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[Phys-L] Another sign of the empire's decline



U.S. NO LONGER ATTRACTING WORLD'S BEST STUDENTS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/21/national/21global.html

SAM DILLON, NY TIMES - American universities, which for half a century have
attracted the world's best and brightest students with little effort, are
suddenly facing intense competition as higher education undergoes rapid
globalization. The European Union, moving methodically to compete with
American universities, is streamlining the continent's higher education
system and offering American-style degree programs taught in English.
Britain, Australia and New Zealand are aggressively recruiting foreign
students, as are Asian centers like Taiwan and Hong Kong. And China, which
has declared that transforming 100 universities into world-class research
institutions is a national priority, is persuading top Chinese scholars to
return home from American universities. . .

Foreign students contribute $13 billion to the American economy annually.
But this year brought clear signs that the United States' overwhelming
dominance of international higher education may be ending. . . Foreign
applications to American graduate schools declined 28 percent this year.
Actual foreign graduate student enrollments dropped 6 percent. Enrollments
of all foreign students, in undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral
programs, fell for the first time in three decades in an annual census
released this fall. Meanwhile, university enrollments have been surging in
England, Germany and other countries.