Mutual Benefits from Graduate Education at US

UniversitiesSusan Beck

Department of GeosciencesUniversity of Arizona

Tucson AZ, 85721, USA

With input from:Lepolt Linkimer, Berk Biryol, Hande Tok,

Patricia Alvarado and Arda Ozacar

Are there mutual benefits from graduate education

at US universities?

YES! for international students, for U.S. seismology programs and faculty, and

for seismology capacity building world-wide!

Benefits for International Students

1. Provides a strong graduate education often with funding.

2. New scientific opportunities for the student.

3. Access to resources (computers, software, high speed internet connections, journals).

4. Meetings, contacts, collaborations and networking opportunities for the student.

5. Upon graduation the student can go back (if a job is available) and help to build seismology in their country.

Benefits for U.S. Seismology Programs

1. Talented and highly motivated graduate students.

2. Builds diversity in graduate student population (everyone benefits) and diversity is essential for excellence.

3. Opportunities for international work and future collaborations.

Benefits for International Seismology Capacity

Building1. Provides more technically trained

seismologists to build programs world-wide. (highly skilled workforce)

2. Helps build a culture of collaboration and sharing of data and ideas.

3. Provides technology transfer.• Software• Instrumentation• IT etc.• data

Challenges for International Students

1. Applying from outside the U.S. difficult and expensive. Taking standardized exams such as the GREs often requires travel.

2. Difficulties in finding travel money and funding to get to the US.

3. Language barrier initially.4. No credit record in US makes first year

sometimes difficult (larger deposits for basics).

5. Local transportation difficult (no car).

Challenges for U.S. Seismology Programs

(Faculty)1. Difficulty in evaluating international

graduate student applications.2. Difficulties in finding sources of funding

(international students cannot apply for some scholarships and often cost more to support).

3. Language barrier especially at first - can result in difficulties in communication and expectations.

4. Students have variable backgrounds.

Challenges for international students

after graduation1. In country jobs not available or have very

low pay & heavy teaching loads making it difficult to go back.

2. Job opportunities in the US are better??? leading to “brain drain”.

3. Little or no in country seismology infrastructure (computers & equipment).

4. Little or no research funding available for basic seismology. Often no graduate program.

5. Few collaborators and small seismology communities in country.

Challenges for international students

after graduation1. We train our graduate students to go

out and set up programs like we have but in many countries this is not possible.

2. In many countries seismology is more applied - have to be able to adapt.• Seismic network operations• Strong ground motions• Seismic hazards• Tsunami warning systems

What can we do?1. Better networking between faculty

about talented international student applications to find opportunities for the best students.

2. Find funding for more international students.

3. Improve pathways to US universities.4. Improve networking between

international students within the US. (regional cluster hires).

What can we do?1. Improved support for international

students going back to their country to build seismology programs.• IRIS activities - foreign affiliates,

regional workshops, long term loan program.

• ????2. Continued long term collaborations on

research projects to leverage funding.3. Find ways to have in-country

seismologists benefit more from PASSCAL deployments.

4. Use standardize software.

Questions?

1. Are we providing the international students with the needed toolkits for the challenges they face? (They will likely not go back and reproduce our research programs).

2. Do we provide enough training/background in hazards (seismic networks, real-time data, applied strong motion, tsunami warning systems).

3. Do we provide enough training/background and breath in natural resources?

Questions?1. Training international students at US

universities is one model. Are there other models?• Joint programs (formally or informally)?• Short courses- sending international

students to the US for short periods of time (weeks to months)

• Distance learning2. Is it important to have in-country training?3. Are we contributing to the “brain drain”?

We should think more broadly!