The National ‘Expertise Gap’
Experts say America’s dependence on foreign nationals to fill doctoral ranks has national security implications
By Kendra Hamilton
In 1957, the Sputnik launch galvanized all levels of American society to pour unprecedented resources into science and technology education. In 1983, “A Nation at Risk” raised questions over accountability and standards in education that are still being debated.
Now, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation is insisting that the nation stands at a crossroads that is, in its way, every bit as significant as either of those moments in history. Its report — “Diversity and the Ph.D.,” released in May — documents in troubling detail the exact dimensions of what the foundation’s president, Dr. Robert Weisbuch, is calling the national “expertise gap.”
It’s a gap, he says, that “extends beyond the professoriate. It is diminishing our national leadership in any number of professional endeavors, from determining economic policy to designing museums to inventing new pharmaceuticals.
“Indeed, given our current dependence on foreign nationals to flesh out the doctoral ranks — one in three Ph.D. recipients in 2003 was an international student — it’s a gap that has national security implications.”
