Last November the University of California, Irvine, and the Merage Foundations co-hosted an important National Leadership Forum.
The forum brought together high-level government, business, nonprofit and university leaders.
During the day-and-a-half session, participants discussed problems associated with the apparent decline of foreign student applications and enrollment in U.S. graduate school engineering and science programs.
They also focused on the frustrating recruitment and retention difficulties faced by U.S. companies and universities in seeking foreign scientists and engineers.
The participants agreed that the U.S. would suffer in the increasingly competitive global economy if it did not create a welcoming environment for foreign graduate engineering and science students and for foreign scientists and engineers.
Despite their diverse backgrounds, the participants reached consensus on policy options to increase the ability of the U.S. to attract students and scientists as well as engineers from other nations.
Facing Frustrations
Forum participants agreed that foreign students in science and engineering often face frustrating impediments if they want to study at U.S. graduate schools.
They must indicate that they intend to return to their home country when applying for visas.
They often are not informed of decisions in a timely manner consistent with their needs to plan for graduate school.
Their desires to attend conferences in other nations sometimes are muted given fear over their ability to return to the U.S.
Their desire to link graduate studies with assurances of long-term job opportunities in the U.S. often is limited by current regulations.
In a similar vein, it is not easy for foreign scientists and engineers to relocate to the U.S. Backlogs regarding employment-based visas are years long in key high-tech categories.
Post-9/11 restrictions often related to perceived security concerns discourage involvement of foreign scientists and engineers in U.S.-based research projects and their desire to migrate to the U.S. to live and work.
Given the ease of communication among the world’s scientists and engineers, overly restrictive boundaries limiting research collaboration, if not related to specific tangible security needs, weaken the historical role of the U.S. as an innovation and a high tech leader.
Policy Options
Participants recommended the following:
Foreign engineering and science students should be exempt from present requirements that they prove or show evidence of intent to return home (Section 214b of the Immigration and Nationality Act).
International graduate students who graduate in science and engineering should be provided streamlined access to a green card.
Congress should allow employers to pay an extra premium processing fee to accelerate relevant green card reviews and permit international graduate students to secure H-1B visas as well as repetitive renewals until they secure a green card.
The U.S. should expand the number of employment-based immigrant visas or green cards.
It should increase the caps and quotas associated with H-1B visas and permanent status or green cards for scientists and engineers essential to U.S. economic and national security. It should eliminate the requirement that spouses and children count in the calculations of employment-based immigrant quotas for scientists and engineers.
Consular decisions concerning visas should be more transparent. Students and professionals should be informed of the status of their applications and, unless security considerations are involved, the reason for visa refusals.
Increased governmental assistance should be provided for international graduate students,particularly science and engineering students.
The government, working with business and university leaders, should develop a coordinated marketing plan to encourage international students.
Merage is an entrepreneur (and inventor of Hot Pocket frozen snacks), investor and president of the Merage Foundation for the American Dream. Gottfredson is provost and executive vice chancellor of the University of California, Irvine.
