SciDev.Net

This opinion article highlights the need for donors to support higher education in poor countries. The authors, Jos H. C. Walenkamp and Ad Boeren from the Netherlands Organisation for International Cooperation in Higher Education, discuss how higher education and research can reduce poverty. They argue that it stimulates economic growth and increases a country's aid-absorption capacity.

They briefly state current aid agency and devolping country government attitudes to higher education and highlight brain drain as a particular problem that dissuades donors from investing in this area. They make a number of recommendations for the international donor community, suggesting that it unties bilateral aid, coordinates efforts and gives recipient governments responsibility to monitor and manage activities in their own countries.

This paper, written by researchers at the Universities of Pennsylvania and Columbia in the United States, examines various aspects of higher education in developing countries including its impact on economic development.

The authors discuss the growing demand for higher education in developing countries, analysing the contributing factors and presenting examples of different country responses. In particular, they examine the trends in China, India and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Some broader challenges facing developing countries, including governance, brain drain, equity and access, and regulation and accreditation are outlined. They also examine the role the international community — including major donors such as the World Bank — has played in supporting higher education in the developing world.

The authors highlight the general lack of data on higher education and call for more research on how, and even whether, higher education works in developing countries.

This paper summarises a research project that looked at the impacts of high skilled emigration on developing countries and the policy options of developed countries. The authors say that while there is little doubt that skilled emigration at the levels estimated will create challenges for certain developing countries the impact of increased international mobility of skilled workers may not necessarily be negative.

They emphasise that "brain exchanges" between countries characterise all advanced economies, forming one component of the flow of goods and information in a globalising economy. A central challenge is therefore for developing countries to engage appropriately in the exchange of skills taking place in the global labour market, and to maximise on the benefits of skilled migration.

The authors recommend that developed receiving countries should play an active role in addressing the issue, for example by encouraging temporary and return migration, controlling recruitment from at risk countries, incorporating mechanisms that encourage developing country economic growth, and assisting with diaspora arrangements. They conclude that the best means of addressing developing country skill shortages over the long run is to improve education, training and targetted economic deveopment.

This article notes that while highly-skilled migration is eliciting much debate, its effects — both positive and negative — have not been well studied or measured (particularly when compared with international migration in general). Simple models of "brain drain" and "brain gain" — which dominate most policy discussions — do not fully capture the complexity of the movement of people and knowledge across borders.

Data from the United States — as the world's largest educator of foreign students — is used to provide insights into the magnitude and direction of some of the possible effects of highly-skilled migration. The author warns that economic and knowledge creation should not be the only component of policy making on immigration policy, and that freedom of movement — as a human right — should also be considered.

In conclusion, both sending an receiving countries should be concerned with the potential effects of highly-skilled migration, and much research needs to be done to better understand its impacts. While the paper does not explicitly explore policy options, it describes how the magnitude of the effects of such migration will be significantly affected by aspects of a country's immigration, education and technology policies.

The author challenges the assumption that the emigration of highly skilled people is detrimental to their country of origin, and suggests that some developing countries — if not the majority of them — have in fact benefitted from this brain drain. He explains that the main reason for this is that migration prospects increase the expected return to education and, hence, foster domestic enrollment in education.

This concise article gives a brief overview of the current status of the brain drain, the feedback effects of this migration. It then asks whether there is an "optimal" brain drain, such that a country's stock of human capital can actually be increased. The author suggests that this could be achieved by designing specific incentives to return migration to those countries negatively affected by the brain drain, and to promote international cooperation aimed at furthering brain circulation.

The Task Force on Higher Education and Society was convened by the World Bank and UNESCO, bringing together experts from 13 countries to explore the future of higher education in the developing world. The Task Force's report concluded that without more and better higher education, developing countries will find it increasingly difficult to benefit from the global knowledge-based economy.

Chapter 5 — which deals with science and technology — says that higher education an absolute and irreducible prerequisite to developing a strong science and technology base, but that the lack of well-qualified science and technology teachers and researchers is a widespread problem in developing countries, particularly in Africa with its very small base of individuals who can create a science-oriented culture.

The report notes that as developing countries having so few scientists, the impact of migration can be enormous and that it is compounded by the so-called "camp-follower" phenomenon. It concludes that it is vital to the future of developing countries that they turn to the task of systematically nurturing — and retaining — their science and technology talent.

The Indian Government appointed a high level committee in September 2000 to make a comprehensive study of the global Indian diaspora, and to recommend measures for a constructive relationship with them.

Advances in transport and communications have enabled a closer interaction between overseas Indians and their country of origin than ever before. Rather than viewing this as a 'hub and spoke' arrangement, the report suggests that the 'web' that is emerging could be a leap forward in achieving a globally beneficial impact of the diaspora.

The report includes a detailed examination of the circumstances of the Indian diaspora in selected countries and regions, a review of recommendations on diaspora issues such as dual citizenship and the creation of a single organisation to interact with members of the diaspora.

This article estimates the extent of migration, by level of education, from developing countries to the United States and other OECD countries. While it is clearly difficult to measure precisely the flow and levels of education of immigrants the authors summarise a study they conducted covering migration from 61 developing countries.

The study found that over half of those migrating to OECD countries headed to the United States, and that for most countries, people with a tertiary education have the highest migration rate. Assessing brain drain to other OECD countries is much more difficult, as the statistics available do not record the level of education. But they found — with various assumptions and exemptions — that the extent of the brain drain to OECD members is substantial, particularly from Iran, Korea and the Philippines.

The authors conclude that their results suggest that in several developing countries the outflow of highly educated individuals is a phenomenon that policy makers cannot ignore. But they say that more research, especially empirical studies, is needed to evaluate the impact of the brain drain on source economies and on worldwide welfare, as well as the reasons for such migration.

Foreign-born scientists and engineers contribute significantly to the brain power of the United States; in 1998 immigrants accounted for around 30 per cent of those conducting research and development. This article asks whether the concept of 'brain circulation' (as opposed to 'brain drain') is valid.

The article states that the large foreign component of US human intellectual capital is linked to the ability of the country's higher education sector to attract, support, and retain foreign science and engineering graduate students. And between 1988 and 1996, nearly two thirds of those receiving US doctorates planned to remain in the United States after completion of their studies (with particularly high "stay rates" for students from China and India).

The data discussed supports the notion of brain circulation for some countries (such as Taiwan and South Korea) and somewhat more brain drain for other countries (for example, China and India). In total, roughly half of all foreign doctoral recipients leave the United States immediately after completing their graduate education, and others leave after some years of teaching or industrial experience. The article concludes that more research is needed on the activities of foreign doctoral recipients who return to their home countries.

This article, which was prepared for the 1999 World Conference on Science, describes how use of the international diaspora provides a new and promising strategy for dealing with the brain drain issue in the context of a global knowledge society.

The authors describe various intellectual diaspora networks — which use their expatriate experts, scientists and engineers for development at home — and detail 'what makes a good network'. They say that the apparent success of such networks reinforces the notion that previous attempts to address the brain drain by preventing or regulating flows of skills were based on misplaced theoretical assumptions.

Various lessons and policy implications are offered, with the aim that these are used to guide the efficient use and development of science and technology diasporas.

In this article, Jean-Baptiste Meyer explains that although the 'brain drain' phenomenon is nothing new, a number of factors have recently contributed to an increasing awareness of the problem as well as attention to possible counter-measures. This is for two principal reasons: the size and nature of the phenomenon has changed, and so have its implications.

Although it can be considered in terms of the impacts of individual source and recipient countries, the skills exodus has become a global phenomenon. It is no longer an exclusively North/South phenomenon, as it now affects North/North and South/South relations. Additionally, the term 'migration' in this context is progressively being replaced by 'mobility', suggesting that permanent loss is gradually disappearing.

The author warns that this mobility should not be idealised, and that its down side is all too evident. At the same time one promising development, that of tapping into the 'diaspora', is offering a way to recover skills without requiring physical return of migrants.

This article is a highly readable account of the current situation regarding the flight of 'human capital' from Africa. It tracks the phenomenon over the past few decades, and outlines the various 'push and pull' factors at play. The author then describes a number of efforts to reverse the trend, such as the International Organisation for Migration's 'Migration for Development' programme.

"Unless serious steps are taken to develop critical institutions and human capacities," it says, "the recent positive developments in the economy will not be sustainable and will not make a significant dent on poverty." African governments must take more responsibility for the problem, rather than just becoming increasingly frustrated that its investment in human capital goes unrewarded.

This editorial article gives an overview of current perspectives on the brain drain in sub-Saharan Africa. The author reports on the resurgence of interest in the diaspora at the highest level, with the leaders of Nigeria, South Africa and the Ivory Coast intiating new projects aimed to tap into their citizens abroad.

Such initiatives aim to harness the potential represented by the diaspora in terms of the economic development of their home nations. This is partly through the creation of 'knowledge networks', but also through a growing awareness of members of the African diaspora who now see themselves as valuable elements of their home societies.

Despite these positive trends, the situation is deeper and more complex than might initially appear, not least because professionals are still reluctant to return to their native countries. The article suggests that it is necessary to "look beyond easy formulas to the real phenomena, in all their subtleties, which compose it".