Cartoon 737: Up the ladder

Statistics of college and university graduation trends at the national level need to reflect the type of graduates. Some degrees are much more valuable to society. From a national point of view, degrees in mathematics, sciences, engineering and teaching are more valuable then degrees in business, finance and economics. Degrees in business, finance and economics primarily buoyant a particular business or enterprise. It has little of a multiplying or cascading impact through society like degrees in mathematics, sciences, engineering and teaching. This group of degrees are enablers.

Any nation that wants to stay up the ladder of success, or move ahead, must have the right mix of an educated populous. America has relied on non-indigenous people (foreigners) to an ever increasing degree. Just visit the campuses of the technology titans such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Intel. The workforce is greatly Asian. Visit the top American schools of technology and engineering, such as MIT, and the impression is international. Even education delivery is shifting. Arguably the best engineering school in the world is in India, in terms of exclusivity and caliber of graduates.

What is unnerving is the focused dedication of nations such as China. China vaulted on the world scene in a decade, after three decades of intensive effort. That level of effort is now being applied to advanced education.

In the future a synonym for education might be “chinese”.