National policy's impact on higher education and scientific research

Make no mistake - a nation's higher education policy, or lack thereof, can quickly change the attractiveness of a country for scholars. Canada's recent efforts to attract scientists paid off in powerful ways and these follow targeted efforts by France to do the same. Boston College's Center for International Higher Education, Phillip Altbach, says that, while morale in U.S.A. higher education may suffer from such losses, it doesn't change the proportion of U.S.A. faculty who dominate research and scholarship around the world.

By contrast to Altbach's confidence that U.S.A. faculty will continue to dominate in research, others predict that their current dominance could erode as a result of restricting knowledge and innovation flows around the world. Brendan Cantwell advises, "As other domains, the stability of the global science system noticeably rests on the culture, politics, and policies of the United States" with the U.S.A. and other countries suffering as a consequence of isolationist and protectionist governmental policies.