Six hundred thousand foreign students are studying in American universities. More students come to the United States for graduate studies than to any other country in the world. But America’s famous allure to the world’s best and brightest is dimming. Last year alone, American graduate programs saw an almost 30 percent decline in applications from students abroad.

Partly, the decline is happening because the best students in China, India and Korea can increasingly get a top education and a top job in their own countries or in other countries eager to lay out the welcome mat, including Canada and Britain.

Another reason is that some American security measures since 9/11 have shown would-be student visitors a face that is unfriendly, even frightening. As a result, some say, the United States has become unattractive to many of the very minds that will drive science, innovation and economic growth in the 21st century.

Hear about the future of America’s graduate education when foreign students stay in their own countries.

Guests:

Peggy Blumenthal, vice president for educational services, Institute of International Education

Lisa Krieg, director of the Office of International Education at Carnegie Mellon University

Robert Birgeneau, chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley and former dean of science at MIT

Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University.