[smm2000]

Many foreigners treat PhD and especially Masters program as a way to get visa and access to USA - doing actual research is secondary goal. $30k/year is poverty wage in US but solid pay for somebody from eastern europe, India or China. Programs will be in jeopardy because they won’t be able to do visa/salary arbitrage which could positive thing and lead to more Americans in those programs.

[tsycho]

Doing a Master's/PhD from a good university isn't a cakewalk for these foreign students. It's not something you just buy and forget with your parents' money - you have to work quite hard, compensate for language and other educational gaps, and then succeed in landing a good job and the H1B lottery. It's a risky investment.

America must ask itself why its students are not interested in grad school. Unaffordability (especially after an expensive undergrad) is absolutely a major issue, but from my experience at an Ivy, very few Americans were interested in grad school. And maybe that's fine, because doing research* is probably something that makes sense only for a small percentage of students. So there may not be a problem here, unless increasing this is an actual goal.

Without explicit measures, and with a more globally accessible approach to admissions, it stands to reason that the PhD demographics would move towards global population ratios, adjusted for access and affordability. And that's been the secular trend of the past 20 years.

*Master's is not research, and is primarily a way for universities to make money.

[fredophile]

I'm pretty sure there is a portion of H1Bs that is reserved for people with advanced US degrees. Doing grad school in the US can dramatically increase your chances of getting an H1B.

[randtrain34]

Yep, this is true https://www.stoodnt.com/blog/new-h1-b-rules-give-priority-to...

[AnimalMuppet]

I remember the professor asking a student from China how he was doing with the class being taught in English. The student replied, "Uh... book. I read book." At that moment I caught a glimpse of how big the language barrier could be, and how much sheer work it would take to overcome it.