The Global college is fuelling the brain drain

In an article by William R Brody -President of Johns Hopkins University, published in the Foreign Affairs journal (March/April 2007 edition), the issue of universal demand for education and the factors driving it were presented.

In the article, Mr Brody starts by referring to an incident that occured in China and opines that "a college degree is an indespensable passport to the globalized knowledge economy." It would be very difficult to refute this statement because over the years the number of students enrolling for higher education programs has grown (tempted to say exponentially but do not have the base data at hand) tremendously. In general the article presents a very good argument for the current state and future of higher education.

He goes on to state that the higher education market (not sector, but market) is undergoing a consolidation phase where US dominance in international education, he says, will ot be easy.....Is it me or does this sound very worrying? Without a doubt everyone knows that the US has dominated and will continue to dominate the field of higher education for sometime to come. I actually concede that in my lifetime, the US will probably still be the number one country in terms of further education. But with the breaking down of traditional barriers to access to education (when education was for the elite chosen few), for what end would the pursuit of dominance and hegemony by the US in the education sector serve?

The theories and discoveries that drive innovation and technology (and patents) today stem from some of the best research institutions in the world of which majority of them are in the USA.

Back in the 60's through to the early 90's the developing countries used to offer scholarship and incentive programs in collaboration with countries such as USA, United Kingdom and even the former Soviet Union (pre-89), to allow some of the best, talented and skilled students to attend the best universities and have access to the information and resources. Equiped with their new found knowledge, they would then return to their countries of origin and contribute to "nation building."

Some would go as far as to say that some of the cold war battles were faught on this front, but it is neither here nor there and is not the object of this piece.

Paradoxically, this model and approach to higher education is what is fuelling the supposed brain drain of developing countries.

Education, higher education to be more specific should not be commoditized or should not be left to the market forces for corrective measures. Because the universities in the US with their huge endowments and the dynamic nature of the US economy will continue to demand the resource (talent) to fuel its growth and eventually this as Mr Brody so rightly put it, will lead to a disparity between the wealthy nations and the developing nations i.e. the gap will only increase and with more potential researchers enrolling for courses in foreign universities and opting not to return to their countries of origin because of the relative comfort of life in the US and incentives such as tenures for professors and cutting edge research into sciences etc the less benefits the developing countries will rip from the knowledge economy.

We can argue about ultimate trickle down effect that this migration will have on developing countries in due time, but the number of students who opt to remain in developed countries is greater than the number of students that are returning home, the incentives that would normally be in place are non existant, instead aid and donations dominate the agenda and the brain drain phenom persists. (See my piece on poverty and development)