John B wrote:
On 23 May, 11:29, "R.C. Payne" wrote:
Over the long term, the universities are the economy - one of the
reasons the US has done so well over the last century is the amount
poured into practical academic research. The fact that Harvard and
Stanford attract bright people from all over the world has done
wonders for the US economy. The fact that most European universities
don't is one of the reasons Europe's a mess.
Sitting here at my desk in a UK university, looking at the graduate
students, I'd say that we have about 10% UK nationals, about 50% other
EU nationals, about 15% Commonwealth and most of the remainder are far
eastern (Korea and China seem to dominate), though a few interesting
others. I'd say we're doing a pretty good job of attracting people from
around the globe.

Generally UK universities are considered separately from mainland
European universities in this context (because ours are unequivocally
the best outside the US, largely because we have a national merit-
based admissions system rather than a "anyone who passes their A-
levels can go to their local Comprehensive University" system.

While I can see that applying at undergraduate level (where UK students
definitely dominate), I'm not sure that's as relevent at a graduate
level. Most of the graduate students here did their undergrad in their
home country and have only come here for the next bit.

Robin

PS perhaps I was a little pessimistic on my previous numbers, perhaps
it's more like 20% UK / 40% EU