AFRICA: Concern Grows Over Brain Drain to Europe

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Mar 22 2006 (IPS) - Academic groups in Britain have expressed concern over the growing brain drain of African researchers and professionals.

”It is difficult to put numbers on those leaving as statistics are difficult to come by, but we know that there is a net flow of academic skills away from Africa,” Brian Everett, assistant general secretary of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) in Britain told IPS.

”This is in all disciplines though there is greater emphasis on the sciences and medicine,” he said.

”The migratory movements are complex and based on individual decisions often influenced by the state of the home nations economy or higher education conditions,” Everett said. ”It is clear that the major developed nations are the big gainers though China itself is developing at such a rate that it too may be a gainer.”

A conference on this brain drain from Africa will be held in London Thursday, organized by the AUT and another lecturers union, NATFHE. The conference will focus on the idea ”Africa”s Brain Drain: Britain”s gain – Africa”s pain?”

”The loss of talented academics from Britain to the USA is well known, but a lesser known brain drain is sucking academic talent from sub- Saharan Africa to the developed world – with damaging and potentially disastrous consequences,” the two lecturers unions said in a joint statement.

”The international migration of academics is widely accepted as beneficial to university and educational life,” the said. ”But African and UK lecturers say the loss of academics from developing countries can deplete their higher education systems – unless action is taken to mitigate this.”

Everett said that ”we often talk of a food chain of brain drain as it is clear that some African countries such as South Africa gain from their neighbours whereas the UK and USA but also other European counties gain from Africa as a whole.”

The consequences for Africa can be alarming, he said.

”The consequences are, put simply, that the losing nations do not have the skill base to educate their young people and develop their own economies,” Everett told IPS. ”They therefore either falter or become open to privatised education providers who operate on a for-profit basis and who hold different values particularly in relation to academic freedom and research.”

The London conference ”will start to look for solutions,” Everett said, ”but they must involve some concept of compensating the countries which are drained of their skills.” The London meeting originates from ideas by African academics. It will examine the findings of a joint union project and explore ideas for policy and mitigating actions which can be adopted by British trade unions, non-governmental organisations, universities and government.

”The UK hosts many of the most talented academics from around the world, including some from poor countries in Africa,” Paul Bennett, national official at NATFHE, said in a statement. ”They are entitled to come, are very welcome and our universities benefit hugely from them – but this is an unequal relationship which can sometimes damage the countries from which they come. We want the government to compensate those exporter countries and help them to build up their own higher education systems.”

Everett said in a statement that ”if a small developing country loses just a few of its best lecturers and researchers to a UK university, it can be losing a large chunk of its academic base.”

As migration rules and patterns change, he said, ”we need to see the benefits of lecturers moving between countries as much more of a two-way exchange. We need to see investment in their universities, cooperation in developing their higher education capacity and other tangible long term benefits.”

While no recent estimates of numbers are available, The UN Economic Commission for Africa has suggested that Africa lost 60,000 professionals (such as doctors, university lecturers and engineers) between 1985 and 1990.