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Impact of Homeland Security Restrictions
on U.S. Academic Institutions
Ernst G. Frankel
Increasingly strict interpretations of so-called U.S. security requirements and subsequent imposition of barriers to entry of foreign nationals is affecting both the number of academically-qualified foreign candidates seeking admission to U.S. research institutions and institutions of higher learning, and the quality of those admitted. While there are no reliable statistics on the number of qualified graduate students and researchers who were either not admitted, given entry visas, or chose to abort their plans to go to the U.S. and went elsewhere instead, the numbers appear to be significant. Of equal, if not more importance, is that as a consequence, the quality of foreign graduate students and researchers at American institutions appears not only to have declined, but their commitments seem to be less focused as well.
Greater numbers of highly-qualified candidates now appear to prefer committing to institutions in other countries, which are not only more hospitable in their admission strategies and procedures, but also are more open and generous in terms of their research support.
Stem cell research is a typical example where institutions in foreign countries are now doing advanced research that often leap frogs U.S. work. Similarly, the level of research support in which the U.S. has dominated for so long is becoming more equal in many areas of science and technology - with accessibility and size of support often better in other countries, where political correctness plays at most only a minor role in the awarding of research funding.
In the past, foreign graduate students provided a significant base of highly-qualified researchers, and often led important advances in science and technology. Many of them chose to remain in this country after completion of their academic research, providing important new blood to universities, research institutions, and industry. However now, as a result of the new U.S. security requirements, more of those admitted are sponsored by their respective government and their commitment to the interests of our country is greatly diminished. Indeed, their sponsorship is often based on explicit understandings or commitments for them to return to their native countries and transfer U.S.-developed technology or research advances. It is hard to understand why these foreign-government-sponsored candidates pose a lesser security risk.
This new environment affects not only competition within technologies, but also the ability of U.S. institutions to advance in their research. The new restrictions not only result in a lower number and quality of foreign academic graduate admissions and the progress of American university research, but also inhibit the effective transfer and use of research results to U.S. industry and, consequently, economic advances.
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