Putin aide’s claim of end to brain drain is disputed

The outflow of scientists and technologies from Russian universities and leading research institutions, which began after the collapse of the USSR and continued in the 2000s, has been halted by the return of native scientists to Russia.

According to recent statements of the Russian presidential aide, Andrei Fursenko (a former minister of science and education in Russia), many scientists, returning for work at Russian universities, say that Russia currently provides more work opportunities for them than other countries.

Fursenko said on 12 March: "The brain drain is over. There is a certain mobility of staff, while those who return say there are more opportunities here at domestic universities than even in Western countries. More and more young scientists are making a decision not to leave Russia at all.”

Speaking at a government meeting in Moscow, Fursenko said last year about 4,000 native Russian scientists returned to Russia and, he predicts, this trend will continue this year.

At the same time, contrary to the statements of state officials, local analysts in the field of higher education are less optimistic.

But Nadezhda Khvilya-Olinter, a senior expert at the Center for Scientific Political Thought and Ideology, told University World News on 15 March that the share of highly educated Russians leaving their homeland is not declining. According to her, the process of brain drain is still ongoing, and is resulting in the disappearance of the national elite.

According to her data, from 2005 to 2017, 39 doctors of science and 112 candidates of sciences who worked at leading domestic universities left Russia for Germany alone. At the same time the number of graduates of domestic universities who left the country is even higher.

The situation is aggravated by the fact that every year for the last five years about 30,000 entrants have left Russia to go and study at foreign universities every year.

According to some members of the Russian State Duma, one of the causes is the activities of certain foreign organisations in Russia, which are hunting for talented young people for Western universities, offering them employment in Western corporations after their graduation.

At the same time leading Russian analysts in the field of higher education believe the current situation with brain drain in Russia is mainly related to the signing of the Bologna Agreement by Russia in 2003.

Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences Sergey Komkov, president of the All-Russian Education Foundation, one of Russia’s leading analyst associations in the field of higher education, told University World News on 15 March: “Entering the ‘Bologna process’, Russia actually restructured the entire system of domestic higher education, adjusting it to the so-called ‘European standards’. Now the Russian universities, instead of training full-fledged specialists, produce a sort of bachelor’s and masters after this.

“In addition, the system of branch universities was virtually eliminated and was replaced by regional and federal universities. Such universities were given the right to sign direct contracts with certain universities in Europe and the US, on the basis of which the majority of students could receive two diplomas of higher education: Russian and foreign.”

Impact of mandatory English

Komkov said this resulted in domestic students beginning to go abroad to study. This was facilitated by the fact that English, in accordance with the Bologna Agreement, was introduced as a mandatory language of international communication and education.

As a result, the most talented Russian students appeared on the radar of Western employers, who started to provide grants and scholarships to them to study at Western universities, employing them after their graduation and sometimes paying them less than citizens of their countries.

However, for Russian organisations even such a level of funding was excessive, so young professionals began to leave.

According to the Russian Students’ Union, the second-most important factor contributing to brain drain was the lack of suitable jobs for graduates of domestic universities, as well as very vague scientific prospects for applicants after their graduation.

The completed reforms led not only to professors leaving, but also young specialists, who did not see a real prospect for further professional and scientific growth.