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Korean-American Scientists in Higher Education

Korean-American Scientists in Higher Education. Kichoon Yang Dean, College of Natural Sciences University of Northern Iowa. Foreign Born S&E Workforce as of 1999. By 1999, 27 percent of all doctorate holders in S&E in the U.S. were foreign born;

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Korean-American Scientists in Higher Education

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  1. Korean-American Scientistsin Higher Education Kichoon Yang Dean, College of Natural Sciences University of Northern Iowa

  2. Foreign Born S&E Workforce as of 1999 • By 1999, 27 percent of all doctorate holders in S&E in the U.S. were foreign born; • The highest percentage was in civil engineering (51.5%), the lowest percentage was in psychology (7.6%), and in other disciplines the percentages were: • Life sciences – 26% • Computer and mathematical sciences – 35% • Physical sciences – 29% • Social sciences - 13% • A high proportion of KA doctorate holders seems to be in social science disciplines, at least according to the 2000 KAUP Directory.

  3. Foreign Born S&E Workforce by Country of Origin • As of 1999, among the foreign born doctorate holders working in the U.S., China rated the highest as the place of birth at 20%: • China – 20% • India – 16% • UK – 7% • Taiwan – 6% • Canada – 4% • Germany – 4% • Iran – 3% • Korea – 2% • Japan – 1%

  4. Korean-American Professors in the U.S • The 2000 Directory of Korean-American University Professors contains about 1,900 entries; • According to their academic departmental affiliation we have: • Mathematical and computer science – 150 • Engineering – 250 • Physical and chemical sciences – 200 • Life sciences – 300 • Business (including economics, which has over 200 entries) – 500 • Other (including liberal and fine arts) - 500

  5. Foreign Graduate Enrollment at U.S. Universities • In 1999, 41% of graduate students in engineering and 39% of graduate students computer science were foreign students - the total number of foreign students enrolled in all U.S. S&E graduate programs exceeded 100,000 students; • Foreign students earn a larger proportion of degrees at the doctoral level than any other degree level – more than one-third of all S&E doctoral degrees awarded: • 47% of all doctoral degrees in mathematics and computer science; • 49% of all doctoral degrees in engineering. • The number of Chinese students was the largest, amounting to 34,000: • 27,000 from India, 9,000 from South Korea, 7,000 from Taiwan, and 3,500 from Japan.

  6. S&E Doctoral Degrees by Race/EthnicityAmong Citizens and Permanent Residents • In 1999, the U.S. universities awarded 17,428 S&E doctoral degrees to U.S. citizens and permanent residents: • Whites - 13,656 • Asian/Pacific Islanders - 1,951 • Blacks - 715 • Hispanics – 688 • American Indian/Alaskan Native – 117. • In addition, about 8,000 S&E doctoral degrees were awarded to students with temporary visas.

  7. U.S. Federal R&D Support and Life Sciences • Overall inflation-adjusted federal R&D declined by about 9% during the period 1990-9, whereas it increased by 42% for academic R&D; • In the same period, there were the following changes in share of Federal academic research expenditures by disciplines: -2.5% for physical sciences, -1% for engineering, -.7% for mathematics, +.4% for computer science, and +5.1% for life sciences; • In FY 2000, life sciences accounted for 50% of all non-defense federal R&D funding; • Information science, life sciences, and nano science are among the current areas of emphasis in federal R&D support.

  8. Personal Observations; Concluding Remarks • The ratio of administrators to faculty members for Korean-American scientists and engineers in higher education seems much smaller than that for many other ethnic groups – see OKSPN survey; • There seems to be a significant (perhaps larger than expected) number of Korean-American social scientists (e.g., economists) working at U.S. universities; • Possibly, educational needs and aspirations for Korean graduate students, enrolled at both Korean and U.S. universities, do not necessarily parallel those for U.S. graduate students, reflecting differing national conditions and priorities.

  9. Some Personal Observations about the Korean and Korean-American Mathematical Communities • It is difficult to separate the two communities as there is much interaction between the two; • Both the quality and quantity of Korean and KA mathematical sciences research have increased sharply in the last twenty years as measured by SCI publications and citations and the number of mathematical scientists trained by and collaborating with world-class researchers; • Several Korean mathematics graduate programs are internationally competitive; • There is a cause for optimism, but there are challenges as well, some of which may be rooted in cultural differences.

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