1 - The National Foundation for American Policy has some worrying research out regarding a sharp decline in the number of Indian graduate level students coming for computer science and engineering degrees. nfap.com/wp-content/upl… @NFAPResearch
@NFAPResearch 2 - In one year, the number of Indian computer science grad students dropped 23.3% (down more than 11K).
- In one year engineering grad students dropped 27% to 32K from 39K.
This was all pre-COVID BTW.
- In one year engineering grad students dropped 27% to 32K from 39K.
This was all pre-COVID BTW.
3 - They're not staying home. They're heading to Canada. Indian students in Canada have increased from 76K in 2016 to 172K in 2018. That's a huge gain for Canada at our direct expense.
4 - A few things to consider. First, international grad students are the backbone of CS and Eng graduate departments of colleges around the US. They're paying full-tuition (e.g. subsidizing Americans) and often are the only reason many of these departments can stay open.
5 - COVID has made this worse. American universities are under financial strain that they haven't seen for decades. This is making a bad situation even worse.
6 - Trump is pouring gasoline on this fire. He's poised in the next week or two to release an executive order that's targeted at making these numbers even worse. One target - the optional practical training prog that allows intl students to work for 1 to 3 years after graduating.
7 - BTW, where do you think the top companies in Silicon Valley recruit their top talent. From the grad departments of US universities. If they can't find that talent, do you think they'll just say "Oh well, we'll just make do and muddle through"? No, they'll follow the talent.
8 - And that means Canada. We've already got all the ingredients in place - green card backlogs that go on for decades, H-1B quotas that have been in place since the 80s, and now this.
9 - Microsoft started this trend when they announced years ago that unpredictability in the H-1B program was leading them to put a 5000+ job research facility in Vancouver. That's led to this - theglobeandmail.com/business/indus…
10 - For the protectionists out there who think banning H-1Bs, keeping Indians in never ending green card lines and thwarting international students is going to lead to those jobs going to Americans, think again.
11 - Immigrant workers are associated with more jobs for US workers, not less. And when you make accessing international talent impossible, companies react by going to where the talent is. <end of thread>
