By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Seoul National University (SNU) graduates have constituted the largest group receiving doctorates in the U.S. over the last decade. However, Tsinghua University of China overtook SNU in 2006, a U.S. government report said Monday.
According to the ``Survey of Earned Doctorates'' by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a total of 3,420 SNU graduates earned doctorate degrees from American universities between 1997 and 2006.
NSF is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering.
SNU graduates ranked the second largest group on the list made with no regard to the school's nationality, following the University of California Berkeley with 4,298 doctorate achievers during the same period. Beijing University came third on the list, followed by Tsinghua University, the National Cheng Kung University and the University of Science Technology of China.
In the past, Chinese students were a minor group in American education due to insufficient economic power combined with public sentiment hostile to ``Made in the U.S.'' products and service. In recent years, however, the number of Chinese doctoral candidates at American universities has shown a notable increase thanks to its booming economy and western friendly atmosphere.
In 2006 alone, a total of 571 Chinese with bachelors degree from Tsinghua University completed their doctoral courses in the United States, outnumbering achievers with an American school background. Beijing University graduates became the second largest group that year.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) hinted at a further increase of Chinese students in American doctoral programs, saying it's just a matter of time before American doctoral programs are dominated by Chinese students.
Prof. Oh Se-jung, dean of the college of natural science of SNU, said ``Korean universities began intensifying the graduate school program. It has largely cut the number of students seeking an opportunity to study overseas, especially in the U.S.''
He also pointed out the 2-year-long mandatory military service in Korea as another obstacle for Korean students to study abroad.