Overview of the State of the U.S. S&E Enterprise in a Global Context

An innovative, knowledge-based economy requires a workforce with high-levels of S&E skills and an education system that can produce such workers in sufficient numbers. Realizing this, governments in many countries prioritized increased access to S&E-related postsecondary education. At the same time, countries compete to attract the best talent (OECD 2017), leading to increased mobility of high-skill workers. Comprehensive and internationally comparable data on the global S&E workforce, while limited, suggest that S&E work is increasingly occurring throughout the world with concentrations in specific regions.

Globally, first university degree awards in S&E fields, broadly equivalent to a bachelor’s degree, totaled more than 7.5 million, according to the most recent estimates. Almost half of these degrees were conferred in two Asian countries: India (25%) and China (22%); another 22% together were conferred in the European Union (EU; see Glossary for member countries) (12%) and in the United States (10%). University degree production in China has grown faster than in other major developed nations and regions (Figure O-1). Between 2000 and 2014, the number of S&E bachelor’s degrees awarded in China rose more than 350%, significantly faster than in the United States and in many other European and Asian regions and economies. Additionally, during the same period, the number of non-S&E degrees conferred in China also rose dramatically (by almost 1,200%), suggesting that capacity building in China, as indicated by bachelor’s degree awards, is occurring in both S&E and non-S&E areas.

Understanding the relationship between degrees conferred in a country and the capabilities of its workforce is complicated by the fact that increasing numbers of students are receiving higher education outside their home countries.^​ The United States remains the destination of choice for the largest number of internationally mobile students worldwide. Furthermore, international students accounted for a considerable increase over time in U.S. higher education degree awards in S&E fields. Yet, due in part to efforts by other countries to attract more foreign students, the share of the world’s internationally mobile students enrolled in the United States fell from 25% in 2000 to 19% in 2014. Other popular destinations for internationally mobile students are the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Russia, and Germany (Figure O-2).

Graduate education in the United States remains particularly attractive to international students. Unlike S&E bachelor’s-level degrees, the United States as well as the combined EU countries award a relatively large number of worldwide S&E doctorates (Figure O-3). However, starting from a low base, China has seen a rapid increase in S&E doctoral degree awards over time.

In the United States, a substantial proportion of S&E doctoral degrees are conferred to international students with temporary visas. In 2014, temporary visa holders, not counting foreign-born students with permanent visas, earned more than one-third (37%) of S&E doctoral degrees. Temporary visa holders are particularly concentrated in engineering, computer sciences, mathematics, and economics, earning half or more of the doctoral degrees awarded in these fields. Overall, a considerable share of the post-2000 increase in U.S. S&E doctoral degree awards reflects degrees awarded to temporary visa holders, mainly from Asian countries such as China and India. If past trends continue, a majority of the S&E doctorate recipients with temporary visas—more than two-thirds—will remain in the United States for subsequent employment. The stay rates of those from China and India, the two largest source countries for international recipients of U.S. S&E doctoral degrees, however, have declined slightly since the turn of the century.

These doctorate recipients add to the most highly trained segment of the overall global S&E workforce. It is difficult to analyze the size of the entire international S&E workforce because comprehensive, internationally comparable data are limited. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) provides international estimates on one particularly salient component of this workforce—researchers—defined as “professionals engaged in the conception or creation of new knowledge” who “conduct research and improve or develop concepts, theories, models, techniques instrumentation, software or operational methods” (OECD 2015:379). Although national differences in these estimates may be affected by survey procedures and interpretations of international statistical standards, they can be used to make broad comparisons of national trends on this highly specialized component of the larger S&E workforce.

The United States and the EU continue to enjoy a distinct but decreasing advantage in the supply of human capital for research and other work involving S&E. Similar to trends seen in S&E doctoral degree awards, in absolute numbers, these two regions had the largest populations of researchers at the latest count, but China has been catching up (Figure O-4).

The worldwide total of workers engaged in research has been growing rapidly, and growth has been more robust in parts of Asia. The most rapid expansion has occurred in South Korea, which nearly doubled its number of researchers between 2000 and 2006 and continued to grow strongly thereafter, and in China, which reported more than twice the number of researchers in 2008 compared with 2000 and likewise reported substantial growth in later years. (China’s pre-2009 data are not comparable to China’s data for 2009 onward.) The United States and the EU experienced steady growth at lower rates. Exceptions to the worldwide trend included Japan (which remained relatively flat) and Russia (which experienced a decline).