Why brain drain is set to rise
Even though successful migrants often invest back in the home country, carry back know-how, and send remittances, “brain drain” from poor countries remains a legitimate concern, experts say
The number of Bangladeshi students travelling abroad for higher education is increasing gradually, especially to North America, Europe, and Australia as the destination countries offer alluring facilities including scholarships.
As a single destination, the United States gave study permits to 8,598 Bangladeshis in the 2020-21 academic year, more than three times since 2009, according to the 2021 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. To add an impetus to the trend, US scholarships for Bangladeshi students are set to double in number this year, says the Foreign Admission and Career Development Consultations Association of Bangladesh (FACD-CAB).
Besides the US, other top destinations such as Canada, the UK, Australia, and Japan have also been offering ample scholarships and other facilities to lure Bangladeshi students.
However, a major portion of migrated students does not return home after completing their studies, which include a significant number of public university teachers also, as the host countries have better job opportunities, residency permits and higher quality of life.
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As fertility rates drop and population has started to shrink in many Western nations, experts feel these countries are trying to address their labour shortages through educational migration.
On the other hand, huge unemployment in Bangladesh is encouraging youths to take the growing opportunities for educational migration.
Even though successful migrants often invest back in the home country, carry back know-how, and send remittances, "brain drain" from poor countries remains a legitimate concern, experts say, adding when education migration is prevalent in a developing country, there may be some negative repercussions that can affect the economy.
The exodus may lead to a loss of confidence in the economy, which will cause people to desire to leave rather than stay, loss of innovative ideas, loss of the country's investment in education, and a loss of critical health and education services, they add.
The rising trend
According to Unesco, some 24,112 students went abroad from Bangladesh in 2015 and the number quadrupled by 2020.
Some 70,000-90,000 Bangladeshi students travel overseas for higher studies every year, says Unesco data.
The United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, China, Malaysia, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and other European countries are among the preferred countries for Bangladeshi students.
On average, 40% to 50% of students from each batch at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), the top engineering university in the country, go abroad and they hardly return, according to Buet sources.
Prodip Roy, chief consultant of PAC Asia, Bangladesh, told The Business Standard that applications from Bangladeshi students to his organisation for higher studies abroad have doubled this year when compared to the pre-pandemic era.
"Universities in the US and Australia have offered more scholarships to attract brilliant students. Some universities used to offer scholarships earlier as well, but the trend is increasing nowadays," he said.
There are good jobs for the top talents in the country, and yet many of them are moving abroad even after getting jobs here only because of a lack of job satisfaction, observed Dil Afroza Begum, acting Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Bangladesh.
"Even my daughter, who was a public university teacher, left the country as she was not happy with the facilities she got," she told The Business Standard.
"On the other hand, students with mediocre talents also are being encouraged to study abroad as there is a huge competition in the domestic job market. On the contrary, in foreign countries it is easy to get a job following the completion of the study," added Afroza Begum, a former professor at Buet.
Officials at the Foreign Admission and Career Development Consultations Association of Bangladesh (FACD-CAB) told TBS that around 80,000-90,000 students take consultation every year to pursue higher studies abroad.
"Not all students get a scholarship. In fact, a significant number of them go for higher studies with their own funds, often provided by their families. Some of them get a partial tuition fee waiver," said Kazi Faridul Hoque, president of the FACD-CAB.
Lucrative offers to study, residency permit
The UK, one of the major destinations for Bangladeshi students, offers various scholarships each year which include Chevening, Commonwealth, Hornby, and GREAT scholarships, according to the British Council.
Study Solution, a local consultancy firm, mainly sends students to the UK and other European countries, the USA, China, and Australia.
The number of students sent by the firm to the UK gradually increased in the last three years – 17 in 2019, 56 in 2020, and 250 in 2021, Barrister Ershad Ahmed Nishan, an immigration lawyer and also the chief executive officer of Study Solution, told TBS.
"During a meeting with the UK home office, the authorities informed us that the number of Bangladeshi students enrolled in the UK last year was more than 10,000," he said.
The UK has eased some facilities for students over the past few years, he mentioned, adding the country now offers Post-study Work (PSW) visas under which a student can work two years full time after one year of study. Besides, migration with spouse facility has also been initiated, he continued.
He also mentioned that the US is also becoming more flexible in recent years.
American universities typically offer some tuition aid to foreign students, but they could pledge to do more.
"Imagine if every school in America offered 10 additional zero-tuition slots a year to students from very poor countries. The strain on the facilities of most schools would be minimal, yet with about 5,000 institutions of higher education in America, that could amount to tens of thousands of new slots for educational migrants," reads a recent article titled "Can Educational Migration Save the World?" by Tyler Cowen in Bloomberg.
The US Embassy in Dhaka recently announced a call for applications for the 2023-2024 Fulbright Foreign Student Programme which provides scholarships for highly-motivated young professionals to pursue a master's degree.
"Due to Covid-19 restrictions, many applications of aspirant students were pending, especially in the USA. However, now the pressure has increased to such a level that the US embassy in Dhaka cannot schedule dates for many students to issue visas this year. Many are scheduled to face the embassy next year," Kazi Faridul Hoque, president FACD-CAB, told TBS.
Applications for study in Canada rise 270% in 4 years
Applications from Bangladeshi students for study in Canada rose by 270% between 2016 and 2019, led by a 300% increase in university-level applications, according to the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), a department of the government of Canada.
In 2016, Canada issued study permits to 800 Bangladeshi nationals, which rose to 1,850 in 2017, 1,900 in 2018, and 3,165 in 2019.
Since 2017, over 93% of study permits approved for Bangladeshi nationals have been issued. In 2020, this rate dropped to just 31.3% (500 new study permits), largely due to travel restrictions and pandemic-related uncertainty.
Despite this significant decline, Bangladesh remained the second-largest source country for South Asian students to Canadian institutions.
Educational migration from Bangladesh to Canada started to pick pace again in 2021 as over 800 new study permits were issued to Bangladeshi students in the first four months of the year.
According to the Bangladesh High Commission in Canada, around 1,00,000 Bangladeshi-origin people are currently living in the North American country.
Professionals were the first immigrants from Bangladesh who began to migrate to Canada in the 1960s. Some went to the country for higher education as well as for professional training and then settled down as immigrants, said people concerned.
The migration increased over the later decades and reached its peak in the late '80s.
Migration of Bangladeshis to Canada takes place in two categories namely the skilled worker's category and the family category.
How to hold back the flow?
It is not easy to rein in educational migration, said Dil Afroza Begum of the UGC.
Bangladeshi students migrate abroad mainly for two reasons – firstly, session jams even in top universities in the country, and secondly, the problems in the job market, she pointed out.
"More than 40 lakh graduates are entering the job market every year. Where will they work?" she said, adding that students in developed countries get jobs after finishing their undergraduate studies and, hence, they have a secure future.
"Then how will the universities in Bangladesh attract this group of people?"
"Most of those who pass A-level and O-level cannot get admission to our universities. They must go abroad. Many people who are financially capable are sending their children to study abroad even if they have to spend Tk1 crore or more for the purpose."
Manzoor Ahmed, professor emeritus at Brac University, told TBS that brilliant students feel uncertain in Bangladesh as jobs are scarce here and also there is the question of social security.
The government should ensure quality higher education in the country to retain the meritorious students, he suggested.
"A lack of quality education is leading to the production of unskilled manpower. At the same time, talented students are being undermined, which is why they feel safe abroad."
Even public university teachers reluctant to return home
According to the UGC, the trend of public university teachers settling abroad permanently is increasing.
Teachers go abroad to pursue higher studies such as MS and PhD. During the study period, they get salaries for five years from their respective university. They can extend their overseas stay by one year getting paid half their salary from their university and for another year without salary.
According to the latest report of the UGC, 43 public university teachers were staying abroad unapproved in 2020 as they got salaries from their universities for six years and did not apply for permission to stay overseas for one more year without pay. The number was only 13 in 2019.
Meanwhile, 103 teachers were staying abroad in 2020 in a non-pay status. The number was 65 in 2019.
In 2016, 52 teachers were sacked at various syndicate meetings of Dhaka University for staying back abroad without permission.
For the same reason, 80 teachers of Rajshahi University were sacked in the period between 1972 and 2015.
From 2012 to 2015, 118 teachers of Buet went abroad for higher studies, but only 38 of them returned home.
The other side of educational migration
The poorer parts of the world such as Africa have a glut of raw talent, but they lack the infrastructure to train, mentor and employ it to its maximum potential.
While "brain drain" from poor countries is a concern, these programmes are hardly sucking those countries dry of all of their talent, according to the article published in Bloomberg.
India, for instance, has benefited from having so many successful Indians in the US. Furthermore, many people in poor countries will strive to leave but be unable to. In the meantime, they will have become better educated.
One nice feature of educational migration is that there are some natural domestic interest groups in support of the core idea — namely, educators and universities, as well as many corporations.
