Int'l students trickle back to US

In a slight improvement from last year's numbers, enrollment of first-time international graduate students in US life-science programs rose 2% in 2006, according to a new survey. Last year, new student enrollment slipped 1%, and in 2004, it dropped 10%.Still, total enrollment has not recovered as quickly in the life sciences as in some other fields of study, according to the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) survey. In life science, enrollment of international grad students dipped 1% in 2006, bettering last year's 5% decline. In engineering, there was a 3% increase in 2006, versus a 6% decline in 2005. In business, enrollment was up 1%, after a 3% dip last year. Across CGS' 462 US-member institutions, enrollment edged 1% higher in 2006, compared with a 3% drop-off in 2005."It looks like there is a turnaround going on in life sciences, but it's obviously taking longer than it is in total enrollments in general," said Kenneth Redd, director of research and policy analysis at CGS in Washington, D.C. Barring future constraints such as visa restrictions, "the trends in admission and first-time enrollments suggest that life sciences will turn positive for international enrollment going forward," he told The Scientist.The new report is the latest in a series of CGS surveys to assess application, admission and enrollment trends among international graduate students. The project began in the wake of sharp declines in enrollment of foreign students seeking masters and doctoral degrees from American colleges and universities after September 11, 2001.Richard Wheeler, dean of the graduate college at the University Of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said his institution's experience "parallels CGS' national results very, very closely." In fall 2004, the number of international students enrolled in life sciences fell to 409 from 451 the prior year, while first-time enrollments slid to 75 from 95. This year, total enrollment is back at 451, "exactly where it was in fall of 2003," he told The Scientist.Over the last several years, international students have comprised 35-40% of the university's entire graduate population, Wheeler noted, "so being able to hold onto a very, very valuable source of just sheer brainpower and talent is extremely important to us." He realizes, however, that attracting and retaining top talent is becoming a bigger more challenge "We're competing in a new and much more intense market for those students now. I mean, the world is going for the same students that we're going for," he said.Margaret M. McCarthy, assistant dean for graduate studies at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, worries that the NIH budget freeze and resulting squeeze on training grants could hamper international admissions. "If you take a US citizen, you can ask them to write their own pre-doctoral grant, you can help them get on a training grant, you have more options," she said. An international student, by contrast, either must be supported by the institution or by individual investigator RO1s."As PIs are starting to lose their RO1s, we're already seeing a crunch in student support," McCarthy noted. There's also a concern, she added, that PIs are going to be more hesitant to take on international students because they lack other sources of funds to support them. "One scenario would be just as the applications [from international students] are rebounding, we might be in a situation where offers of admission are tightening up," McCarthy said.Karen Pallarito mail@the-scientist.comLinks within this article:Council of Graduate Schools' International Graduate Admissions Survey, 2004-2006 enrollment reports http://www.cgsnet.org/Default.aspx?tabid=172A. Harding, "Visa problems persist." The Scientist, Mar. 8, 2006 http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/23218C. Choi, "Scientists US visas delayed," The Scientist, Feb. 26, 2004 http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22016S. Brummett, "Fine Tuning: Scrutinizing International Research," The Scientist, Feb 2, 2002 http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/12858Richard Wheeler http://www.provost.uiuc.edu/about/staff/wheeler/index.htmlMargaret M. McCarthy http://medschool.umaryland.edu/physiology/mccarthy.aspB. Trivedi, "Are we training too many scientists?" The Scientist, September 2006. http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/24540

Int'l students trickle back to US

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