• source https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/magazine/semiconductor-chips-us-china.html
  • archive https://archive.ph/s4Xvd
  • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    But how is American academic expenditure actually applied? Pay raises for administration and shiny new buildings cost a lot but aren't actually productive. A Chinese university could spend $50m on a new lab while an American school could plow $100m into a new football stadium. Looking at the expenditure alone you'd expect the American school to come out ahead academically, yet that obviously isn't the casem

    • zephyreks [none/use name]
      ·
      1 year ago

      To some extent I agree, but at the same time American funding for research at universities is astonishingly high. There's a reason that international experts still widely regard US research to be more impactful - there's more funding, more economic incentive, and more students.

      China is experiencing a sort of brain drain where all it's brightest STEM majors are going to MIT/Stanford/CalTech/Berkeley rather than staying in the country.

      • Sasuke [comrade/them]
        ·
        1 year ago

        isn't the brain drain already reversing? as in more students are staying in China, i mean.

        • zephyreks [none/use name]
          ·
          1 year ago

          To some extent, but not really? At the bachelor's level I'd agree but at the doctorate level I really don't think so... And honestly? That's probably a good thing. Diversity of thought is important for innovation, but the problem is that these people leave and few return because the job market at the doctorate level is still superior in the US than it is in China.