US eyes Indian students for STEM talent and not Chinese, says US diplomat

The US diplomat said that not enough Americans were studying STEM and hence they need to hire more international students preferably Indian students for the related fields and not Chinese students.

As per reports, a US diplomat Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has said that the US need to hire more international students for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) as not enough Americans are studying STEM. The country will prefer to hire Indian students for these roles and not Chinese students.

The country also welcomes China's students however not for STEM but for humanities as the US universities are restricting access of Chinese students to sensitive technology due to security concerns.

While speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, Campbell said, "I would like to see more Chinese students coming to the United States to study humanities and social sciences, not particle physics," as reported by the Economic Times.

The US Diplomat said that some had suggested that China is the only source country from where the US can get students they can hire for STEM-related roles, however, he replied, "I believe that the largest increase that we need to see going forward would be much larger numbers of Indian students that come to study in American universities on a range of technology and other fields."

US was careful to not eliminate links with China

Chinese contributed to the biggest foreign student body in the US in the academic year 2022-23 with a total number of students totalled 290,000. He blamed Beijing officials for any withering in non-profit sector ties, in academic and business but US had to be cautious to not remove links with China.

"It really has been China that has made it difficult for the kinds of activities that we would like to see sustaining. Foreign executives and philanthropists were wary about long-term stays in China due to concerns about personal security," he said.

However, some in civil and academic society have argued that the changing equation between US-China and concern about the theft of US expertise subjects Chinese students to unwarranted suspicion, and derails scientific cooperation between the countries.

He added that universities in the US carefully support the higher education of Chinese students but have been "careful about the labs, some of the activities of Chinese students."

"I do think it is possible to curtail and to limit certain kinds of access, and we have seen that generally, particularly in technological programs across the United States," he said.

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