University science in the US needs a coherent plan

Exclusive | U.S. Weighs $100,000 Fee for Foreign Students Wanting to Work After Graduation

The proposed policy would particularly affect Silicon Valley, Wall Street and universities.

Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities

Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.

Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities

Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.

Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities

Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.

Trump’s Plan for Science: More Money for A.I., Less for Universities

Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s science adviser, proposed overhauling how the government funds research. Democrats said Mr. Trump’s actions had weakened science.

The Current Crisis: What's Happening to Science in America

OPT Reforms and the Relative Supply of STEM Skills

Since the late 2000s, reforms to the optional practical training (OPT) program have allowed international STEM graduates to work in the United States for up to three years after graduation. We study how these reforms affected the supply of STEM skills in the United States. Exploiting the staggered 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2016 STEM-OPT expansions, we find that OPT reforms increased STEM degree completions by 14–15 percent, with gains evident at the bachelor’s and master’s levels. Domestic completions increased as well, suggesting that OPT expansions may have crowded in domestic STEM students rather than crowding them out.

OPT Reforms and the Relative Supply of STEM Skills

Since the late 2000s, reforms to the optional practical training (OPT) program have allowed international STEM graduates to work in the United States for up to three years after graduation. We study how these reforms affected the supply of STEM skills in the United States. Exploiting the staggered 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2016 STEM-OPT expansions, we find that OPT reforms increased STEM degree completions by 14–15 percent, with gains evident at the bachelor’s and master’s levels. Domestic completions increased as well, suggesting that OPT expansions may have crowded in domestic STEM students rather than crowding them out.

This big university system is embracing AI. Students and faculty aren't all on board

The California State University system offers an early look at what happens when an administration commits to a technology that its own community isn't convinced will improve education.

Opinion | Michael Bloomberg: Why I’m Giving $1.8 Billion for College Financial Aid (Published 2018)

Let’s eliminate money problems from the admissions equation for qualified students.

How Heavily Are PhD Students Offloading Their Scientific Writing to AI? Evidence from US STEM PhD Dissertations

Large language models are diffusing rapidly into science, raising concerns that delegating research writing to AI may undermine the development of expertise that scientific training is supposed to build. We measure AI-generated writing in the dissertations of a near-census of US STEM PhD graduates from 2019 to 2026 and link graduates to their subsequent employment. AI writing is absent before 2023, present in 29% of dissertations filed in 2026, and rapidly growing. Use is more common among students from non-English-speaking countries and at lower-ranked programs. Among graduates in the same program and cohort, those whose dissertations contain AI writing are less likely to enter academic research careers and more likely to enter non-tenure-track roles or industry, with this pattern strongest among US-origin students. At the same time as AI may increase research productivity, it thus appears to also be displacing a potentially important portion of the work through which scientific expertise is developed.