UK: Future fears over brain drain

British universities overall gain more academics and researchers than they lose to foreign institutions, says Universities UK, the body representing the majority of higher education institutions in the country. But the picture is different at the elite level.

In an upbeat report published last July, Talent wars: The international market for academic staff, UUK says the brain drain has evolved into 'brain circulation' as academics take overseas posts and then return home, while others move to Britain from abroad.

In 2005-06 more than a quarter of academic staff appointed in British universities were from overseas. Professor Drummond Bone, president of UUK, said the report highlighted Britain as a leader in the recruitment and retention of highly skilled academic staff.

But a more recent study, Elite scientists and the global brain drain, by a team from Warwick University, found a 'funnelling of talent' especially to America and Switzerland.

In their report the team, led by Andrew Oswald, an economics professor, criticised UUK's report as "too sanguine". Oswald said that in the future, universities would have to compete more fiercely for individuals who made a difference. He thought that countries had so far failed to understand the importance of the mobility of elite scientists to their economy

"Superstar academics will be more highly prized in decades to come," he said. There was already striking evidence that elite researchers were clustering in fewer universities.

His team's research showed that among a sample of 158 of the world's leading physicists nearly half no longer worked in the country of their birth. Of 163 senior bio-scientists in the study, 44% were born outside the US, with Japan, then the UK and Canada, being the major 'donor' countries.

The career paths of economists, also included in the study, found that three-quarters of those in the top 10 American universities gained their first degree outside America, many from Britain.

"When distinguished scientists move, it is likely to be costly for donor countries and a boon to receiving nations," said Oswald.

The UUK report, however, did note there were significant inflows from overseas at lecturer, researcher and lower grade jobs, with more academics leaving than arriving at senior and professorial levels.

"The greater net inflow is welcome but the greater net outflow at the top level needs to be monitored in future," said UUK's Bone. "We mustn’t become complacent as we face increased competition from overseas institutions."