UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT

UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT
Figure 1.4: Long-term growth of tertiary-level international students worldwide, 1975–2013
0.8m
1.1m
1.7m
2.8m
4.1m
1975
1985
1995
2005
2013
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, June 2015
In the coming years, competition for skilled workers from the
global pool will most likely intensify (Chapter 2). This trend
will depend in part on levels of investment in science and
technology around the world and demographic trends, such
as low birth rates and ageing populations in some countries
(Japan, EU, etc). Countries are already formulating broader
policies to attract and retain highly skilled migrants and
international students, in order to establish an innovative
environment or maintain it, as in Malaysia (Chapter 26).
The number of international students is growing rapidly
(Figure 1.4). Chapter 2 highlights the increasing mobility
at doctoral level, which, in turn, is driving the mobility of
scientists. This is perhaps one of the most important trends
of recent times. A study conducted recently by the UNESCO
Institute for Statistics found that students from the Arab
States, Central Asia, sub-Saharan African and Western Europe
were more likely to study abroad than their peers from other
regions. Central Asia has even overtaken Africa for the share
of tertiary students studying abroad (see Figure 2.10).
National and regional schemes in Europe and Asia are
actively encouraging doctoral students to study abroad. The
Vietnamese government, for instance, sponsors the doctoral
training of its citizens overseas, in order to add 20 000
doctorate-holders to the faculty of Vietnamese universities
by 2020. Saudi Arabia is taking a similar approach. Malaysia,
meanwhile, plans to become the sixth-largest global
destination for international university students by 2020.
Between 2007 and 2012, the number of international
students in Malaysia almost doubled to more than 56 000
(Chapter 26). South Africa hosted about 61 000 international
students in 2009, two-thirds of whom came from other SADC
nations (Chapter 20). Cuba is a popular destination for Latin
American students (Chapter 7).
The other half of human capital still a minority
As countries grapple with the need to establish a pool of
scientists or researchers that is commensurate with their
ambitions for development, their attitudes to gender issues
are changing. Some Arab States now have more women
than men studying natural sciences, health and agriculture
at university (Chapter 17). Saudi Arabia plans to create 500
vocational training schools to reduce its dependence on
foreign workers, half of which will train teenage girls (Chapter
17). Some 37% of researchers in the Arab world are women,
more than in the EU (33%).
On the whole, women constitute a minority in the research
world. They also tend to have more limited access to
funding than men and to be less represented in prestigious
universities and among senior faculty, which puts them at a
further disadvantage in high-impact publishing (Chapter 3).
The regions with the highest shares of women researchers
are Southeast Europe (49%), the Caribbean, Central Asia and
Latin America (44%). Sub-Saharan Africa counts 30% women
and South Asia 17%. Southeast Asia presents a contrasting
picture, with women representing 52% of researchers in the
Philippines and Thailand, for instance, but only 14% in Japan
and 18% in the Republic of Korea (Chapter 3).
Globally, women have achieved parity (45–55%) at the
bachelor’s and master’s levels, where they represent 53% of
graduates. At the PhD level, they slip beneath parity to 43%.
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