Malaysian Students in the US

The US based Institute of International Education (IIE) recently published a report on foreign students in the US. I thought that a few of the findings from that report is worth noting, some of which are relevant to Malaysia.

The top 25 'sending' countries, from the IIE website, is as follows:

Rank Country Total Under Graduate
1 India 83,833 15% 71%
2 China 67,723 15% 71%
3 Korea 62,392 45% 38%
4 Japan 35,282 63% 20%
5 Taiwan 29,094 26% 58%
6 Canada 28,280 48% 44%
7 Mexico 13,826 58% 31%
8 Turkey 11,506 29% 57%
9 Thailand 8,886 26% 58%
10 Germany 8,656 37% 43%
11 United Kingdom 8,438 52% 31%
12 Saudi Arabia 7,886 43% 16%
13 Nepal 7,754 67% 26%
14 Hong Kong 7,722 67% 21%
15 Indonesia 7,338 63% 23%
16 Brazil 7,126 49% 37%
17 Colombia 6,750 45% 41%
18 France 6,704 33% 43%
19 Kenya 6,349 64% 27%
20 Vietnam 6,036 68% 22%
21 Malaysia 5,281 63% 24%
22 Nigeria 5,943 60% 31%
23 Pakistan 5,401 52% 37%
24 Russia 4,751 40% 49%
25 Venezuela 4,523 60% 26%

Some observations:

(i) Firstly, it is not surprising that the largest number of students come from India and China. What is not shown here is that the number of students from Indian have almost tripled and those from China have almost doubled since 1995. There was a small drop in the number of China students post 9-11 but have already exceeded the pre-9-11 levels in the last couple of years.

(ii) Secondly, there is no strict correlation between the level of development of a country and the breakdown between undergrads and postgrads from that country. For example, Japan sends more undergrads than grads to the US as does the UK as well as Turkey and Thailand. India and China sends a lot of grad students than undergrads even though they are developing countries but many other developing countries send more undergrads than grads, Malaysia being one of them.

(iii) Thirdly, not shown here, is the fact that the number of students from South East Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand) have decreased drastically since the Asian currently crisis. The number of students from these countries have roughly halved since the Asian crisis as students have presumably flocked to less expensive options like going to Australia and for many Malaysians, choosing to to 2+1 or 3+0 programs (many of which send students to the UK and Australia). There is one exception which is Vietnam where the number of students going to the US has more than tripled since 1998/1999.

What we can glean from this information which might be useful for Malaysian policymakers?

(i) Firstly, I can't help but notice, especially after my time here in the US, that the many graduate students from China and India will form the backbone of research efforts only only here in the US but also in their respective countries as these researchers return home or form collaborations which researchers in their respective home countries. Malaysia cannot compete in absolute terms but what it can try to do is to target some of the researchers who might not be able to find attractive enough jobs in the US to do research or to teach in Malaysia. Now, I know that many of you are going to say that we end up recruiting 'rejects' but I would probably prefer to hire a so called 'reject' with a US based PhD compared to someone who doesn't have a PhD, as is the case with many of the lecturers in Malaysia. You can be sure that Singapore, either NUS or NTU or SMU or some of the biotech firms, are reaching out to many of the researchers, who might for whatever reason, not want to remain in the US after they complete their PhDs. (Fulbrighters like myself for example who have to leave the US after we obtain our degrees)

(ii) Secondly, the statistics show that there are approximately 1300 Malaysians who are doing some sort of graduate degree here in the US. Many of these are doing their MBAs and other Masters programs but there is also a significant number who are doing their PhDs. Why not try to recruit some of these students to go back home to Malaysia? As I understand, there is some effort being undertaken by the MOHE to interview Malaysian graduate students, mostly in the West Coast. I think this is a good start but I think the the universities should be given more autonomy and incentives to have recruiting efforts themselves. It would be difficult for a MOHE bureaucrat to recruit a biochemistry PhD especially if the PhD holder is interested in the research environment of the specific field in specific Malaysian universities.

Recently, I discovered that many Taiwanese academics who studied in the US (for their PhDs) actually returned to Taiwan to teach in the public universities. As a result, many Taiwan universities have excellent political science departments (my field) with many academics who publish prolifically. I would not be surprised if such is the case for many other departments in Taiwanese universities as well. If Taiwan seem to be able to attract back many of its native sons and daughters, perhaps Malaysia can learn from their example.

(iii)Lastly, I don't think we should be too concerned that the number of Malaysian students going to the US is decreasing (from a high over well over 10,000 students to just over 5,000 not. At one point in time, Malaysia was probably a top 5 'sending' country to the US, especially in the mid 1990s when the economy was booming and the exchange rate was 2.5RM to 1USD). I've said this before and I'll say this again - that it's probably more economical for the Malaysian government to send sponsored students to Australia and perhaps the UK compared to the US where it's more expensive and where it takes a longer time to finish a PhD.

I also don't think that it's a problem if more Malaysian students are choosing 2+1 programs which let them go to the UK or Australia since many of the 2+1 programs do not involve the top tier universities. In other words, it doesn't really matter whether you go to the University of Queensland (Australia), Sheffied University (UK) or the University of Western Michigan (US). It's probably more important, through initiatives like the US education fair, to emphasize quality over quantity i.e. getting into good liberal arts programs which have good financial aid policies.

Don't get me wrong, the US is still a great place to study. But I think where the US education system has an edge is in the liberal arts colleges (no other equivalent in the UK or Australia) and in the top tier colleges (both state and private). And if you can get into a sponsored PhD program here in the US, I would also encourage you to come here. All or any of the top 100 research universities (state or private) in the US are great research institutes. The challenge is to get into such a program.