment teams visited IIT campus from other American and European universities. I participated in interactions and discussions with two noteworthy groups. One group was from Engineering College of Tulane University (led by the Dean of Engineering College) and other was a consortium of German Universities (several universities conducted a seminar). During these discussions some interesting sharing of experiences, problems, and issues related with recruitment of international students for American and European countries emerged. In this paper I’ll discuss the details of those perspectives and observations and summarize the issues that are construed as hindering blocks for the recruitment of high quality engineering graduate students in US universities and colleges. P ge 11317.2 “Proceedings of the 2006 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ©2006, American Society for Engineering Education” Since the author is still collecting data from several other IITs and some other engineering colleges in India on the subject of “placement trends” of their graduates (especially number of undergraduates going for graduate studies in foreign countries and within India); this paper is still a work-in-progress. And so, at this point, it is like an extended abstract. This paper will get fully completed (with all data and information in) in about two months. Introduction and Background In the after-era of WW-II and during “cold war”, research and higher education enterprise in US went through a drastic transformation and paradigm shift and re-design, especially in the disciplines of sciences and engineering. And that became the catalyst and engine of technological innovations propelling growth in industrial, economic, and defense capabilities and strengths that has been unparallel in the history of nations. One of the hallmark of the new engine (of engineering research and graduate education) has been the design of a system that attracted and brought in the best and the brightest engineers and scientists from all around the world, and kept them inspired to achieve their natural potentials in serving through science and engineering [1,2,3, 12]. This “brain gain” phenomenon, attracting and recruiting the best and the brightest in our system of research and graduate education from other countries has been the engine and the catalyst. This has also been characterized by scholars and observers of other countries as “brain drain”, because that what it has been for them. [1,2,3,4,12]. In the September 11 aftermath, while recruiting graduate students (research assistants, teaching assistants, ..) is experiencing set-backs and challenges in all disciplines, engineering graduate education, in particular, has been affected most [11,12,13,14,16]. And, this has raised alarm. In several reports, studies, and publications conclusions have been made that this trend will have serious consequences for the preeminence of US in the area of science and technology followed by impacts on economy. Many questions have been raised, assumptions made, and theories proposed [5,6,7,8,9,10, 13, 16]. While we are trying to understand this imminent danger, I believe another paradigm shift has been taking place pertaining to this issue; and I’d call it “paradigm drift”, “drift” because while the number of international scholars and graduate students entering US science and engineering enterprise has been on decline, during the same period the trend has been opposite for other developed countries (Europe and Australia) [12,13,14,15,17]. One of our biggest challenges is to understand what key factors are feeding this phenomenon. And then of course if we believe in the important role of the engine of research and graduate education in making and sustaining the industrial and economic growth, we shall search for the methods of solution. This paper tries to provide an analysis of this phenomenon with some conclusions; based on data from current literature, reports, and from a case study. In fall 2004, the author had the opportunity to spend sabbatical (approximately a semester) at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in India. IITs of India (widely known as the MIT of USA, similar to Tsinghua University in China) have been a long time source for recruiting excellent graduate students and scholars for the research institutions of research and higher education of the developed countries. The author conducted interviews with graduating students, research scholars, and meetings with faculty members and administrators on this topic. The paper describes the process, presents analysis and concludes that some specific things can be done by the recruiting universities and colleges to change the decline. P ge 11317.3 “Proceedings of the 2006 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright ©2006, American Society for Engineering Education” Process and Methodology: While I was there, a team of two recruiters came to the campus from Tulane University (Dean of the Engineering College, Dr. Altiero; and the Department Head of Civil Engineering, Dr. Gopu). They presented a graduate recruiting seminar to seniors and graduate students of IIT. I attended Tulane’s seminar and joined them in a discussion with the Administration (Deputy Director) on recruitment and student/faculty exchange programs. During the period of my stay at IIT, over a dozen students from several disciplines of engineering contacted and visited with me for more information on UW’s graduate programs. I provided them with appropriate pamphlets of information and admission forms that I had carried from here. I had carried the same information brochures that Dr. Suresh Muknahallipatna [18] had prepared for the recruiting trip though Asia Foundation, a for-profit organization for recruiting graduate students from India. I had discussions with several faculty members and administrators at IIT on the topic of International Engineering program initiative. The IIT administration showed interest in student and faculty exchange programs with US universities, however they did not have a clear plan or experience in doing so. This campus was perhaps ahead of other IIT campuses in international activities (short term visitors from developed countries, research collaborations,...). Still, it seemed they were not prepared for providing facilities and resources that would be needed for accommodating international students from developed countries under a semester or year exchange program. In short the campus facilities and resources were not internationalized for students. Reason seems to be they did not have need for it so far. They did not have policy or experience on issues such as how to take care of costs involved in student exchange programs including compensations and living expenses and facilities for the stay of foreign students, etc. The situation with faculty exchange programs, however, was quite different and positive, for both short term and long term visits. One of my conclusions is that short-term faculty exchange with IITs would greatly help and enhance the graduate students recruiting from these institutions, if done with some pre-planning. I do not think that the whirl-wind type recruiting trips would work effectively. For example, above mentioned Tulane University’s trip, in which they were spending about half a day on the campus essentially just giving a seminar, was perhaps not effective. And, so would be the case, in my estimation, with the for-profit-recruiting organizations like Asia foundation. These organizations are typically not allowed to do direct recruiting on IIT campuses, because of several other issues involved. Interviews were conducted with approximately 25 students that involved discussing a set of questions (Table 1). To get better insight from these questions, a thematic categorization was used to focus on a few main themes. The students interviewed represented a diverse population with respect t