Welcome back, lads. As I was bartendin’ the other day, I overheard a couple of locals talking about the states and how it’s not like it used to be. Not being from the states, and bein’ the person that I am, of course I was interested in what they were sayin’ ya know? The discussion got quite heated and one lad, just to prove his point actually pulled out a paper that had been written by a good friend of his, who was locally known for having extraordinary opinions. Here’s the essay below. I thought I’d give you all a chance to look at it and see what ya think! Be sure to post your thoughts because I want to know your opinion. Until next time, good day mates!
United States was once a place where people from all over the world clamored for the opportunity to get a great education and make significant advances in all areas of their life. There were some areas that international students favored more than others. One area in particular that attracted a high volume of students throughout the world was research and development. Students were given the opportunity of a life time to come to the United States and do cutting edge research that was perhaps not offered in their country due to underdevelopment. Today the number of international students wishing to come to the States has dropped dramatically, so much so that it has fellow researchers and scientists worried.
Since the terror attacks, foreign policy has changed dramatically. Such changes have affected many aspects but the one of most concern is the inability for international students to come and participate in research. An editorial in Nature described the decreased interest as potentially detrimental to future research in America. Furthermore, the editorial attributes the declined interest to the procedure that foreign exchange students have to go through to even be able to participate in research. As of late, it now only takes 10 days for a student from Beijing to obtain a visa whereas it used to take months. Researchers are urging the government to remove all of the red tape or potentially sacrifice future research.
Researchers and Scientists alike feel as though it is necessary to have foreigners involved in research because they provide a different view on things. There are others however who feel differently. According to an article titled Is America Losing its Edge? by Adam Segal, America needs to take several measures to ensure that other countries don’t over take the US in research and development. As of right now, the US is currently planning to spend less money each year on basic research and focus more on development in weaponry homeland security, and the space program. By doing so, as noted by Adam it would leave basic research under funded which would essentially “deprive the economy of the building blocks of future innovation.” If the US went forward with their current plan then it would allow for other competitive countries to gain the edge in research and development, if not surpassing the United States.
Other countries are closely trailing behind America. Perhaps due to the lack of interest in research and development in America, it wouldn’t be surprising if other countries soon surpassed the United States. Such could be attributed to the fact that other countries are investing in research like they ought to whereas the United States don’t feel as if they should. Furthermore, there isn’t a renewed interest in research within the United States like there is in other countries. Therefore, before the United States goes forward with investing money in research and development they need to make sure there is sufficient interest in the United States, before going out and recruiting international students to do research for them. In order to promote interest in research, the government should look at implementing programs that do just that. Provide information and various programs for the younger demographic so that when they look at jobs and career interests, it will be in research and development.
“Five Years On.” Nature. 7 September 2006. 26 January 2007. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7107/ful/443002a.html
Segal, Adam. “Is America Losing Its Edge?” Foreign Affairs. December 2004. 26 January, 2007. http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20041101facomment83601/adam-segal/is-america-losing-its-edge.html
United States was once a place where people from all over the world clamored for the opportunity to get a great education and make significant advances in all areas of their life. There were some areas that international students favored more than others. One area in particular that attracted a high volume of students throughout the world was research and development. Students were given the opportunity of a life time to come to the United States and do cutting edge research that was perhaps not offered in their country due to underdevelopment. Today the number of international students wishing to come to the States has dropped dramatically, so much so that it has fellow researchers and scientists worried.
Since the terror attacks, foreign policy has changed dramatically. Such changes have affected many aspects but the one of most concern is the inability for international students to come and participate in research. An editorial in Nature described the decreased interest as potentially detrimental to future research in America. Furthermore, the editorial attributes the declined interest to the procedure that foreign exchange students have to go through to even be able to participate in research. As of late, it now only takes 10 days for a student from Beijing to obtain a visa whereas it used to take months. Researchers are urging the government to remove all of the red tape or potentially sacrifice future research.
Researchers and Scientists alike feel as though it is necessary to have foreigners involved in research because they provide a different view on things. There are others however who feel differently. According to an article titled Is America Losing its Edge? by Adam Segal, America needs to take several measures to ensure that other countries don’t over take the US in research and development. As of right now, the US is currently planning to spend less money each year on basic research and focus more on development in weaponry homeland security, and the space program. By doing so, as noted by Adam it would leave basic research under funded which would essentially “deprive the economy of the building blocks of future innovation.” If the US went forward with their current plan then it would allow for other competitive countries to gain the edge in research and development, if not surpassing the United States.
Other countries are closely trailing behind America. Perhaps due to the lack of interest in research and development in America, it wouldn’t be surprising if other countries soon surpassed the United States. Such could be attributed to the fact that other countries are investing in research like they ought to whereas the United States don’t feel as if they should. Furthermore, there isn’t a renewed interest in research within the United States like there is in other countries. Therefore, before the United States goes forward with investing money in research and development they need to make sure there is sufficient interest in the United States, before going out and recruiting international students to do research for them. In order to promote interest in research, the government should look at implementing programs that do just that. Provide information and various programs for the younger demographic so that when they look at jobs and career interests, it will be in research and development.
“Five Years On.” Nature. 7 September 2006. 26 January 2007. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v443/n7107/ful/443002a.html
Segal, Adam. “Is America Losing Its Edge?” Foreign Affairs. December 2004. 26 January, 2007. http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20041101facomment83601/adam-segal/is-america-losing-its-edge.html
1 comment:
Ashley, I think this is a good first post. You do a good job of summarizing the two articles, though I don't think that you've done enough to articulate exactly what the controversy is. Is it about how much money that US universities should put into science research? Is it about recruiting foreign students? I'm just not clear on exactly what they're arguing about.
Also, be sure to check your links. The link to your article in Nature doesn't work!
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