The Increasing Drop-Out Rates of STEM Students
I previously discussed on my blog the importance of STEM graduates in battling Structured Unemployment.
This article will discuss the reasons for the increasing drop-out rates of STEM students:
Investment
There is not enough investment on science, technology, engineering and math. Students go where the money is. This lack of investment veers science and manufacturing capabilities off-shore decreasing the opportunities for our domestic STEM students.
Broken Patent System
Our broken patent system stifles with our ability to innovate and invest. Patents are not inherently bad but it is not congenial to the business of software. This demotivates students from taking STEM courses. We need to cease policies that make them non-competitive. We need to reverse the current policies that are problematic. We need legislators that understand the dynamics of patent and technology growth.
National policy impeding the progress of life science industry and problems with regulatory agencies
Jonathan Shapiro, Managing Director of The EROS Group, LLC. states: “The current shortage of STEM jobs is a direct result of national policy. It is well known to economists that protective tariffs most commonly destroy the "beneficiary" industry. That's how chip fabrication moved overseas. The FDA's policies on drug testing make the United States the least interesting, most expensive, and most litigious first-world market for drugs. Why research drugs in a country that doesn't want them? “
The uncertainties surrounding various review reforms at the FDA, the lethargic review process, the incoherent practices has had a calamitous effect on companies’ inclination to submit new treatments, medical devices, drugs, etc. The increasing regulatory burdens is really starting to take its toll.
Immigration reform. “The Brain Drain syndrome”.
Foreign students with major in STEM courses in our universities are being sent away after graduation. These immigrant students would like to stay here and use the technology they’ve learned locally but instead the option we give them is to send them back to their country to compete with us where they have lower base costs, lower regulatory overheads, and supportive national technology policies.
Continued on the next page
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