US unveils changes to attract foreign STEM students amid competition with China
- Eligible candidates in science, technology, engineering and maths fields will be able to stay for up to three years of training
- There will also be an initiative to connect these students with US businesses
The Biden administration on Friday announced policy changes to attract international students specialising in science, technology, engineering and maths – part of the broader US effort to compete against China.
The State Department will let eligible visiting students in those fields, known as STEM, complete up to 36 months of academic training, according to a notice in the Federal Register. There will also be an initiative to connect these students with US businesses.
Homeland Security will add 22 new fields of study – including cloud computing, data visualisation and data science – to a programme that allows international graduates from US universities to spend up to three additional years training with domestic employers. The programme generated about 58,000 applications in financial year 2020.
“Other countries, most notably China, are using STEM talent to try to supplant the United States as the world’s foremost scientific and technological innovator,” a US official told reporters ahead of the announcement.
China now far surpasses the United States, long home to many of the world’s top research universities, in the number of undergraduates and doctoral students in the fields critical to economic growth, the official said.
