U.S. Slips in Attracting the World's Best Students

This article documents a problem I think is non-trivial. The US is slipping in it’s ability to attract the best science students in the world. Other countries like the UK and Germany are pulling them in. In the long run there are real consequences for not folding the best and brightest into society. My slogan for that is: Intellectual capital and financial capital co-locate, or, money follows brains.

American universities, which for half a century have attracted the world’s best
and brightest students with little effort, are suddenly facing intense
competition as higher education undergoes rapid globalization.

The European Union, moving methodically to compete with American
universities, is streamlining the continent’s higher education system and
offering American-style degree programs taught in English. Britain, Australia
and New Zealand are aggressively recruiting foreign students, as are Asian
centers like Taiwan and Hong Kong. And China, which has declared that
transforming 100 universities into world-class research institutions is a
national priority, is persuading top Chinese scholars to return home from
American universities.