Fine, Be That Way
21/03/11 14:04 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Submitted by S. Pelech - Kinexus on Mon, 03/21/2011 - 14:04.
Despite increasing acceptance of students into graduate studies programs in universities in Canada, and I suspect in the USA and Europe, the competition for placement has become much more fierce. In the last year, without any advertisement, I have received over 150 enquiries for a graduate student position in my own academic lab. The vast majority of these applications originated from China, India and countries in the Middle East.
The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics recently reported that China's higher education institutes had over 31 million students, an increase of some 35% from 2005 levels. Of these, 1.5 million were postgraduate students, which was up by 57% compared to 2005. It is clear that many of the best and brightest of students from China and other developing countries are looking to the West for graduate and post-graduate training, and probably subsequently permanent jobs. This is great for the advancement of science in Western countries, but bad news for indigenous students looking for careers in science in their own countries.
Unless there is some major expansion of government and private industry budgets for scientific research in Western countries, there will be no shortage of new scientists in the foreseeable future. Those students that really want to practice biomedical research as a career need to be committed to working hard for a long time, and the earlier they start, the more improved their prospects. Alternatively, they could apply to health professional schools where their chances of acceptance and ultimately jobs are much better.
Link to the original blog post.
Despite increasing acceptance of students into graduate studies programs in universities in Canada, and I suspect in the USA and Europe, the competition for placement has become much more fierce. In the last year, without any advertisement, I have received over 150 enquiries for a graduate student position in my own academic lab. The vast majority of these applications originated from China, India and countries in the Middle East.
The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics recently reported that China's higher education institutes had over 31 million students, an increase of some 35% from 2005 levels. Of these, 1.5 million were postgraduate students, which was up by 57% compared to 2005. It is clear that many of the best and brightest of students from China and other developing countries are looking to the West for graduate and post-graduate training, and probably subsequently permanent jobs. This is great for the advancement of science in Western countries, but bad news for indigenous students looking for careers in science in their own countries.
Unless there is some major expansion of government and private industry budgets for scientific research in Western countries, there will be no shortage of new scientists in the foreseeable future. Those students that really want to practice biomedical research as a career need to be committed to working hard for a long time, and the earlier they start, the more improved their prospects. Alternatively, they could apply to health professional schools where their chances of acceptance and ultimately jobs are much better.
Link to the original blog post.