Lueny Morell

Global and US S&E Indicators 2016

The US National Science Board’s comprehensive biennial report puts the worldwide total at $1.671 trillion in 2013. Ten years earlier, in 2003, it was $836 billion. By these figures, the annual increase in total global R&D . . .  averaged 7.2 percent over the decade, doubling in size. But the US did not follow this trend in the same period.

“Inflation-adjusted growth in total U.S. R&D averaged only 0.8 percent annually over the 2008–13 period, behind the 1.2 percent annual average for U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). Even so, the single-year metrics for 2010–11 and 2012–13 were markedly more favorable than this 5-year average: 2.7 percent in real growth for total R&D in 2010–11 versus 1.6 percent for GDP; 3.2 percent for R&D in 2012–13 versus 2.2 percent for GDP.
“By comparison, the growth of U.S. R&D averaged 3.9 percent annually in 2003–08, ahead of GDP at 2.2 percent, and over 1993–2003, U.S. R&D growth averaged 3.9 percent compared with GDP at 3.4 percent. On this basis, the R&D growth figures in 2010–11 and 2012–13 were more like those before 2008, but the longstanding U.S. trend of substantial real growth annually in R&D, well ahead of the pace of GDP, still has not returned.”

“S&E degrees, important for an innovative knowledge economy, have become relatively more prevalent in some Asian countries than in the United States: in China, nearly half of all first university degrees (49%) awarded in 2012 were in S&E, compared with 33% in the United States. Globally, the number of first university degrees in S&E reached about 6.4 million, according to the most recent estimates. Almost half of these degrees were conferred in China (23%) and India (23%); another 21% were conferred in the European Union (EU; see “Glossary” for member countries) (12%) and in the United States (9%).”


Creativity, Innovation and Change

I just enrolled in this Coursera course offered by Penn State University (one of the Learning Factory original partners). Let’s see what I can learn about the topic. Let me know if you enroll to share our learning experience.


Are We Obsessed with University Rankings?

“It would be naive to assume that rankings will lose their importance in the future. However, while recognizing that they are here to stay, we must be aware of their many limitations, their intended and unintended biases, and their convenience-based usage by institutions and even national governments.”

http://blogs.worldbank.org/education/are-we-obsessed-university-rankings


Tagged: Higher Education

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