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