European universities seek to halt Africa's brain drain

Academics in Europe are seeking new partnerships with their counterparts in African to halt a brain drain that is stripping the poorest nations of their most valuable assets. The European University Association (representing 850 universities in 46 countries) last week presented a paper in Brussels that sets out a strategy for well-managed, long-term cooperation between European and African institutions. Africa is hampered by an acute shortage of academics (it trains only 2.3% of the world's researchers, less than the UK total) and at the same time many of the most highly qualified graduates are leaving. Abdeslam Marfouk, a researcher at Louvain University, Belgium, estimates that in more than 10 African countries over 40% of highly qualified personnel are working abroad. That proportion rises to 53% for Sierra Leone, 63% for the Gambia and 67% for Cape Verde. Half of the continent's researchers are living in Europe. While the global economic crisis may have slowed down this trend it remains a challenge for African universities alongside rising student enrollments thanks to improved access to secondary education, a lack of public investment, and competition with other countries to recruit the most gifted candidates. "The pressure on universities and higher education providers is tremendous," the EUA paper maintains. "Without proper laboratories or centres of excellence, and with salaries 10 or even 20 times lower than those on offer in developed countries it is hardly surprising so many graduates are leaving," said Abdoulaye Salifou, the deputy-head of the Association of French-speaking Universities. The EUA is seeking to build on models of cooperation that support the institutions that employ researchers in their home countries. One such programme has been run by Sweden's Uppsala University for almost 40 years. Its International Science Programme, focusing on chemistry, physics and maths, targets "university departments rather than individuals," said Kay Svensson, the university's head of international relations. Between 2003 and 2008 the ISP ran in 12 countries, including 10 in sub-Saharan Africa, awarding 138 doctorates and 300 master's degrees with a less than 5% brain drain. The EUA initiative comes at a time when institutional cooperation is at a low ebb. "European aid focuses mainly on the Millennium Goals. There is very little cooperation in education and most funds for research are directed towards developing excellence," says Kees Kouwenaar, the head of the Centre for International Cooperation at Amsterdam University, which is developing long-term partnerships with universities in the developing world. "What does exist is not very visible, restricted in scope and subject to many constraints," adds Pascal Hoba at the Association of African Universities. Some observers are not convinced that the model favoured by the EUA will have impact. Jamil Salmi, a World Bank coordinator, thinks that "only a few bilateral cooperation programmes include the setting up of resources – wages, laboratories – that enable researchers and academics from developing countries to return home on favourable terms." This article originally appeared in Le Monde