Dean Kamen (the inventor of the Segway) “noted that last year the U.S. graduated just 62,000 engineers (there were more Sports Management graduates) as compared to the 3.4 million technology grads coming out of universities in India. Kamen says we have only ourselves to blame. ‘You get what you celebrate…we celebrate sports and movies.’â€
See this article at PC Magazine online for a more complete story about his speech at the FIRST robotics competition.
Is it because we have a lot more variety of what people can major in? We have Theatre majors, and Anthropology majors, and Classics majors, and Shakespeare majors, and, yes, Engineering majors. I would imagine the vast choices of majors would mean than any specific one would have fewer graduates.
Is it the case that in India people tend to go into Engineering because it's one of their up-and-coming money-makers? Whereas we live in a wealthier society, more people may take wealth for granted and opt for a Poetry major over Engineering.
By the way, Steve Martin is attributed as saying: “What do you do with a Poetry major? Open a 'Poetry Repair Shop?'”