Brain Drain from Sri Lankan Universities

Abstract

Abstract:The phenomenon of Sri Lankan university academics migrating after their postgraduate education appears to have increased over the years. Migration of academics who are among the brightest in the academic profession has a severe adverse impact on the quality of higher education. There are strong reasons for the 'Brain Drain', such as incomes and living standards in rich countries being substantially higher and research facilities and opportunities being better in developed countries. This article attempts to analyse the distribution of migrant academics and the funding used by them from 1990 to 2012, and to identify the reasons which motivate academics to resign from their substantive positions. The survey revealed that the majority of these academics had paid back their bonds. They were experienced in their specialised areas, had benefitted from postgraduate education and international research in eminent universities and clearly represented a category of academics that can definitely make a contribution to the Sri Lankan university system. They pointed out, however, that the decision to migrate was not merely an outcome of attractive prospects overseas, but also due to frustrations and difficulties encountered in changing even minor procedures, a lack of collegiality and teamwork and a lack of readiness to adapt and change in the country and the university system.

The determinants of migration of Sri Lankan young engineers to Australia – A case study

“…When reviewing the social media posts shared by the young generation of engineers in Sri Lanka, it is clear that most of them show critical disagreements on the prevailing political system in Sri Lanka. This result further confirms the findings of (Balasooriya 1975;Gunawardena and Nawaratne, 2017).…”

Development through Industrialization: A Literature Review of Policies and Issues in Sri Lankan Industrial Sector

“…Among South Asian countries, Sri Lanka had the highest migration of people with tertiary education at 27.5 percent in 2019, followed by Afghanistan (13.2 percent), Pakistan (9.2 percent), Bangladesh (4.7 percent), and India (4.2 percent) [50]. Most people stated that less attraction for work with a lower level of rewards and recognition, lower economic benefits, fewer opportunities for children's education, and less priority for ideas and innovations in Sri Lanka as the reasons for such a decision [51]. If these immigrants return with better knowledge and more technological expertise can be considered as an opportunity but, if not, the loss to the domestic economy would be severe.…”

Migration and Mitigation of effect from migration

“…Migration has increased over the past years among the academics and professional communities in Sri Lanka for several reasons (Dodani & LaPorte, 2005; De Silva, et al, 2014). They include: (i) academics after their postgraduate studies (ii) graduates with high academic qualifications anxious to pursue postgraduate studies in a developed country (iii) professionals and academics in search of better living conditions (Dodani & LaPorte,2005,Gunawardena & Nawaratne, 2017Pingama, 2017;Srivastava, 2018) .Brain drain is defined as the migration of professionals in search of better standards of living such as quality of life, higher salaries, access to advanced technology and advanced research facilities, and more stable political conditions in different places worldwide ( De Silva, et al, 2014) . According to (P. Stephan et.,2019;Stephan, Scellato, & Franzoni, 2015), in USA, more than four out of ten Ph.D. recipients in Science, Computing and Engineering are foreign born.…”

“…(Dodani & LaPorte, 2005). Nevertheless, migration of professionals is a long-recognized problem in Sri Lanka (Gunawardena & Nawaratne, 2017) . It is not clear why a study related to brain drain has not been investigated in depth.…”

“…It is not clear why a study related to brain drain has not been investigated in depth. There are no clear evidences regarding measures to mitigate the problem of "Brain Drain" in a developing country like Sri Lanka (Gunawardena & Nawaratne, 2017) . Accordingly, this study is an attempt towards fact finding and perhaps, efforts towards mitigating the problem in Sri Lanka.…”