The result of a study by an American institute has shown that most Africans who earn their doctorate degrees from US universities remain in the country five years after earning the advance degree.
The study, conducted by Michael Finn of the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) in 2007, was obtained Friday.
It shows that 65 percent of the Nigerians who earned doctorates in the US remained in this country for five years, while for South Africans, only 41 percent of the doctoral recipients stayed in the U.S.
Finn also has data on 182 doctoral recipients from “other African nations,” excluding Egypt, Nigeria or South Africa.
Of these, 59 percent remained in the US five years after receiving their doctoral degrees.
For other countries, 92 percent of people from China who earned doctorates in 2000 were still in the US in 2005.
But only 4 percent of the Saudi Arabians who earned doctorates in 2000 were still in the US in 2005.
In carrying out the study, Finn compared the list of foreign doctoral recipients in 2000 and was able to determine whether individuals filed U.S. federal income tax returns in 2005.
