David J Skorton, the president of the Cornell University has stated, “The fall in the number of Indian students enrolling in US universities cannot be termed as a reverse brain drain originating from the US back to India but it can be termed as a cyclic circulation of brain.”
Citing this as a reason he explained further that nowadays we can see inventions and discoveries originating in the field of agriculture, medicine and technology from places not thought of before. He says that previously this brain flow was unidirectional in nature but now this has changed. The unidirectional brain flow has changed to brain circulation which has rather helped all in the long run.
“India has got some world class and premier institutes which include the famous Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and hence there is no shortage of high quality world class education back in India,” mentioned Skorton while speaking on the matter.
These comments came while Skorton was attending to a meeting of the Cornell Club in Manhattan. Cornell University’s president also feels that India is in fact leading the entire world in cutting edge technology in outsourcing which has led to the evolution of a technological revolution in India. According to him, Infosys has revolutionized the concept of outsourcing and has become a global master in the sector thus making India proud. “Some of the inventions in Medicine and Agriculture in India are something to be admired and lauded by the world,” said Skorton praising India for its advancements in the said fields.
Cornell can be considered to be the most educationally diverse member among the entire lot of universities in the Ivy League. For instance, only in the Ithaca Campus in New York alone houses as many as 20,000 students from every state of the entire US as well as from 120 different nations around the world. The students there can choose between 4000 different courses in 11 different and diverse undergraduate, graduate as well as professional schools of learning.
Skorton became the University’s 12th president on July 1, 2006. He has appointments as a faculty professor in the Department of Medicine and Paediatrics at the famous Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City. He also attends the technical field of Biomedical Engineering at the College of Engineering on Cornell’s Itheca campus in New York City as a faculty professor.
According to the Institute of International Education in US, the number of Indian students studying in the US has dropped consecutively for the second time in two years. The report says that in the session 2009-10 there were as many as 1,04,897 Indian students in the US universities the number dropped to 1,03,895 in 2010-11. But in 2011-12 it plummeted even further to stand at a mere 1,00,270 students. Currently China has overtaken India to take the top spot.
The reasons behind this fall are being cited as tough US Visa norms, an ensuing global recession, economical slowdown in the US and lastly, a tough job market scenario. The figures are expected to get better as the crisis resolves in the near future.
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