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International Students’ Career Choices
Between 2005 and 2014, there was a 54 percent increase in the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded to foreign-born students, compared with a 33 percent increase for their US-born or permanent resident peers during the same period. The growth in foreign-born students is even more pronounced in master’s programs, which historically have awarded the largest (63 percent in 2014) share of degrees awarded to this group. Since 2005, the number of master’s degrees awarded to foreign-born students has grown by 42 percent, compared with a 17 percent increase for U.S.-born students and permanent residents. However, growth in the award of doctoral degrees shows a different trend. During the same period, the number of doctoral degrees awarded to U.S.-born or permanent resident students grew by a remarkable 72 percent – 30 percentage points higher than the rate observed for foreign-born students.
In the decade 2003 to 2013, the number of immigrants in the U.S. workforce whose highest degrees were in engineering grew from 725,000 to 1,050,000, or 44 percent.* However, during the same period, the proportion of foreign-born engineering graduates who were actually employed as engineers decreased from 40 percent in 2003 to 30 percent in 2013. Over the past decade, more than 60 percent of the foreign-born engineering workforce in the United States has come from Asia.
Compiled by Amlan Banerjee
Infographic by Nicola Nittoli