THEME: SCIENCE Graduates
Some troubling factoids...

According to the National Science Foundation, American universities awarded 220,000 bachelors degrees in science and technology in 1999, vs. 322,000 in China and 251,000 in India. As recently as a two decades ago, China and India were handing out only a fraction of that number of degrees.

Experts now say their lead will widen as the share of Asian students who go to college rises over next two decades from the current 4.6% to closer to the U.S. figure of 32%. "There's a risk that a couple of decades from now the numbers won't add up in terms of the basic skill sets our education system produces," worries Greg Papadopoulos, CTO of hardware and software maker Sun Microsystems (SUNW ).

For the first time in recent memory, foreign graduate students are accounting for smaller numbers of science degrees from U.S. universities. Traditionally, this group has received 30% to 50% of doctoral candidates in hard sciences such as chemistry, physics, and computer sciences. But a February survey by the Association of International Educators found that 47% of some 250 U.S. universities reported a decline in foreign grad student applications for the academic year starting in the fall of 2004. Among the respondents were 19 of the top 25 research institutions in terms of foreign student participation.

For now, though, some basic statistics point to continued success for India's outsourcing outfits. Consider that the country cranks out some 250,000 engineering and computer science graduates a year vs. the U.S.'s 140,000. And that recent India grads may earn as little as $5,000 a year. "The business case for offshoring is of an enduring nature," Thadhani says.