by Wan-Ying Chang and Lynn M. Milan[1]

The proportion of foreign nationals among individuals who earned a research doctorate in science, engineering, or health (SEH) in the United States has followed a general upward trend since 1960 (figure 1). Foreign citizens' share of U.S.-earned doctorates in SEH was about 17% during 1961–70 and by 2010 had reached nearly 40%.

At the time of their graduation, most foreign recipients of U.S. doctorates planned to stay in the United States.[2]

Employment characteristics among doctorate recipients are closely related to degree fields and may vary by the location of employment. A large majority (93.5%) of the recent (2001–07) recipients of SEH doctorates who reported working as of 1 October 2008 were working full time.

Data in this InfoBrief are from the 2008 Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR) and the 2010 Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED).[3]

International Mobility

Among recent doctoral graduates (academic years 2001–07) holding a temporary U.S. resident visa, 73.3% reported in the SED that their immediate postgraduation plan was to live in the United States after receiving their degree. However, a significant proportion (23.4%) planned to seek opportunities for employment and postdoctoral (postdoc) study outside the United States. (The remaining 3.3% did not report postgraduation intended location.) In some cases, despite their initial intent to stay, foreign nationals changed their postgraduation plans and left the United States.

Postgraduation Plans versus Actual Outcomes

The current location of residency reported in the 2008 SDR was compared with the location of postgraduation plans reported in the SED at the time of graduation for the recent doctoral graduates. Overall, 85.7% of recent doctoral graduates reported living in the United States (including Puerto Rico or another U.S. territory) on the SDR reference date of 1 October 2008 (table 1). Among foreign-born graduates who were holding a temporary U.S. visa at the time of graduation, 67.5% reported living in the United States on the 2008 SDR reference date. Within this group of temporary visa holders, the 2001–03 SDR cohorts, when combined, reported a lower stay rate (60.8%) than did the more recent 2004–07 SDR cohorts (71.0%). The 2001–03 SDR cohorts also had a higher rate of leaving the United States despite having plans to stay (16.0%) than did the 2004–07 SDR cohorts (7.9%). The 2001–03 SDR cohorts correspond to doctorate recipients who graduated at least 5 years before the 2008 SDR reference date. One possible factor of the higher emigration rate of the 2001–03 SDR cohorts among those initially planning to stay is that these doctorate recipients stay only temporarily to gain postgraduation experience in the United States before leaving the country.

Popular International Destinations

To study the mobility of recent doctoral graduates, we compared their country of origin to their country of current residency, as reported in the 2008 SDR. Country of origin was defined as the country of citizenship recent doctoral graduates reported in the SED at the time of graduation.[4] Country of current residency was defined as the country of current employment for those who reported working (96.2%) and the country where they were located for those who reported not working (3.8%).

Overall, 20.4% of foreign-citizen graduates reported working or living in their country of origin in 2008, whereas 96.6% of U.S.-citizen graduates reported working or living in the United States. Among foreign graduates who did not return to their country of origin, the United States was the most popular destination, with 88.9% reporting living in the United States. For this group, the European Union was the second most popular destination (3.7%), and Asia and Canada tied for third (2.7% and 2.6%, respectively). Table 2 gives the relative proportions of seven destinations for each country or region of origin. Foreign graduates from China, countries that were part of the former Soviet Union, and India reported distinctly low rates of returning to their home countries (3.7%, 4.1%, and 5.2%, respectively) compared with those from other foreign countries.

Relationship between Degree Field and Emigration

For this and the remaining analyses in this InfoBrief, recent doctoral graduates were divided into four groups (hereafter, analysis groups) defined by U.S. citizenship status at the time of graduation (U.S. citizen or non-U.S. citizen) and their reported residency on the SDR reference date of 1 October 2008:[5]

1. U.S. citizens residing in the United States (estimated population = 114,700),
2. Foreign citizens residing in the United States (estimated population = 59,200),[6]
3. Foreign citizens residing abroad (estimated population = 24,500), and
4. U.S. citizens residing abroad (estimated population = 4,000).

Statistical reports show that foreign recipients of U.S. SEH doctoral degrees focus on different fields of study as compared with their U.S. counterparts.[7] The distributions of overall percentages, by broad field of degree and analysis group, are shown in figure 2. Foreign citizens with degrees in psychology, the social sciences, or health were more likely to leave the United States after graduating than were those with degrees in all the other fields combined (45.7% vs. 25.9%).

Employment Characteristics

Employment Sector

Four-year educational institutions formed the largest employment sector for all analysis groups with the exception of foreign citizens in the United States, who reported working in private, for-profit industry and in 4-year institutions in equally high proportions (43.5%) (figure 3). In fact, foreign citizens working in the United States were more likely than any of the other analysis groups to report working in the private, for-profit sector. Across the four analysis groups, foreign citizens working abroad reported the highest rate of working in a 4-year university or institution (61.7%), whereas U.S. citizens working abroad reported the highest rate of working in the government sector (20.5%).

Primary Work Activity

Within 4-year educational institutions, the private, for-profit sector, and government, foreign citizens working in the United States reported higher rates of performing research (basic or applied) and development as their primary work activity than did U.S. citizens working in the United States and foreign citizens working abroad (table 3). U.S. citizens who were working abroad in 4-year institutions reported the highest rate among the analysis groups of working in basic or applied research. (It should be noted, however, that the analysis group of U.S. citizens working abroad has sufficient sample size to provide estimates only for the 4-year institution sector.) In the private, nonprofit sector, the two foreign citizen analysis groups reported similar proportions of having research (basic or applied) and development as their primary activity and had higher rates than the group of U.S. citizens working in the United States.

Academic Positions

Among all recent doctoral graduates, 49.2% reported working in a 4-year university, medical school, or university-affiliated research institute. Of these, 51.4% reported holding a teaching or teaching and research faculty position, 15.8% reported holding a research-only faculty position, and 20.5% reported holding a postdoc position. The distribution of type of academic position within each analysis group is shown in figure 4. The two analysis groups working outside of their home countries (i.e., foreign citizens working in the United States and U.S. citizens working abroad) reported the highest rates of holding postdoc positions.

Postdoctoral Positions

Among all employment sectors, the proportion of doctorate recipients holding a postdoc position on the SDR reference date of 1 October 2008 was highest for the most recent graduates, as might be expected (figure 5). To test for statistically significant differences among the four analysis groups, data were combined from the three latest degree years (2005–07), and the postdoc proportions were compared. Among U.S. citizens working abroad, 44.1% reported holding a postdoc position, which was significantly higher than all other analysis groups. Among the remaining three analysis groups, 26.5% of foreign citizens working in the United States reported holding a postdoc position, which is higher than the rates reported by U.S. citizens working in the United States (21.7%) and foreign citizens working abroad (15.2%).

Annual Salary

An estimated median annual salary was calculated for the subset of full-time employed doctorate recipients within each analysis group, by broad degree field and employment sector, whenever sufficient sample size was available (table 4).[8] Those working outside the United States were asked to convert their annual salary to U.S. dollars. The estimated median salaries for foreign citizens working abroad were lower, in general, than the other three analysis groups. The estimated median salaries of the two groups working in the United States tended to be similar. In cases where these two groups had different median salaries, the group of U.S. citizens working in the United States had a higher salary than the group of foreign citizens working in the United States except for in the fields of social science in academic settings and in all sectors combined and health in all sectors combined.

Data Sources and Limitations

Data presented in this report are from the 2008 SDR and 2010 SED. The SDR has been conducted every 2 years since 1973 and is sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies on an occasional basis. The SED, also sponsored by NSF and other federal agencies, provides the sample frame for the SDR. The SED is a census of all individuals who earn a research doctorate from a U.S. educational institution in a given academic year (1 July of one year through 30 June of the following year).

The SDR is a longitudinal study of individuals who received a research doctorate degree from a U.S. institution in an SEH field. The survey follows a sample of individuals throughout their careers from the year of their degree award through age 75. The SDR has historically reported only on doctorate recipients who resided in the United States on the survey reference date. In 2003 NSF initiated a feasibility study to extend the coverage of the SDR to include U.S.-trained doctorate recipients residing or working outside the United States. After the success of the 2003 study and a more extensive pilot study in the 2006 SDR, the 2008 SDR was the first round to include a representative international sample for the cohort of doctorate recipients who graduated during academic years 2001–07. The weighted response rate for the national component of the 2008 SDR was 81%, and the response rate for the international component was 68%.

Comparative terms in this report—such as increased/decreased, differed, more/less likely, and higher/lower—are based on statistical tests for significant differences at the 95% level. Percentage comparisons in this report are based on unrounded counts.

Notes

[1]  Wan-Ying Chang (corresponding author: wchang@nsf.gov; 703-292-2310), Office of the Director, and Lynn M. Milan (lmilan@nsf.gov; 703-292-2275), Human Resources Statistics Program, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 965, Arlington, VA 22230.

[2]  National Science Board (NSB). 2010. Science and Engineering Indicators 2010. Pages 2-29–2-30. NSB 10-01. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. Available at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind/.

[3]  InfoBrief focuses on data from 2008 Survey of Doctorate Recipients, which includes as its most recent graduates those who earned degrees in academic year 2007 or earlier.

[4]  If country of citizenship was not reported in Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), other SED or Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR) data were used to infer citizenship (e.g., country of birthplace, country of high school attended, and indication of whether U.S. born). Of 10,190 sampled individuals from academic years 2001–07, total of 99 individuals had unknown citizenship at time of graduation. Of these, 53 individuals had citizenship imputed from other SED or SDR data, and 46 individuals whose citizenship could not be imputed were excluded from all analyses requiring known country of origin.

[5]  Sample sizes for each of four analysis groups are as follows: (1) U.S. citizens residing in United States = 5,411; (2) foreign citizens residing in United States = 2,748; (3) foreign citizens residing abroad = 1,813; and (4) U.S. citizens residing abroad = 172.

[6]  Foreign citizens residing in United States includes both those with permanent U.S. resident visas and those with temporary U.S. resident visas.

[7]  National Science Board (NSB). 2012. Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. Pages 2-28–2-31. NSB 12-01. Arlington, VA: National Science Foundation. Available at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind/.

[8]  Full-time employed doctorate recipients are defined as those who reported working at least 35 hours during typical week on principal job.