Chinese Schools Are Top Feeders for U.S. Doctorates

In 2006, two Chinese universities, Tsinghua and Peking, beat out UC-Berkeley as top feeder schools to American Ph.D. programs, the journal Science reports. Seoul National University in South Korea was fourth on the list, followed by Cornell University and the University of Michigan, according to the study compiled from National Science Foundation data. Thirty-seven percent of doctoral recipients now are not U.S. citizens.

The analysis also shows that the number of foreign Ph.D. students is quickly growing. In 2004, Berkeley was still the No.1 feeder school.

The Chronicle of Higher Education also reports that when it comes to just natural science or engineering Ph.D. programs, the three Asian universities topped the list in 2006—the most recent year data are available—followed by Cornell University and Berkeley.