A recent survey revealed a spike in the number of Korean exchange students in the United States who earned PhDs here and do not want to go back to Korea. About 70 percent of these students have chosen to stay in America.

According to the report by Dr. Jin, Mi-sok, whose team studied "Korean occupation eligibility development" – the future occupation plans of Korean foreign exchange students following graduation – during the 1990s, 20 percent of Koreans with U.S. doctorates did not go back Korea; 46.3 percent did not return in the early 2000s, and by 2005 the numbers reached 68.8 percent.

The report noted that the number of foreign exchange students who were awarded PhDs by American universities and decided to remain in American has risen among many countries, such as India and China; however, the increase in rate among Koreans in the past decade is extraordinary.

From 1992 to 1995, the number of Korean PhD holders who selected a new life in America was 20.2 percent. From 2000 to 2003 the number doubled to over 46 percent. By 2004, the number climbed to 72 percent and has remained ever since.

Across the nation, many other foreign exchange students enrolled in doctorate programs also decided to remain in America following graduation. Chief among these, by number, are India, China, England, Canada, Argentina, and Korea. Korea is actually ranked ninth, behind Nigeria.

Although the number of Koreans who have PhDs is increasing the quickest, life is not easy for them; the rate of employment for those who decide to remain in the United States after acquiring their degrees is low, well below the employment level of native students with PhDs from American universities.

According to Dr. Jin's report, Korean doctoral graduates are not finding qualified employment in their fields. Many have been forced to take lower level jobs just to have the opportunity to polish their language or professional skills for the American job market. Of these, 27 percent could not find jobs in their fields of study and now work in fields completely unrelated to their degrees. This was especially true in 2006, when 48 percent of Korean students with doctorates could not find full-time employment. Many of them are still searching for work.