Thomas Freidman suggested this in "The World is Flat." I liked some things about this suggestion. It doesn't specifically target engineering or science, so it

Thomas Freidman suggested this in "The World is Flat." I liked some things about this suggestion. It doesn't specifically target engineering or science, so it wouldn't distort the market, and a Ph.D (I think Friedman included all doctoral degrees) from an accredited institution is sufficiently rigorous that I don't think it would be as easy to "game" the system. But still, there are a lot of things I really don't like about this proposal as well. My experience as a grad student in engineering at Berkeley has left me convinced that these programs are utterly abusive of their students. If there's a shortage of Americans willing to sign up for PhD's in STEM fields, these institutions deserve it. Plus, starting salaries for PhD's in science/engineering lag badly behind MBA/JD/MD programs. This would only exacerbate the situation. And if a Ph.D granting institution is able to award citizenship along with a PhD, there's pretty much no limit to the abusiveness they'll get away with. Hey professors - Want to keep your highly trained poorly paid lab tech around for another year? No problem - you control his dream of citizenship, so trust me, he'll keep working 80 hour weeks for you for $22K a year. When this sets the standard for treatment of grad students, Americans will all but abandon the field. Expect the already high percentage of foreign students in PhD programs to jump even higher if this becomes policy.