SciDev.Net

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 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".