Responses - Engineering Class Of 2009 - Report

Below are two responses to the recent subject report that additionally illustrate the point that our Engineering Schools & students are losing ground to those in other countries like China & India. 

 

Further to the subject report - a few statistics from Norman Augustine's speech @ the University of Maryland in September 2005:

 

1.  38 of the top 50 research universities in the world are in the U.S. - 52% of PhDs in engineering are foreign born.  Many of these people return to their home country after completing their studies.

 

2.  Percent of students receiving their undergraduate degrees in science or engineering - 59% in China, 66% in Japan, 32% in U.S.

 

3.  In 2004 China graduated 600,000 engineers, India 350,000, & the U.S. 70,000.

 

4.  In 2001 U.S. industry spent more money on litigation than on R&D.

 

5.  Of the 120 new chemical plants being built around the world with a price tag of over $1 billion only one is being built in the U.S. - 50 are in China.

 

6.  In an international study of 49 countries , U.S. twelfth graders ranked second from the bottom in both math & science & specifically ranked @ the very bottom in physics.

 

The above statistics, although alarming for our future, are predictable when you consider the raw material going into our universities from government run high schools.  For instance only 70% of ninth graders graduate from high school on time - Detroit graduates only 24% of its high school students @ all.  It should be no surprise that many students attending college are so lazy & spoiled that they are  unwilling as well as unprepared to do college work - this results in foreign nationals filling such a high percentage of our universities. 

 

In turn the universities practice grade inflation for Americans who graduate without the basics needed to contribute to our standard of living as the first responder to the original report so vividly points out below when she so honestly says that she allowed her graciousness to overrule her sense of outrage.  Now I am not looking for trouble everywhere I go but as M. Cox recently wrote "I have posted links on Facebook in the attempt to wake up & educate the small circle I might influence.  The risk to our country is far greater than the risk of a few friends & relatives" & acquaintances you meet @ a fundraiser.

 

---Response #1---

 

Dear Doug,

A couple of years ago, I found myself sitting next to a man I didn't know, at a fundraiser.  He was the owner of a large business that employed a great many engineers, and was on the BOT of a major state university's College of Engineering.  This was a university with which I have close connections, and whose declining standards I have observed with dismay.

I asked him whether, in his business, he was able to hire graduates of the university on whose Board he sat.  He told me no -- they didn't have the basics.  If he hired them, which he occasionally did, he had to invest considerable time teaching them basic engineering concepts they should never have graduated without knowing.

Because this was a social event, I resisted the temptation to say, "Your job, as a Trustee, is to correct or prevent the very situation you are describing."

I regret allowing my wish to be gracious (I was there as someone else's guest) overrule my sense of outrage.

 

---Response #2---

 

We agree with your comments.  Foreign students receive much more schooling in technical subjects that they are taking - therefore when it comes to employment in U.S. they have an edge over American students.

 

Also many top jobs in those fields are held by foreign nationals. You can be assured they will look to hire students from their native country.