Where Do All the Indian Engineering Graduates Go? (January 8, 2011)

The new director (three months into the job) of the National Science Foundation (NSF), Subra Suresh fronted the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) yesterday (TFW will make it available as soon as it becomes available complete with the PowerPoint graphics). However, below is the gist of his observations regarding the behavior of newly minted engineering graduates from his alma mater in 1977, when he took his degree, compared with today.

I received my first degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 1977, and in my graduating class, covering all types of engineering, there were 250 students. More than 80% of them had the opportunity to come to the United States to pursue graduate studies, and practically all of them took [that opportunity]. They came here, and they stayed, and all of them became U.S. citizens or permanent residents, playing a significant role in research, academia, industry, and business.

I was in India just 4 days ago and was able to update my data. Each of the IIT campuses still graduates about 250 students. And more than 80% of last year's graduates had the same opportunity to come to the United States. But this time, only 16% of them took it. And it was not the top 16%.

It's just one campus, and one data point, [but]it points to a potential trend.

Most of the top students from these institutions seek jobs within India or with major international corporations, which is good for India and for the economy; many of them do not stay in science or engineering.

I'm told that, unlike 30 years ago, when the top students would automatically go into science and engineering, that doesn't happen anymore. Whether it's good or bad is a judgment call. But that's the fact. We are losing them [from] science and engineering. They eventually get an MBA somewhere.