Why do we pay for foreigners education?

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TA's, RA's, research assistants, graduate assistantships, all of those are paid for with federal tax money. Why then, do Americans pay for so many foreigners education? If you see a foreigner in a graduate program, odds are we are paying for their education. It doesn't make sense to me at all.

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I'm not sure what your problem is with it, when you consider it in the scheme of things. We give loads of foreign aid to lots of countries. Some of this aid is used for education, particularly in the poorest countries. Whether we pay to have them educated in their country or in our country, what's the difference?

[SheetWise]

We pay for it partly as a form of foriegn aid (assuming some of them will return home) and partly because it raises the standards for all of the students. We're not bringing in dumb students.

On a related subject -

One thing to remember about Affirmative Action >>> it benefits white Americans. If Affirmative Action was gone, there are a lot of white Americans who would never see the inside of a math or science department.

And then there's the Interest -

A good friend runs the solar energy department at a major university -- teaching solar energy to architects and engineers -- hasn't seen an American student in 10 years.

[sam h]

This of course is only valid for state schools and not private universities. But I believe it makes sense for both the country and the individual schools. Departments want the best help/students they can get, and often that means people from abroad. I don't see anything wrong with that. As far as the national interest more generally, a high proportion of these students stay in the states and contribute immensely to the economy. With the American education system in shambles, the "brain drain" from other countries is key to bringing in new talent.

[mslif]

[ QUOTE ]
TA's, RA's, research assistants, graduate assistantships, all of those are paid for with federal tax money. Why then, do Americans pay for so many foreigners education? If you see a foreigner in a graduate program, odds are we are paying for their education. It doesn't make sense to me at all.

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To answer you question, because most of us earned it. We get grants and scholarships due to our academic skills. If schools are willing and offering financial perks to us, why shouldn't we take them?

[sirio11]

Well, at least in the case of the TA's. I think you're way off here. The money paid to a TA is worth much less than the job they're doing. I think it's a pretty good deal to the universities. I was a TA during my masters, and I have to grade a lot of papers, and in some cases to teach a class; and they were "paying" me about $1000 a month. And of course I still have to pay tuition.
For me really, your comments don't make sense at all.

[fluff]

For someone with advanced education, it puzzles me that this doesn't make sense to you.

Some reasons:

1) Americans don't want to do it, and certainly not for the amount of money a grad student makes.

2) They were the best available candidate for the job.

3) The ones that stay contribute to the advancement of science and technology here in the US. +EV.

4) Those that go home will often rise in rank quickly in their home country thanks to their advanced US degrees. Having a lot of US friendly business/government leaders around the world also +EV.

[[censored]]

This just doesn't bother me much. I don't know why, it just doesn't.

[wacki]

I'm just shocked that foreign students aren't required to work in this country for 4 years. You know, kind of like the military. "If we train you, you better work for us." That is all.

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I'm just shocked that foreign students aren't required to work in this country for 4 years. You know, kind of like the military. "If we train you, you better work for us." That is all.

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We provide aid so these people can take their knowledge back to their countries and improve life there. This is our self-interest -- the big, long-term picture -- not having a relative handful of well-qualified foreigners serve as temporary employees in our economy, taking jobs away from others, and costing business money when they leave and have to be replaced. So why would we require that they work here for even a day?

[BeerMoney]

[ QUOTE ]
TA's, RA's, research assistants, graduate assistantships, all of those are paid for with federal tax money. Why then, do Americans pay for so many foreigners education? If you see a foreigner in a graduate program, odds are we are paying for their education. It doesn't make sense to me at all.

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As others have mentioned:

1.) We need those people to occupy a lot of our technical positions in our economy.

2.) I think it is a good thing that we expose these people to our culture. That is, people realize the US is a great country where most people get along. When an Arab student comes over here and studies, he realizes he is not treated poorly because he is an Arab, etc.. **These students should go back and tell their fellow country people what an excellent place the US is. Not about 1 or 2 mishaps they had while they were here .**

Problems I have:
1.) Some of these people are from countries that could be considered a potential enemy of the US. (China). I'm not crazy about educating a chemistry student that is going to go back and build a bomb to kill us. (I've made a lot of friends with Chinese grad students at my school.)

2.) If US graduate programs would fall apart, let them. We shouldn't have to bring in international students to support a program. Professors can be pretty selfish and will make decisions like this so they can teach a graduate course rather than Calc I to freshman.

** I'd also like to say that my graduate experience was 10 times better because of international students, and I wouldn't have met my wife if we didn't allow international students. **