Interesting piece on the state of engineering education around the world from IEEE Spectrum:

One question comes up often in Vivek Wadhwa’s discussions with students: What jobs are ”outsourcing-proof”? In 2005, Wadhwa, executive in residence at Duke University’s engineering school, tried to find an answer. His research team looked into the number of engineers China and India graduate and how competitive they were compared to U.S. grads.

The answers to both questions are surprising. First the numbers: Popular reports of India and China graduating 12 times as many professional engineers as the United States are way off. Considering only four-year professional degrees, the researchers found that the United States awarded 137 437 compared to 112 000 in India, while China reported 351 537, using broad criteria.