Catherine Rampell discusses new data released from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in her recent New York Times "Economix" blog. The graph (right), based on the OECD data, shows the geographic distribution of the world's "University hotspots," or top 50 research Universities across a broad range of disciplines (as ranked by the OECD). Interestingly, US Universities made up the smallest number of hotspots in the Social Sciences out of all of the disciplines, as it was the only discipline in which US Universities made up less than a majority of the hotspots. US Universities accounted for the largest amount of hotspots in the disciplines of Chemistry and Computer Science, in which they accounted for close to 40 out of 50 hotspots. Across all departments, US Universities accounted for 80% of hotspots. While this may paint a favorable picture of American Universities, Rampell suggests that the future of American dominance in Research may be less certain, as a relatively small number of US residents hold doctorate agrees and many students attending American doctorate programs are from abroad.
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