Each month, the World Competitiveness Center provides a criterion drawn from its research on competitiveness, which illustrates a topic of concern on world economic affairs. Should you be interested to receive this criterion on a regular base, please click here.

A New Love Story for Science?

The criterion of the month focuses on Science in Schools. Finance and services attracted much of the attention of the younger generation in the past: salaries were high, employment opportunities numerous, and careers often implied a glamorous international life style. As a consequence, science was partly neglected by the youth especially in the Anglo-Saxon world. In this ranking, the US is in 38th position and the UK only in 50th. Not surprisingly, Asia is very much at the forefront.

What will happen now that hundreds of thousands of jobs have been destroyed in banking and related industries? President Obama has unleashed billions of dollars for Science in his stimulus package, and other nations are following this example. Science and technology are back in favor and are very fundamental to competitiveness. Maybe the younger generation will now rediscover the charms of science? Also perhaps because this is where the jobs and money will be…

With my best regards, [Response: Read Receipt]

Stéphane Garelli
Director, IMD's World Competitiveness Center

Fax: +41 21 618 02 04