1161 



and also suggesting the idea of moving from an inferior to a superior 

 cultural environment. These attitudes give prestige to study abroad 

 and thus add to the forces of attraction. As V. M. Dandekar described 

 the Indian experience: "The attitude is historical in origin and is a 

 direct consequence of a century and a half of British rule in India. It 

 has been very deeply drilled into the Indian mind through a direct 

 and visible demonstration of the superiority of such education and 

 training." ^^® Finally, the emigrating professional wants to emigrate; 

 it is his free decision, and this psychologically induces a positive pre- 

 disposition towards the culture he is entering. 



Total immersion of the immigrant professional in the environment 

 of the advanced Western country hastens the processes of accultura- 

 tion. Students from the LDCs coming to the United States fall under 

 tlie dual influence of the total society as well as of the academic curric- 

 ulum. Studies made of foreign students in American universities indi-- 

 cate a favorable interaction with Americans, suggesting the general- 

 ization that a favorable attitude towards American society exists.^^^ 

 Witliin this larger social context is the academic curriculum. The 

 foreign student enters an educational system designed primarily for 

 the needs of American society, not that of the Asian, African, or Latin 

 American from whence he came. Accommodations are made to some 

 degree by offering special courses, but most foreign students must fit 

 into the design of the American curriculum. ^^° 



Studies in science and technology present a special case. Science has 

 important international characteristics and even supranational poten- 

 tialities and tendencies that produce a unique cosmopolitan outlook. 

 But science is not value f I'ee and technology is even less so. The most 

 abstract a;id theoretical sciences are imbedded in particular cultures 

 and languages from which they cannot be excised. "Both science 

 and technology,"' wrote Prof. Dwight Waldo of Syracuse University's 

 Maxwell School, "are intertwined at their margins not simply with 

 nationalism, but with transnational value-systems represented by 

 languages, ideologies and religions." '" Accordingly, the education of 

 a scholar or scientist in a particular foreign culture, the American, for 

 example, niay make him unfit as a creative element in another culture ; 

 most assuredly it makes him vulnerable to brain drain. Success for the 

 student is often measured by the extent of his commitment, adapta- 

 tion, and absorption into his studies. This attitude acts as a catalyzing 

 agent in the social processes of acculturation. 



Thus the foreign student, particularly of science and technology, 

 comes under a dual influence : that of the American value system both 

 in education and in society as a whole which can erode his own national 



3=»8 Dandekar, op. clt, p. 209. 



3^ In a summary of findings on a fitudy of foreign students, Steven E. Dentsch concluded : 

 "To generalize from the research data, the college and university students who come to this 

 country from abroad are mostly male graduate students from the loss develoried nations In 

 the world. Two-fifths are self-supporting. One-quarter of the students are In engineering 

 with the same proportion in the natural and physical sciences. Foreign students Interact 

 with Americans to a significant degree ; one-third" live with Americans. The great majority 

 of foreign students are satisfied with their opportunities for meeting Aiiieri<'ans, vftlcctlng 

 their visiting of American homes, dating, and other forms of social Interaction."' (Deutsch, 

 op. clt., pp. 178-179.) 



310 Testimony of Dr. Kldd, in, Hearings, House, Government Operations Coinmittce, Brain 

 Drain, lOfiS, p. 50. 



3ii Dwk'lit Waldo, "Planning and Administration for Viable Policies: The Perspective of 

 Official Responsibility," In Nader and Zalilan, Science and Technology in Developing Coun- 

 tries, p. 401. 



V 



