Although federal and private funding for life sciences research has been increasing steadily for years, the money is not being used to create permanent research jobs. Even though an ample number of doctorates in life sciences are being awarded now, the committee said, rapidly reducing the size of graduate student populations could be disruptive to scientific research. Funding agencies and universities instead should gear efforts to ensure that graduate education programs do not grow beyond current levels, the report says. Because prospective graduate students in life sciences need accurate employment information to make informed decisions about pursuing further training, every life science department that receives federal funding should be required to provide information about the employment experiences of all predoctoral students enrolled in the program during the previous decade, the committee said. As many as a quarter of all Ph.D. degrees awarded annually since 1987 Have gone to students who were not U.S. citizens, and many recipients are recruited from abroad to fill postdoctoral fellowships.
Immigration laws allow universities to make their own admission and funding decisions.
Universities should restrain the enrollment of both foreign and U.S. students equally, the report says, but setting limits on the number of visas issued to foreign students is not advisable. Foreign nationals have contributed greatly to U.S. science leadership and achievements and modern science has become an international endeavor. However, the committee urged universities not to increase the number of foreign nationals admitted if efforts are made to limit overall enrollment in life sciences graduate programs. The quality of the training that students get under these grants receives very little external evaluation from funding agencies. Because such Ph.D. training does not have a fixed term, faculty members decide when a candidate has completed training.