The Greenfield Report with Henry R. Greenfield
Welcome to "The Greenfield Reportwith Henry R. Greenfield," where 50+ years of world travels across 10 countries shape insightful takes on current geopolitical events. Join Robert for eye-opening global reports with practical local solutions, and enjoy guest appearances offering fresh perspectives. Embark on a journey of understanding and lively discussion.
The Greenfield Report with Henry R. Greenfield
Episode 29- How America's Academic Exodus is Reshaping Global Innovation
America is hemorrhaging its brightest minds at an alarming rate, and few seem to notice. From the vineyards of southern France, I've witnessed firsthand the start of what could be the most consequential brain drain in modern history.
Speaking with university coordinators across Europe, I discovered that academic institutions have terminated all cooperative programs with American universities. European PhDs and researchers are frantically returning home as their U.S. student visas are revoked and funding evaporates. These aren't just any students—they're the intellectual elite who drive innovation, develop breakthrough technologies, and create the companies of tomorrow. Now, European universities are welcoming them back with open arms, along with the multi-million dollar grants and entire research teams they bring.
What's most striking is how this exodus transcends politics. Despite assumptions that student protests over Gaza or Ukraine might be driving these changes, the reality is more pragmatic. Top researchers have invested decades building their careers and cannot afford political disruptions. As one Dutch academic coordinator explained, these scientists and innovators are fundamentally "apolitical" when it comes to their careers—they simply go where they can continue their work unimpeded. Countries like Singapore, Australia, and especially China are positioning themselves as the new havens for scientific excellence, offering generous packages that include housing, education for children, and stable research funding.
The historical parallels are unmistakable. Just as European scientists fled to America before World War II to escape authoritarian regimes, today's brightest minds are seeking refuge elsewhere. The difference? This time, America is on the losing end. With our K-12 education system already struggling compared to international peers, we have no ready pipeline to replace what we're losing. Listen to this episode to understand how these seismic shifts in global academic talent will reshape innovation for decades to come, and what it means for America's future on the world stage.
Welcome to the Greenfield Report with Henry R Greenfield, your gateway to understanding today's geopolitical landscape. With 50 years of experience across 10 countries, henry shares expert insights on world affairs, offering practical solutions and engaging guest perspectives. Dive into the Greenfield Report for lively discussions on the issues that matter.
Speaker 2:This is Henry R Greenfield, for the Greenfield Report, reporting and saying bonjour once again from the south of France on an early autumn evening where the students have returned and all is well. Or is it? As we stroll just after midnight from our lovely dinner in the old city Cartier of the Mediterranean port of Montpellier, it was clear that the university students had once again returned to reclaim the streets, the cafes, the bars, the clubs and the night for themselves, which was brimming with stars overlooking Mare Nostrum, or our sea, as they say. The Mediterranean is known in this part of the world Like thousands of places around the world.
Speaker 2:It was the first week back for school From Montpellier. The tourists were gone, banished to their jobs, back around in France, europe and the world. The students were back, buzzing with laughter and already in deep discussions on the world and enjoying cheap beer and wine at one of their favorite haunts, including the aptly named Shakespeare Pub just outside our restaurant. As my companion from the Netherlands mused on his last night before returning home to that much cooler climate where the Dutchmen live, we see ourselves, then, in who we were at one time long ago. Perhaps it is better for us now, as we can experience their joy right now, without having to work through the challenges that are surely to come for them. He went on Tonight is lovely, the beginning of the year, but soon that will change and the days will get shorter. The exams will come and the pressure will mount, but for this moment all is new, new friends and old, romance and fun and more fun, with no anger or angst or anything other than smiles and happiness. I guess he kind of summed it up and that everything is well, but then he went on.
Speaker 2:Such is the life of a student in France and much of the continent, a place where the US has, according to academics who are actually in charge of co-op programs with the United States, they've told me they have unfortunately dropped all I repeat, all of the US programs and cooperation. Needless to say, I was taken aback a bit and when I asked why they're really serious and why they said there are several factors, but the biggest are as follows are several factors, but the biggest are as follows. First of all, phd and other students cannot afford to have their lives and careers disrupted and destroyed Already. They, meaning the universities, have been bombarded their description, not mine with requests by Europeans who want to desperately return to Europe and get out of their US university programs, as they are being canceled in the United States and are also having their US student visas revoked by the US State Department. They were quick to note, with broad smiles replacing their somewhat dour European fake concern. These are the best and brightest students who are literally abandoning the US university system in droves and coming home to Europe, a place they not so long ago left for the great opportunities in the US under Biden and Obama and before that so many US presidents, all the way back to FDR and their World War II flights to escape Nazi Germany.
Speaker 2:The European universities, he said and this is someone who coordinates with at least a dozen universities all over the Netherlands on these types of cooperative programs in other countries, including France, responded at first. He said with just answering the queries. Including France, responded at first. He said with just answering the queries. But now they are ready and have been repositioning themselves on the fly. Well, I guess, when opportunity like this incredible opportunity to reverse literally 100 years of leaving Europe for the United States, they were not going to let China have everybody, that's for sure. They have upgraded, he said, their efforts to a wholesale campaign to take US-based PhD and other top students, especially in the tech fields, back to Europe. Then he went on and explained a phenomena that I was totally unaware of that in Europe, a PhD student actually gets grants directly from the EU and other governments and private corporations and actually own their future and can take their grant to any university in Europe or the United States. Thus competition for the best and brightest is fierce and the money goes in many cases with them, with the US all but abandoning the concept of foreign students. And, most importantly, the second reason is cutting off the funding for foreign students, as well as Americans, in science and technology research. They are being overwhelmed in Europe with not just returning Europeans, but also Americans who want out and again, cannot afford to lose or play with their future just because Trump has arguments with Harvard or immigration or anything else that would impact them.
Speaker 2:As these gentlemen explained it to me, you might be surprised to know that students, while they are, as he put it, sympathetic to various causes, notably Ukraine or even more for Gaza, as there were several flags draped out of windows on the famous Place de la Comédie, the big plaza in Montpellier In absolutely no way are these people going to impact their future and their leadership in tech and scientific world, or are they going to impair or risk their careers or PhD or their research by taking too much of a risk in protesting or doing anything to jeopardize their visas or their student eligibility? In short, they are not going to get kicked out of school, lose a grant or visa by protesting period. So, not surprisingly, trump completely blew it to blame these stalwart winners, who have worked a couple of decades, in many cases to get into position for a great career, by being anti-Semitic or pro-Palestinian. When it comes to careers, money and opportunity, these leaders, these very, very, very bright people, are apolitical, as he put it, regardless of their personal beliefs. As the students milled around and we worked our way through the ancient lanes of Montpellier and the hundreds that we passed all along singing and laughing, it was clear that we were the oldest people out by far.
Speaker 2:The question, of course, remained, and what I really wanted to know is what is the true effect of Trump's assault on higher education, especially on the best and the brightest, and who's winning and who's losing, and who's getting this talent for themselves, their countries, their companies and their future? The Dutchmen, both of whom are actually in higher education, as well as my partner, all made it very clear to me that the loser is not going to be the PhD and other students. They are finding a way and Europe is more than happy to accommodate them, especially if they can bring a grant with them, though that is not a total prerequisite. The loser, according to all three of them and others, I'm sorry to say America is the United States. You know the guys who are always at the Trump rallies yelling. You know the guys who are always at the Trump rallies yelling USA, usa and we're number one. Sorry, guys, but those days are over, according to these people in the know and pulling in the PhDs from that good old USA.
Speaker 2:It seems it's not just the Chinese and Xi Jinping and Putin and Russia and little Ken laughing at Trump in the United States. It is also the stick in the mud. Do nothing Europeans, who are now openly stealing thousands of the best and brightest away from their allies and their great friend, america. To be clear, they were openly shocked at what Trump has been doing and how they have been able to scramble, with all their US programs being completely canceled as though they never existed, as many of the more famous universities in Europe and, of course, the UK and Australia. The causes are obviously in English. There is no barrier, no barrier at all, for anyone to leave the US and jump across the Pacific or the Atlantic or up north to Canada Hello, toronto, it's a real thing. Folks and carry their research and grants and entourage with them, for that matter. As they noted, some have multi-million dollar grants which involve an entire team, and they are bringing them along with them, an entire team, and they are bringing them along with them.
Speaker 2:While I am not an expert in international education, my partner and dozens of friends and associates and relatives who have been in this field seemingly forever, and they were sober-eyed and clear about what is happening and it is a massive shift away from the United States. That has greater implications than a trade war which Tariff Trump wants to put on something like cars this week. Many of these experts living outside the United States are actually Americans living overseas for decades and have been using their skills to send Brits or Aussies or Europeans or Chinese or Indians oh yes. Or Europeans or Chinese or Indians, oh yes. So so many from the subcontinent to the United States and into that higher education field. All of these programs are now in jeopardy and while Trump and MAGA think it is great to cut off the foreigners as they call them, mooching off of America the best and the brightest, especially in technology, tell me over and over and over, the winner under so many US presidents, but especially under Biden, was the United States. Biden, they said, made all kinds of funds, grants available for research on everything and everyone that they all wanted to get into the USA, including. Don't just forget that RFK Jr just cut out $500 million in research grants for the mRNA type of virus research and vaccines. The point is that money is now gone from the United States and with them go the people.
Speaker 2:This is not theoretical folks. This is as self-inflicted of a dumb move as we have seen from the UK's Brexit move out of Europe, which has all but permanently crippled Great Britain. The consequence of Trump's attacks on higher education are already in full force. It turns out, phd and other smart students are actually risk-averse. They cannot afford to take risks with their career they have painstakingly put together, so they have already moved in the thousands ensued to be in the tens of thousands and then possibly hundreds of thousands, and then joined by Americans as the Centers for Research and Innovation move dramatically away from the USA to Europe, the United Kingdom, australia and yes, of course, to the land of dictatorship, to China, which is waiting with money and more opportunities in open arms. China seemingly has unlimited amounts of money to lure them in, and other nations like Singapore and India are also attracting either back their own citizens or new citizens and teachers to their countries.
Speaker 2:A couple of months ago, while passing through Singapore, I happened to be able to speak to an expert in nuclear physics, an old Greek friend of mine, who had switched from the US to Singapore, where they gladly provided him with a better deal than he had in the United States, as well as housing and school fees for his kids to attend the somewhat pricey international schools in Singapore. He noted, however, that while he will never be able to be the head of the physics department that he had hoped to achieve in the United States, as he is not Singaporean, it is a small thing to give up, according to him, to keep his research going and to remain current and an expert in his field, which he would have lost if he had hesitated and stayed in the US as his program was being defunded. The point is clear. No one is messing around or waiting for the United States to come to its senses. They can't afford to. It is the ultimate message to Trump and MEGA and the Americans.
Speaker 2:China, by the way, has a massive set of campuses being created, for instance in Shenzhen, with corporate sponsorship, by the way, as well as state sponsorship, including the reviled Huawei, which is now populated with thousands and thousands of Apple-trained engineers and professors. As we got into our car and wound our way through the crowds of young people now with bottles of beer carousing into the early autumn night, we were able to see we realize much has changed since Trump took office, but then again, nothing has changed at all. It is a movable feast for the best and brightest in the world, and they will not sit still, nor will they lose their careers over a political authoritarian, no matter who they are. Like the German and Austrian and other European and even UK scientists who emigrated to the United States prior to World War II to escape Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, the United States has long been the recipient of some of the most incredibly talented scientists, mathematicians and physicists. They not only developed the atomic bomb, like Robert Oppenheimer and Wernher von Braun, but their followers now run many of the world's most powerful tech companies, like Microsoft and Google's, and many, many others.
Speaker 2:Trump has made a war on these people, the smartest and the brightest, and not just the blue states and not just the Democratic-run cities. While he may be friends with Silicon Valley, silicon Valley is populated by a lot of foreigners and if he keeps on pushing it, those foreigners will redirect the money not to Texas, away from California, but outside the United States people and their future. They will suffer in every possible way as investment will not come to the United States, new technology will not be developed in the USA and the market, which is already shrinking under Trump I'm not sure if you saw the latest economic report and jobs report but it will get smaller and it will get more local, with a US educational system that is languishing among the worst in the developed world in the K-12 area and going lower and lower. As Trump switches to private school vouchers designed for the rich and red state, people move to teaching the Jewish Torah, known as the Old Testament, as in Louisiana, which is now a requirement there, by the way or the Ten Commandments, of which there are only two which are relevant for today, which are thou shalt not steal and thou shalt not kill the other eight. Trump has personally gone against it repeatedly. Oh, I'm sorry I forgot. Yes, he's also stolen money too, from his contractors and, by not paying his taxes, being caught to defraud the state of New York, and he is among the worst offenders there too.
Speaker 2:So there is no help on the horizon, folks with a greatly highly educated bunch of young people to take the places of the smartest people in the world. We're all clamoring to bring it all to you and to make you and them rich again. To make you and them rich again. Thanks, donald. You seem to have done it again to make Europe, australia, uk, canada, china, singapore and Japanese universities all great again. Well done, and it only took you eight months to undo 100 years of US dominance in global education and research. I can't wait to see what you attack next. Or is there anything left to ruin?
Speaker 2:The USA, of course, will not disappear or go away, but Trump, if these educators in Europe are to be believed, has already made a major, if not permanent, dent in the US global leadership in science and technology debt.
Speaker 2:In the US, global leadership in science and technology, the smartest people the brightest are also the most ambitious and are never afraid of people like Trump.
Speaker 2:They are clearly on a mission, their own personal mission to develop new drugs, new processes, new medicines to fight cancer, to develop AI and see it prosper, and in many cases, their goal is to be rich and famous and to head up departments or corporations where they will be supported. If Trump keep pushing it, the US will lose almost all of these people, the best and the brightest, and they will not be coming back, as it takes years and years to put together a research program. Once they switch, they are staying in the Netherlands, the UK, australia and, yes, in Montpellier in the south of France. Why not? Is there any better place for your education than the beautiful Mediterranean, far away from the craziness of Trump or any other authoritarian or nascent dictator? This is Henry R Greenfield gliding through the vineyards under the moonlight on the way home, waiting for the harvest which is about to begin in one of the many wine-producing regions in the south of La Belle France.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us on the Greenfield Report with Henry R Greenfield. We hope today's insights into the ever-shifting geopolitical landscape have sparked your curiosity and broadened your perspective. Stay connected with us for more in-depth discussions and expert solutions. Until next time, keep exploring the world beyond the headlines.