Survey Challenges U.K. Brain Drain

LONDON—Fears of a brain drain of British scientists have been quieted by a new survey from the Royal Society. Many researchers have pointed to the success of overseas recruitment—with U.S. institutions seen as the chief culprits—as a consequence of continuing tight research budgets in British labs. But the Royal Society was unable to find figures to back up the often politically motivated rhetoric. Overall, its report produces a picture of a global intellectual market from which Britain gains and loses. North America is a magnet for some British workers, but the United Kingdom can still attract scientists and engineers from Australia, India and the Far East. The report identified just over 600 "experienced" British scientists and engineers who quit the country between 1976 and 1986. Some 300 postgraduate researchers also departed. The report admitted that this outflow, barely one a week, amounts to only 2 percent of the number of scientists in the country. And the survey, which covered heads of university departments and research groups as well as government and industrial labs, found that 685 scientists had entered the United Kingdom during the past 10 years, nearly 200 of them British expatriates. Still, the report warned its readers not to take comfort in these numbers. Its authors argued that Britain has been hurt badly in the disciplines studied—biochemistry, chemistry, earth sciences, electronic engineering and physics. It said that those leaving the United Kingdom, most often for North America, take long-term jobs, while visitors are often just passing through. In addition, the study team reckoned, those who departed were high-quality researchers who will be hard to replace. Sir David Smith, biological secretary of the Royal Society, concluded that the report shows "a net loss of research talent with long-term deleterious consequences." His view is echoed by Denis Noble of Oxford University, whose efforts on behalf of the lobby group, Save British Science, gave the issue some prominence in Britain's recent general election campaign. Quality Counts "Nobody I know of is worried about the precise numbers who have gone abroad," Noble said. "It's the quality of those who have gone or are thinking of going that's worrying." Despite that view, the report appears likely to cool debate on the issue for a while. It follows an earlier study from the University of Sussex that found a trickle, not a flood, of biotechnology researchers who had left, and two more recent surveys that failed to come up with dramatic numbers for the social sciences and humanities. These last two studies, carried out by the Economic and Social Research Council for the social sciences and the British Academy for the humanities, remain unpublished because their findings were so thin. According to Sir Randolph Quirk, the linguist and current academy president, "everyone is convinced the position is serious. But when you get down to ask for chapter and verse it doesn't amount to very much." Some scientists remain concerned about an "internal brain drain" in which high salaries lure bright young researchers into the financial markets in London. But the Royal society report suggests that money is not the most important factor among those who emigrate. According to their former bosses, who filled in the society's questionnaire, the scientists who left were most worried about their career prospects and the state of laboratory equipment in the country. At the same time, entrants cited the standing of U.K. science and its level of facilities as features that attracted them to Britain. Turney is science editor for The Times Higher Education Supplement.

Survey Challenges U.K. Brain Drain

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