[Mitch]

Its hard for me to believe when I see so many intelligent motivated people around me all the time. Especially, when everyone and their cousin seems to be getting their chemical PhD.


http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1156575-1,00.html

edit: bad link

[Donaldson Tan]

It's true there are many intelligent and motivated individuals around you getting their chemical PhDs, but what The Times report highlighted is where these PhD graduates are going after university? Are they staying in the United States and contribute to the American technology or they are going elsewhere in Asia, eg. Singapore.

The report is true. My lecturers here are continuously being approached by the government of Singapore's national research agency (ASTAR) to do research for them in Singapore. The hunt for scientific talent is growing more and more feroscious.

Even the Britis themsevles finally admitted to it and higlighted the lack of research funding for university research. Many top universities in the UK "top up" their research budget by collaborating with major firms such as Shell, BP, Exxon-Mobil, Merck, Pfizer, etc. The less established universities in the UK are unable to compete with major universities in the UK for such corporate funding, making the UK scientific scence overall backwards.

I hope the Brits will do something fast. It is hard to get research fellowship in the UK if you are an overseas student. Each university can provide a limited fellowship to cover home fee for overseas student. The remainder of the overseas fee must be topped up by the overseas research fellowship which is extremely hard to get. It is limited to about 50overseas post-graduates a year (i think). I hope to do a PhD in Britain, preferably Oxford, and therefore hope the research environment will be more economically conducive to overseas students.