By: A.

Certainly agree. However, it’s a deeper hole. First, one should take a look at the statistics of how many of the graduate students in the US are actually American. American education does not favor the development of critical thinking and will to become a scientist, period. Second, even universities do not value research any more. Look at Rick Perry’s disgrace for Texas science (yes it exists!), for example – “universities are for teaching” and boom, no more research assistantships, and years-old labs thrown into oblivion with more administrators than scientists+students. Finally, look at the example of countries like Brazil and what happens when a funding agency bases all it’s decisions on things like impact factors and treats PhD graduations as market points. Science becomes bloated with absurd papers published just to get points. PhD’s get unemployed because private universities won’t pay a PhD salary when all you need is a M.Sc. to teach. It’s not how many scientists and engineers a country forms but what it does with them – STEM graduates cannot be evaluated the same way as groceries, the private sector MUST hire too, and administrators have a really hard time understanding that. Hell, even impact factor people have a hard time understanding that.