Global: This House Bill Would Exempt STEM Ph.D. Grads From Green-Card Caps

The bill would require a fee from the graduates to fund scholarships for low-income American students in science and engineering. ADVERTISEMENT [Global Logo]( Did someone forward you this newsletter? [Sign up free]( to receive your own copy. First Thought Insights drawn weekly from Karin Fischer’s global-education newsletter, latitude(s). [Subscribe here](. A U.S. House bill aimed at boosting American competitiveness would exempt STEM Ph.D. graduates from numerical limits on immigrant visas — and require them to pay a supplemental fee to fund scholarships for low-income American students in science and engineering. The measure would effectively staple a green card to the doctoral diploma of qualifying international students in STEM, a long-held priority of college groups. The green-card exemption would also extend to immigrants who earn STEM Ph.D.s from foreign universities, if they are equivalent. The [America Competes Act]( is the House counterpart to [Senate legislation]( passed last year aimed at countering Chinese competitiveness. Like the Senate measure, the bill, which could be taken up as soon as this week, contains a number of new reporting requirements for colleges and researchers engaged in international collaborations. It also provides millions in new federal R&D spending, much of which could go to universities. But the legislation also has some surprising new provisions — for one, it would set up a U.S. government program for the study of Chinese language to replace Chinese-funded Confucius Institutes. [Buried in the 2,912-page bill are a number of provisions that are important to international education. Karin runs through them in this week’s latitude(s).]( ADVERTISEMENT The Reading List - The College Board will roll out the [new digital SAT]( first at international testing sites. - The State Department plans to hire dozens of foreign-service officers to help deal with a visa-processing [backlog](. - One student was killed and three others were wounded when [a fellow student opened fire in a lecture hall]( at a German university. Featured on Chronicle.com “It was so hard at first, with everything being online. I was alone.” —Maria Hernandez, who started college in the fall of 2020 at Arizona State University. The daughter of migrant farm workers from Mexico, she would travel on weekends to be with her family until her father caught the coronavirus, and she couldn’t visit. One thing that helped ease the loneliness she felt: the biweekly Zoom calls with other students from migrant families, part of the College Assistance Migrant Program, or CAMP, a low-profile federal program that helps migrant and seasonal workers and their children navigate the first year of college. CAMP, which turns 50 this year, has strong retention and persistence rates that exceed national averages, but that track record is being threatened by the Covid-19 pandemic. [Read more in]( Chronicle]( SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. POLITICS & TRANSPARENCY [Florida Bill May Shield University Presidential Searches From the Public]( By Chelsea Long [STORY IMAGE]( A bill in the Florida legislature aims to shield from the public parts of the presidential-selection process at state colleges. Critics advocate for transparency. SPONSOR CONTENT | The University of sydney [Learn how two new approaches are revolutionizing the treatment of addiction.]( FUNDING INEQUITY [A Long-Neglected HBCU May Finally Get Its Money]( By Katherine Mangan [STORY IMAGE]( The governor has asked for $250 million to go toward repairing crumbling infrastructure at Tennessee State University. ADVERTISEMENT SPONSOR CONTENT | the university of queensland [Understanding where we've been and where we're going]( Providing insight into the history of human connectivity and how it helped shape social and natural landscapes, learn how globalization and sustainability are connecting our present to our past. JOB OPPORTUNITIES Apply for the top jobs in higher education and [search all our open positions](. NEWSLETTER FEEDBACK What did you think of today’s newsletter? [Strongly disliked]( | [It was ok]( | [Loved it]( This newsletter was sent to {EMAIL}. [Read this newsletter on the web](. [Manage]( your newsletter preferences, [stop receiving]( this email, or [view]( our privacy policy. © 2022 [The Chronicle of Higher Education]( 1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037