A Majority of Africans Who Earn Ph.D.s in the United States Remain in This Country

A new study by Michael G. Finn of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education has found that roughly two thirds of all foreign students who earn their doctorates at U.S. colleges and universities remain in this country five years after earning their Ph.D. Finn compared the list of foreign doctoral recipients in 2000 and was able to determine whether individuals filed U.S. federal income tax returns in 2005.

Finn’s data is broken down by the country of origin and shows wide differences. For example, 92 percent of people from China who earned doctorates in 2000 were still in the United States in 2005. But only 4 percent of the Saudi Arabians who earned doctorates in 2000 were still in the United States in 2005.

The data shows that 65 percent of the Nigerians who earned doctorates in the United States remained in this country for five years. For South Africans, only 41 percent of the doctoral recipients stayed in the U.S. There is no data on the racial breakdown of South African doctoral recipients.

Finn also has data on 182 doctoral recipients from “other African nations.” These are all doctoral recipients from Africa in 2000 who did not come from Egypt, Nigeria, or South Africa. Of these, 59 percent remained in the United States five years after receiving their doctoral degrees.

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