"While California and other states cut higher education budgets, many countries are spending to boost the number and quality of their graduates, setting the stage for brain drains and brain gains as the global economy emerges from the Great Recession, according to a UC Berkeley research paper."
China, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, France and Brazil are among the major industrial nations that have continued to boost education spending despite the recession, while the United Kingdom and Ireland have joined the United States in making cuts, said John Aubrey Douglass, who wrote the paper for Berkeley's Center for Studies in Higher Education.
"Over the last decade we have seen higher education elevated to a top policy concern in many nations, where it is seen as vital for economic development and competitiveness," Douglass said.
But the United States has lagged in this regard, partly because its higher education system is decentralized and controlled by state governments, whereas in many other nations the central government coordinates spending, Douglass said.
In economic downturns, some of these international competitors have chosen to borrow to fund education, whereas U.S. states generally can't engage in deficit spending.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/26/BU1E1C7S61.DTL&type=business#ixzz0gjo9LG8B