International doctorates: trends analysis on their decision to stay in US

Abstract

Despite the significant implications of the foreign doctorates' stay or return decision on a personal level, as well as for the home and host countries, there is very little research that provides a comprehensive understanding of the factors that predict international doctorates' decision to stay in the US and how those factors differ by country of origin or field of study. In addition, the patterns of stay (versus return) and the factors influencing those decisions may have changed over time, partly due to the changes in the immigration policies of the US and in economic development or national policy of home countries. Therefore, this study examines the patterns of international doctorates' stay versus return decision from a historical perspective across the period of the 1980, 1990, and 2000s. Using data from the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), collected in the US, this study enables us to move beyond a static understanding of the relative stay rates by country to an examination of how country-specific changes, such as shifts in economic development or national policy (push/pull factors), may relate to shifts in the stay versus return decision with a particular emphasis on the field specific effects.

Internationally mobile students and their post-graduation migratory behaviour

“…Cohort-specific patterns varied also by field of study: whilst earlier cohorts in any fields, aside from agriculture, were much more likely to stay than the reference group of biology-graduates, this pattern was reversed for the 2000s cohort, suggesting that conditions for biologists in the USA must have improved relative to those for graduates in other fields. Kim et al (2011) also showed that staying behaviour is partially influenced by financial aspects: being funded as research or teaching assistant during the doctoral studies increased the likelihood of staying afterwards substantially compared to being selfreliant. On the other hand, receiving a fellowship and employer or foreign government financial support lowered the staying probability significantly.…”

“…Retention rates are especially higher in the field of life sciences (Finn, 2012;Kim et al, 2011;Wolfeil, 2009). …”

“…Drawing from the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), Kim et al (2011) examined determinants of staying behaviour for three cohorts (1980s, 1990s and 2000s) of foreign post-graduate students in the US in a large sample. The impact of age diminished in later cohorts whilst female graduates were persistently more inclined towards staying.…”

“…The author explained that staying is more frequently chosen in later cohorts. Like Kim et al (2011), she also highlighted the relevance of the funding source: those who chose to stay were less likely to be funded by an institution in the country of origin. Furthermore, stayers were much less likely to focus on a research topic related to Europe in their dissertation, but more likely to be involved in an US-specific topic.…”

Competency-Based Training Program for International Students

“…In addition, Soon (2010) reported that nearly half (46%) of international students currently enrolled at two universities in New Zealand had no intention to return to their home countries. International students' decision to return home seems to be influenced by a complex set of push (home country) and pull (host country) factors; however, there is supporting evidence that a reasonably good portion of international students do show intention to stay in the host country after graduation, with varying degrees, depending on the specific sample of international students and their chosen country of study (Kim, Bankart, & Isdell, 2011).…”